Founder and MD Peter Carnall said this week that all its accounts were in order. He claimed that banks have a blanket policy of closing down small business accounts instead of reviewing each trader on a case-by-case basis. Such activity was handing power to big companies in the sector said Carnall.

We have held accounts for both our distribution business and our software business with the Bank Of Scotland he said. Our software business has had its accounts closed and it isnt even involved in the purchase and sale of mobile phones.

Companies like 20:20 Unique and Fone Logistics have an increased monopoly in the industry because the banks wont deal with anybody else. Theres a great possibility given the stigma surrounding the mobile phone sector that other banks will not be interested in us. It will jeopardise the future of the business.

The introduction of The Proceeds Of Crime Act in 2003 means that bank staff can be made liable if they fail to report fraudulent activity by business customers.

Butler and co-founder Martin Flick sold Axxent for 2.7 million last August. Butler stayed on as divisional director and Flick as sales director.

However following this weeks announcement that Azzurri has acquired mobile consultancy company DVH Group Butler decided to hand in his resignation. He will stay at the business until the end of January.

When we were acquired by Azzurri I planned to stay on but as time went on my motivation changed Butler said. My heart is in building a business. I want to be the guy at the front – at Azzurri I was one of the minions.

Butler admitted that he had been planning to leave for some time. We have been discussing for the past six months that if the right acquisition came along Id leave and we have found that in DVH.

On his departure Butler will have to take three months gardening leave but said that he intends to remain in the mobile industry. Id like to start something up he said.

It cant be in direct competition with Azzurri but we are parting on very good terms so it would be nice to do something where we could work together in the future.

Under the terms of the acquisition which is Azzurris fourteenth in five years Flick will replace Butler as divisional director. He said: Its no secret that Azzurri is on a buying strategy. We were looking for a like-minded business. As part of that we spoke to DVH and the fit was right. Its a very aggressive timely move that further strengthens our mobile division.

DVH which is based in New Malden has an annual turnover of 3.5 million and employs 31 staff. It provides mobile voice and data solutions to clients including Land Securities and Bovis Homes.

Former DVH sales director Simon Price will join the Azzurri mobile division as sales director and former DVH managing director Ben Orchard will join as finance and operations director.

Commenting on the sale Price said there would be no personnel changes. The only likelihood is that we will merge our mobile offices but given that we are located six miles away that shouldnt pose any problem he said.

Price added that he believed DVH clients would benefit from the sale. A major attraction for us was the support and expertise that will now be available within the Azzurri Group and we know that both our staff and clients will truly benefit from this he said.

It is understood as many as 2000 existing 3 customers were signed to new 3 contracts through Hugh Symons by the distance resellers.

Karl May of MK Mobiles in Manchester told Mobile News: 3 switched off around 40 dealers last weekend because they werent delivering the right quality business. There are lots of dealers out there that are box-breaking and doing cash back.

Lino Mastrobono of Wolverhampton dealership Smart Talk Communications Centre added:

3 switched off the distance resellers who were claiming to be from 3 and churning them back on to the same network. I understand that 2000 of these connections could have gone through Hugh Symons. Its great news for us. I have no sympathy for these guys. They are causing independent dealerships trouble by giving us a bad name.

3 included a warning to dealers in its dealer newsletter last week. This warned dealers against the practice of disconnections and reconnections and said that anyone breaking the rules would have their dealer status reviewed.

A 3 spokeswoman said: We are getting tough with anyone who doesnt play ball. This is business as usual. We have an ongoing commitment to reviewing the performance of dealers and relationships. If dealers are not performing to the KPIs we set down then we will review that relationship.

A TV advertisement made for the company by Martikas Advertising to promote its PopVid club downloading service featured an offer of a free music video.

Large text said: Get a free official music video direct to your phone. Alongside this were the words subscription service. However a viewer complained that the advisory was partly off the screen and so unreadable.

The ASA ruled that although Martikas had repositioned the advisory it was still unclear that users would have to subscribe to take advantage of the offer.

It said: We considered the ad implied viewers could get a single one-off music video for free by texting the number on the screen. We did not consider the reference to a club or the text references to a subscription were sufficient to alter that impression.

The ASA has instructed Martikas to withdraw the ad from the air in its present form.

Many delegates told us they feel HM Revenue & Customs is at war with them said Ian White editor of Mobile News.

They say they are being singled out because the authorities are unable to stop the real criminals. Ironically it is the inability of EU governments to collect tax from each other which gives the real crooks their loophole.

The presence of a BBC TV Panorama investigation team at our conference suggests the wider public interest may be at risk here he said.

The sense of persecution was emphasised by Mike Cheatham of Bond House the computer components brokers caught up in a landmark legal case that will decide the legality or otherwise of Customs VAT recovery regime on EU trade.

There is a war out there with Customs. The only way to sort this problem is for Customs to change its mindset he said.

Cheatham claimed HM Revenue & Customs could stop fraudulent trading overnight either establishing a base rate of VAT on all goods passing between EU countries or by implementing a system he had developed himself. But he said he was not going to reveal details of his solution to Customs until he was sure it had altered its view that the trading market exists only for purposes of fraud.

Meanwhile leading VAT solicitor Hassan Khan warned conference delegates not to hold their breath hoping for a defeat for the Government in the Bond House case that would re-write the rules on cross-border tax accounting and possibly leave the way open for traders to sue for compensation due to withheld VAT refunds.

I hope we win. But we have had five judges from five countries who have been taking a year to deliberate on the case and are still undecided since the Advocate Generals opinion. That must sound an alarm bell. It will not be over until the European Court of Justices opinion is out.

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Gordon Ballantyne director of T-Mobile direct maintains the move did not represent a strategy shift for T-Mobile despite the fact that the network shut down 20 solus dealers in March and April as part of its Europe-wide Save For Growth programme.

At the beginning of the year we conducted a review of our retail capacity to focus on the profitable parts within our retail portfolio said Ballantyne.

If you look at our existing footprint in the UK it is not as big as it should be. We now have the opportunity to build a very robust retail business. We will always have store openings and closures.

T-Mobiles retail footprint will double in size by the end of 2006 and increase to more than 300 in 2007. The new openings will see the network increase its number of retail staff by 1200.

But Nick Childs lead organiser at the Communication Workers Union said the decision showed that T-Mobiles original strategy was wrong.

It seems ridiculous because it has just closed down 20 stores and made around 85 sales staff redundant said Childs. It obviously realised that its strategy was wrong.

Dan Biesler research analyst at Ovum added:

T-Mobile got it wrong. This is a reversal of its strategy and a similar reversal has already happened in Germany.

T-Mobile hasnt grasped the importance of customer services and its brand has suffered. That has to be put right.

Commenting on the decision an Alcatel spokesperson said: Alcatel is exiting mobile handset activity. TCL will use the Alcatel brand because that is part of the agreement. All handsets will be produced in China. Eighty staff will be kept on as distribution agents for TCL and the remaining 280 employees will be assimilated into the rest of the Alcatel operation.

Alcatel exchanged its 45 per cent stake in the TCL joint venture for a five per cent stake in its communications division TCL Communications. Following the move TCL has merged its two mobile handset businesses as TCL Communications.

Alcatel leaves the TCL tie-up after nine months with a huge loss of investment and know-how on its initial stake. Alcatel contributed e45m for 45 per cent of the business last August. It also brought to the table its brand and intellectual property both of which it gives up following the sale.

The Alcatel joint venture lost e26m last year of which Alcatel took a 45 per cent share.

Our own activity in handset production was making huge losses so the solution we found in August 2004 was a way to avoid closing the company down altogether the spokesman added.

We were very close to doing this. The joint venture was a way of tying it to a major player in China. But because of the high competition in the Chinese market and the lack of synergies between France and China it was not easy to make profits and the situation got worse.

Julien Grivolas an analyst at Ovum said: The loss-making and limited market share worldwide were clearly not appealing.

London-based insolvency practitioner Kingston Smith & Partners has been appointed to oversee the sale of the company and its assets.

Ora has a turnover of 3 million a year according to Kingston Smith.

Mobile News understands that its account portfolio had slipped from around 4000 at its height a decade ago to under 50 in 2005.

It lost its high volume accounts with O2 and Orange in March and April this year leaving it with just its distribution ties with the dealer community.

Former Ora sales director Bob Johnson believes that Ora still has a good brand name in the industry and could emerge from receivership.

Johnson said: Ora lost its way and by the end it couldnt be taken seriously by any of the major corporates or any of the significant dealer chains. But there is a good opportunity now for the Ora brand to rise again.

Ajay Gokani managing director of accessories distributor Elite Mobile said: Im not surprised. I knew it was struggling. It lost its O2 and Orange accounts and the only surprise really was that it survived as long as it did.

The market has changed significantly from a couple of years ago. People arent interested in the same kinds of accessories. It is more technology-led now. People are interested in Bluetooth and SatNav and if you dont stock those things the market will pass you by.

Iain Humphrey founder and managing director of accessories distributor Shebang said: It doesnt surprise me that it has gone into administration. I had heard that it has been in trouble for some time. It hadnt got its act together since the last time it went into administration.

Kingston Smith advertised the sale of Acson Limited trading as Ora in the Financial Times on November 29. It was listed as a 3 million turnover business with a well-established UK brand 20000 square foot of leased office space in the Home Counties and a dedicated technical and sales staff.

Ora founder Malcolm Hanson returned to the accessories company in 1998 as interim managing director less than a year after selling it for 20 million to a management consortium.

In 2001 the company went into administration with 21 million of debt before little-known accessory firm Acson bought its brand name and trading assets and installed Oliver as CEO.

This followed parent company Maxon Telecoms decision to sell its radio business to Chongo Information Company last December.

Among those who jumped ship were former head of sales Robert Johnson former senior business account manager Andrew Smart former marketing manager Richard Preece and former type approvals manager Trevor Parrett.

Preece told Mobile News that he decided to quit because the situation had become untenable in the wake of the sale. Maxon Telecom sold Chongo the brand rights to its two-way radios he said.

But Chongo assumed that gave it the assets of the company as well. It was trying to bully us. The situation became really confusing. Chongo went away and found new premises and then tried to hire all 30 of Maxon Europes workforce.

Chongo is solely focused on radio and the nine of us were much more centred on mobiles. In the end 21 people went to Chongo but nine of us decided to start a new company instead.

The new company Mobile Expertise offers two-way radios data modems GSM and CDMA handsets and other communications kit.

We are looking to bring new handsets to the UK and Europe and the rest of the world said Slee. We have a strong pan-European distribution base as well as good ties in Korea.

But Vincent Curley managing partner at VAT consultancy Curley & Co and a former Customs fraud investigator contradicts this.

An internal Customs document from January 2001 talked about applying pressure on banks he said.

In my experience Customs would put pressure on the banks and I would also expect it to point out to the banks their obligations on money-laundering. I know from advising on the mobile industry that main high street banks close down the bank accounts of mobile phone traders without proper explanation.

However an HMRC spokesman said: HMRC is in regular dialogue with the banking sector and shares information on risk trends. At no point would HMRC ever recommend a financial institution cease working with a specific business or sector. Any decision taken by a bank in relation to either the continued operation of accounts or indeed the closure is a matter entirely for the bank and is a commercial decision solely at its discretion.

But Alias Dass senior partner at Dass Solicitors claims that there is evidence to the contrary.

Some traders say bank staff showed them an internal policy document that says that pressure has been put on them by HMRC he said.

Many traders claim to have received letters from UK high street banks issuing them 30 days notice to shut down their business accounts.

HSBC Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland/NatWest said that each business customer was dealt with on its own merits regardless of the industry it was in.

One of the companies that you spoke to received a letter from us which did mention the word sector said a Bank of Scotland spokesman. We acknowledge that the wording may have been misleading and given the wrong impression. We look at each business on an individual basis. These decisions are not taken lightly. It is not a blanket approach.

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