Trader Gary Black, most recently of Carrowdore Gardens, Bangor, was today fined a total of £3,000 plus £120 court costs, at Bangor Magistrates' Court, for falsely claiming to be a member of a trade association.

Mr Black, who trades as 'Bangor Roofing Repairs', was prosecuted by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment’s Trading Standards Service (TSS), for falsely claiming to be a member of the Federation of Master Builders (FMB).

The prosecution follows a customer complaint received by TSS. This customer had specifically selected Mr Black to carry out roofing repairs, having seen a newspaper advertisement which stated that he was an FMB member.

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When problems later arose with his repair work, the customer contacted the FMB, which was not aware of Mr Black or 'Bangor Roofing Repairs'. A subsequent investigation by TSS confirmed that Mr Black was not, in fact, a member of this organisation.

TSS Investigating Officer, Peter Rankin, said: "Deceiving customers by falsely claiming to be a member of a trade body is against the law and will be dealt with by the courts.

"Consumers rightly believe that, when employing a member of a trade association, the work will be carried out to a high standard. Furthermore, should things go wrong, the association will usually have an arbitration process in place, to assist aggrieved consumers in getting redress.

"Should consumers have any suspicions as to a trader's membership of a trade association, they are advised to contact that association before engaging the trader to carry out work."

(PR/JM)