SATURDAY 24th January 2026 - TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
Picture from another similar case
On Tuesday I met a gentleman in the sales office at Curteis Ltd who was with our Accounts Director. I, the Managing Director, founder and owner of Curteis Ltd asked him directly if he was from BT in front of the Accounts Director and the Marketing Director, who was with me. He replied with a single word 'YES'.
I then asked if BT engineers would be able to solve the problems we were experiencing with our phones, and he replied again with a single word 'YES'.
There is no question that he was representing himself as being from BT, openly and without qualification.
Yet his actual company or companies,which are nothing to do with BT, have no authority to deliver engineering services to our leased line, and he was frankly lying.
As we have a long history going back decades of dealing with BT, I was happy for the Accounts Director to discuss the matters of our phone system problems with him.
Since this meeting with this gentleman, after I left the building, and after he left the building, he has altered his identity to another organisation that is not part of BT. It was only because of his deliberate deception that we continued to talk to him and allowed him access to discuss our issues with our phone system.
Any statements or dscussions made by the Accounts Director were obtained by this deception, his assurances to my face, and to others that he was from BT.
This deception is not only a misrepresentation. It is also potentially a criminal act as it was clearly made with an intention to obtain a pecuniary advantage, under Sections 11 and 12 of the Theft Act. The matter should possibly be reported to the Police, and Trading Standards should certainly investigate what is happening here.
As to the suggestion by the gentleman that there is now a contract between Curteis Ltd and one of his many misrepresesented identities, we have no way of knowing who we are dealing with.
I see no document anywhere which could be described as contractual.
The papers being represented to be a contract by the gentleman and his associates do not qualify as such, having no consideration described, as to what system or systems were under discussion, no terms and conditions, and nowhere where these can be accessed on the website. We also have to say that his many organisations are not and have never been part of BT, the organisation he openly claimed to be employed by.
I advise all businesses to be aware that such attempts to deceive and cheat business owners via their phone systems, through blatant misrepresentation are being carried out, and we hope and expect that the authorities will act to bring these practices to an end.
Picture from a different but similar case. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yg3y0qgexo
Obtaining pecuniary advantage by deception (1)A person who by any deception dishonestly obtains for himself or another any pecuniary advantage shall on conviction on indictment be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years.
(2)The cases in which a pecuniary advantage within the meaning of this section is to be regarded as obtained for a person are cases where—
(a)any debt or charge for which he makes himself liable or is or may become liable (including one not legally enforceable) is reduced or in whole or in part evaded or deferred; or
(b)he is allowed to borrow by way of overdraft, or to take out any policy of insurance or annuity contract, or obtains an improvement of the terms on which he is allowed to do so ; or
(c)he is given the opportunity to earn remuneration or greater remuneration in an office or employment, or to win money by betting.
(3)For purposes of this section " deception " has the same meaning as in section 15 of this Act.
Fraud Act 2006
"Fraud by false representation" is defined by Section 2 of the Act as a case where a person makes "any representation as to fact or law ... express or implied" which they know to be untrue or misleading.