The director of an accountancy firm has been prosecuted for his part in a fake jobs scam which cost innocent victims over £500 each as well as luring them into non-existent jobs.
Wemba Akobola of Tshovo Accountancy Services was responsible for advertising fake jobs and interviewing candidates at luxurious venues. Most interviewees were offered positions but were told that they would have to pay a training fee of between £500 and £1,200 before being accepted.
The court heard that the training was unstructured and of poor quality, and salaries of £25,000 offered to applicants at the interview failed to materialise as successful job applicants had to find their own clients before they were paid any money.
In addition to the offences of fraudulent trading under section 993 of the Companies Act 2006, the rarely used Business Protection From Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008 were included on the indictment to reflect the false statements made by the company on its website to businesses.
We are pleased that SAFERjobs, a longstanding friend of IWORK, gave evidence as a witness to help bring about the conviction. Keith Rosser, Chair of SAFERjobs said:
“It is really important that work seekers, especially in our post Furlough Britain, are safe when applying for work and that foul play like this is eradicated from the genuine recruitment sector. SAFERjobs received numerous reports from job seekers about Tshovo Accountancy Services across a sustained period of time and are delighted to have provided evidence to Trading Standards to bring about this prosecution.”
