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MyHome Installations Ltd, of St Leonards Road, 20/20 Business Park, Maidstone, exposed by BBC's Watchdog for pressure selling to elderly

A Maidstone company has been exposed by consumer TV show Watchdog for pressure-selling to vulnerable pensioners for the second time in four years.

Staff at MyHome Installations Ltd, of St Leonards Road, on the 20/20 Business Park, conned elderly customers out of thousands of pounds by convincing them they needed unnecessary work done and quoting them hugely inflated prices.

The company, run by 35-year-old Liam Walsh, was previously called Landmark Securities and was outed by the BBC show’s Rogue Traders section for similar practices in 2012.

Nathan Faulkes speaks to an undercover reporter. Picture: BBC
Nathan Faulkes speaks to an undercover reporter. Picture: BBC
Liam Walsh runs MyHome. Picture: BBC
Liam Walsh runs MyHome. Picture: BBC

At the start of the programme, aired last night, a 26-year-old sales manager advised an undercover reporter posing as a trainee salesman to “blindly follow” what he was told to do.

Salesman Nathan Faulkes, 24, of Aylesford, was then accompanied by the reporter to disabled 88-year-old Edna King’s home where he pressured her into paying £600 for an electrical survey.

Before entering the property Mr Faulkes told the reporter: “If they are disabled, as wrong as it is, I play on it.”

Mrs King refused the offer, saying she needed to speak to her son but was later phoned by MyHome’s electrical manager Andrew ‘Bill’ Beale who convinced her to pay for the inspection, before telling the undercover reporter: “She ******* loves it as well the dirty ****.”

Andrew 'Bill' Beale, who no longer works for the company, was filmed by an undercover reporter comparing MyHomes to The Wolf of Wall Street. Picture: BBC/Watchdog
Andrew 'Bill' Beale, who no longer works for the company, was filmed by an undercover reporter comparing MyHomes to The Wolf of Wall Street. Picture: BBC/Watchdog

At one point Mr Beale declared: “Eventually they run out of objections, their pants are on the floor and they’re waiting.”

He had previously described working at MyHome as like the movie Wolf of Wall Street, in which Leonardo DiCaprio plays a morally reprehensible stockbroker who makes millions by conning people.

One sharp witted reader suggested Mr Beale was more like the whelk of Week Street.

Mr Faulkes returned to Mrs King’s home and quoted her a ‘heavily discounted’ £2,500 for a day’s work, telling her 36 faults had been detected, despite the real number being roughly half that. The work being proposed should have cost £1,500.

Nathan Faulkes shocks a customer. Picture: BBC
Nathan Faulkes shocks a customer. Picture: BBC

Mr Walsh, who was described by colleagues as having a hands-on role, was confronted at the end of the show by presenter Matt Allwright but was able to escape into his office before he could be questioned.

In a statement provided to the programme, MyHome said the sales techniques broadcast were not reflective of the way it works.

The firm declined to comment when contacted by the KM.

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