Shipping-firm heads cleared

Press, 1 May 1978, Page 21

Shipping-firm heads cleared

NZPA Reuter London Two directors of an English shipping company, which was alleged to have left thousands of dollars worth of customers’ belongings abandoned in warehouses instead of sending the goods abroad, have been cleared of Trade Description Act of. fences at the end of a nine-day hearing. Birmingham Magistrates found each man not guilty of two offences and also cleared the company, Q.R.S. International Shipping and Travel, Ltd, of the offences. The prosecution alleged that the firm Jet down hundreds of people emigrating, mainly to New Zealand and Australia, by failing to ship their possessions. It was claimed that Q.R.S. continued to trade and to advertise although it was “gradually going bust.” Mr J. Haines, prosecuting, alleged that when Q.R.S.’s warehouses were raided, 257 consignments, for which customers had paid $NZ230,000 in freight charges, were found dumped haphazardly. One victim, Mrs Caro, line Nelson, of Bradford, told how she and her family were sailing towards a new life in New Zealand when she found that their

belongings were not on board the ship. They flew back to Britain two months later. The two directors, Robert John Lowe, aged 36 of Baxter’s Green, Solihull, West Midlands, and Hugh Victor Ackerman, aged 37, of Ravenswood Drive, South Solihull, denied the two offences. The first offence related to a statement in the firm’s colour brochure which said: “We offer you a reliable and efficient service for both you and your possessions in one operation.” The other charge concerned an advertisement in the "New Zealand News,” a newspaper published weekly in London aimed mainly at expatriate New Zealanders, which said: "We know we offer the best service available.” Both, alleged the prosecution, were false trade desriptions. Lowe said he did not believe the company was incapable of trading properly until two days before it went into liquidation. Ackerman also de» nied that he felt the company was a "dead duck” Tong before the liquidation. The Magistrates made no order for costs.