Freight firm under scrutiny

Press, 17 December 1976, Page 4

Freight firm under scrutiny

From JOHN ROSS, our London correspondent

A freight-forwarding firm which has apparently failed to ship personal belongings to New Zealand and Australia is under investigation by the consumer-protection denartment of the West Midlands County Council in Birmingham. Goods belonging to 32 persons who have emigrated to New Zealand, Australia, or South Africa are still stored in a warehouse in Newport, Salop. According to the owner of the warehouse, some of the goods have been there since last March — and he said that they could not be stored indefinitely, “without anyone paying for them.”

A spokesman for the West Midlands County Council, Mr L. Baker, said the council had had a number of complaints from Midlands residents about goods being consigned to the firm, Ocean Mount, of Walsall, but not arriving at their destinations, particularly in Australia and New Zealand.

“We have made inquiries both about this firm, and about Q.R.S. International Shipping and Travel (which went into liquidation earlier this year). Reports by our department are now being studied by the council’s legal division, to see if there is any basis for prosecution under the various consumerprotection laws we administer,” he said. The question of prosecution centred on the type of advertisting done by the firms.

Under the Trade Descriptions Act, if companies had intentionally misled or defrauded the public, the courts could demand that the directors pay some compensation.

He emphasised, however, that nobody was accusing the two companies of any illegal activities.

“But,” he added, "it is still possible that some of the people who were involved in the Q.R.S. collapse may be able to get some of their money back in this wav.” People now in New Zealand whose goods are still in the warehouse include Messrs Warburton, Jones, Weston, and Luton, but no other details about them have been discovered. Mr Bruce George, member of Parliament for Walsall North, said he wa s making inquiries on behalf of former constituents who had emi-

grated to Australia and New Zealand.

Q.R.S. which was also based in Birmingham, went into liquidation in April. People who had settled in New Zealand had to pay additional freight charges to have their goods shipped out. In August a second company, Seven Seas Transport, Ltd, of Southampton, went into liquidation. As a result, about 80 New Zealanders faced a similar predicament. The British Association of Removers recommends that Britons emigrating to New Zealand ensure that firms to which they consign their goods are members of the association. According to Mr H. W. Wilson, general-secretaiw of the association, Ocean Mount is not a member. The firm could not be contacted for comment