The centres will be situated in Basildon Lewisham Hammersmith and Oxford Street and will join existing centres in Liverpool Manchester Leeds and Birmingham.

According to The Link there will be 14 centres by the middle of the year.

The centres are designed to attract and look after small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). In each centre there will be at least two business advisers trained to evaluate the particular needs of small-business customers.

The growth of the business centres follows the acquisition by the Dixons Group of specialist SME service provider Genesis Communications in May last year.

According to The Link it can save the average small business customer up to 20 per cent off the cost of mobile phone bills. It also offers customers a loan phone delivery service and access to mobile tracking software.

There is space for a serious High Street business offering in the mobile sector particularly one which is network-independent said The Link managing director Nick Wood.

Siemens C45 owner Geoff Woodhall from

Lancashire wins the prize draw for a brand new Mini Cooper in a joint promotion between The Carphone Warehouse and Siemens.

Jones (32) who the court heard is an ex-Army sniper bought thousands of mobile phones through his Hallberg company from EU countries that do not impose VAT and sold them in Britain with VAT charged at 17.5 per cent.

Hallberg had sold 19 million in phones which should have resulted in VAT payments of around 3.325 million. However the companys VAT declaration was just 5221.

A Customs and Excise spokesman commented that several similar cases were before the court and said that more prosecutions would take place. It is estimated that mobile phone VAT fraud cost the Government up to 2.75 billion in unpaid tax last year.

Jones was arrested last July in Operation Divert a Customs and Excise swoop on VAT scammers in Stoke Manchester and Sheffield. Around 20 people were arrested.

Meanwhile Staffordshire newspaper The Sentinal said Stoke was becoming the mobile phone fraud capital of Britain. The paper quoted Mark Powell Customs and Excise spokesman for the West Midlands who said:

Stoke is the centre of Britains mobile phone fraud. There are a lot of people in the area who are experts in the mobile phone industry and a small percentage might want to use that knowledge for fraud.

Hatton Garden is the centre of Britains legitimate gemstone business and is also the centre of the countrys criminal gemstone business. Similarly Stoke-on-Trent is the centre of the legitimate mobile phone business and the illegal mobile phone business.

It is the taxpayer who suffers in the end. A lot of money has been made from the mobile phone industry in Stoke-on-Trent.

People working in the business have seen a gap in the market and gone on their own. Some have recognised opportunities for crime. You do not have to be a genius to be a company director.

All you need is the capital to get the stuff in the first place and once you have done that you are away. We have a team of investigators in Birmingham who spend their whole time in the Stoke-on-Trent area. We have had cases of people from Stoke-on-Trent who have fiddled up to 40 million in VAT.

The injunctions prevent the individuals from disclosing commercial information or dealing with CellStar suppliers or customers while they work at Caudwell group.

CellStar launched legal action against the individuals earlier this month saying the manner of their departure was unacceptable because taking up employment at the Caudwell group broke clauses in their CellStar employment contracts that prohibited this.

CellStar MD David Aitken explained that the defectors will still be allowed to work at Caudwell pending a court hearing due the next month. He told Mobile News:

We have obtained temporary injunctions against some individuals pending the full hearing. It is a complex situation. They are allowed to continue working for Caudwell group but they are restricted from doing business with any of our customers or suppliers and are prevented from disclosing any commercially sensitive information.

Aitken also revealed that high-level talks have taken place between CellStar and Caudwell senior management to stem the growing stream of employees moving between the two companies. But he agrees the close proximity of the businesses to one another is an issue.

We have had a chat to resolve how we can work as competitors going forward. We dont actively recruit from Caudwell group. We are looking to discuss similar moves from their point of view.

Aitken is concerned that Customs & Excise only prosecutes companies that fraudulently evade the payment of VAT but not the companies that buy or handle VAT washed goods.

There is a problem with the law because H.M Customs & Excise only prosecutes importers that dont pay VAT he says.

CellStar and the other major distributors and retailers have agreed with HM Customs and Excise not to purchase stock from dubious sources.

Once fraudsters have sold the stock on there is no recourse on the purchaser of that stock.

Action needs to be taken against anyone that handles VAT-washed stock. But for this to happen the law needs to be changed.

If the law was changed everyone handling VAT-washed stock would have to make sure that the stock they were getting is clean.VAT-washing is the only reason why GSM kit is available at prices below manufacturers list prices. Large volumes of product are being offered way below the average distribution place. There is no valid reason why product is being offered so cheaply the majority of the time he concluded.

A Customs & Excise spokesperson said it was successfully tackling the problem of VAT fraud.

We have a number of measures in place to tackle this type of fraud. I cant confirm that we are looking to get the law changed. Its a complex issue but our campaign is getting results.

A European Telecom spokesperson confirmed: We have instructed solicitors to pursue a debt of around 5000 from Prima Accessories.

Myers and Ackroyd have been at loggerheads since last year.

Myers accused Ackroyd of locking him out of his own business and applied for a High Court injunction to prevent his former partner from trading (Mobile News September 17 2001).

Ackroyd told Mobile News:

I dont dispute the amount owed to European Telecom. They are the only people we owe money to. I have signed the cheque and sent it to Phil Myers for his signature. The only reason European Telecom hasnt been paid is because Phil Myers wont sign the cheque. I dont know what his game is.

However Myers claims he wont sign a cheque for goods that are in Ackroyds possession and says he is willing to go to court to claim back money and stock that is rightfully his.

Richard Ackroyd took possession of the stock and assets last year. Why should I pay for goods that I have no access to? There is still a lot of money at stake and Im going to fight to get what is rightfully mine.

My solicitors are confident we will win hands down. It hasnt gone to court yet because the courts prefer you to settle the dispute by other means.

I have sent Richard Ackroyd eight letters in the last four months. He only responded when we gave him 10 days notice to do so.

Ackroyd said the matter is in the hands of accountants.

Phil Myers disputed my accountants figures. He has gone to another accountant and they have come up with different figures. The two sets of accountants simply need to reconcile the figures. There are only minor differences. Once a figure has been agreed theres nothing I can do to dispute it said Ackroyd.

Jones who was responsible for the sales of all Orange products logistics operations and customer equipment purchasing left Orange last May.

Before that he spent five years at Hutchison and was responsible for integrating the UK sales and distribution operations into one unit:

Jones said:

The wire-free communications industry is entering a new phase where the lifecycle of handsets is dramatically reduced to the point that they will become perishable goods.

In this environment it is essential that network operators and distributors exercise far greater control over their supply chain process and inventory management.

The mloop service offers a range of tools ideally suited to this task for both mature and emerging organisations.

Mloop is targeted at operators MVNOs distributors and large retailers which have to buy or sell a minimum lot of 500 handsets at a time. A one-off joining fee of $10000 and a monthly subscription of $1000 is required.

Mloop expects to process transactions for up to 250000 handsets this year. Within three years the company hopes to be handling volumes worth $1 billion.

LCD screens used for mobile phones have previously been unable to display TV content without reducing the number of pixels. NECs answer is to divide the screen in two displaying images and content of a high-image quality full-colour TV and text indicator.

TW Telecoms corporate clients include Airtours ERF Manchester Airport Manchester City Council the Metropolitan Borough Councils of Bolton Bury and Stockport and UCI Logistics. Turnover last year was 7.8 million.

Project Telecom chief executive Tim Radford said the acquisition was in line with Projects strategy of expanding its corporate customer base.

TW Telecoms office will become Project Telecoms sales and customer service base for the Greater Manchester area with the administration and billing functions being transferred to Project Telecoms head office in Newark.

The purchase of TW Telecom follows the integration of the Hutchison and Netnet subscriber bases acquired last year.

Project Telecom paid 3.2 million last July for Netnet.

At the same time Charles

Dunstone relinquishes his title of chairman and retains the role of chief executive officer.

Dunstone said:

Its a part-time role for Hans who will be coming in for a day or two a week.

Were moving much more into telecoms and we wanted someone with real experience in that area. The fact that he has agreed to the role is a great endorsement of us when you think he could pick any job in telecoms he wanted. He is someone I can work with and will be the first non-executive director we have with a telecoms-specific background.

Snook added:

There are very few if any other companies I would have joined. The potential for The Carphone Warehouse is tremendous.

Until the end of last year Snook was special advisor to Orange after its acquisition by France Telecom.

Observers say that Dunstone has been shrewd in making his own appointment of a name the City recognises. By appointing Snook he has avoided the possibility of having a City-worthy individual foisted upon him.

Also last week The Carphone Warehouse announced it was closing 33 UK stores in poorer areas dominated by pre-pay.

But Dunstone says there are plans to open 50 new outlets giving a net growth of 17 new Carphone Warehouse shops in the UK over the next year.

Most of these new stores will be in out-of-town retail parks and in major shopping centre locations.

Thirty of the worst-performing stores in Germany are also being shut with another seven going in Belgium.

Were also continuing to open much bigger stores. So the amount of square footage will be greater Dunstone told Mobile News.

At an analysts briefing last week Dunstone revealed that UK connections of 339000 so far this year were down on the 358000 for the same period last year.