The former director of two websites which used a number of well-known property logos without consent has been fined in court.
Ziad Nassif, of London Room Let and Landlord Direct Investments, was taken to court by Westminster Trading Standards.
At Westminster Magistrates Court, he pleaded guilty to breaching consumer protection legislation. Under CPRs, it is specifically illegal to claim membership of an organisation when there is no such membership.
Nassif admitted arranging for the display of multiple logos on his websites and admitted this could have been misleading for both prospective tenants and landlords.
The court considered these to be serious offences, stating that “an aggravated feature of this case was the number of logos used, which viewers would recognise and would believe that their money was safe with this person”.
Among the logos used were those of NALS and SAFEagent.
The court heard that Nassif attempted to dissolve both companies and recently declared himself bankrupt.
The court took into account Nassif’s guilty plea and that he was bankrupt and prohibited from being a company director.
Fines and costs totalling £1,860 were imposed.
Comments (6)
Anyone noticed that OTM have the same logo as Medigo?
Did OnTheMarket ask Medigo if they could use the same logo as them?
I often wonder at the cost of my NALS and Safe Agent membership as the public seem almost completely unaware of them – it would be nice to see them spending a bit more on publicity themselves!
Me and my firm fully co-operated with and submitted a large body of evidence to Westminster Trading Standards for this very case. I suspect the fine represents a fraction of the money that this guy “Ziad Nassif” has gained by ripping people off. I have a wall full of certificates in my office, RICS, NAEA, ARLA etc, etc and in the end, it means little because we operate in an unregulated industry with no standards or proper policing. In London its increasingly like the wild west.
and the anti money laundering rip off
with fines that low, is it worth joining anything. we shell out more that that a year, to have PI and Client Money Protection Insurance and be members of NAEA ARLA TPO.
Very Frustrating