Auctioneers Cameo "took cash from bank accounts"
After this website's sister newspaper, the Newbury Weekly News, first published on March 29 the grave concerns of some clients over the company’s business practises, the alert went global.
Meanwhile, among more than 70 complaints concerning alleged non-payment, bounced cheques or lost items, are fresh allegations that Cameo apparently took money from the bank accounts of several people who had never even taken part in an auction.
Some of those had merely registered with an online firm that acts as go-between between auctions and live bidders - the-saleroom.com
On Wednesday, the firm’s managing director, Anne Somers said: “We have suspended Cameo from any access to our online bidding. Some people registered with the intention to be an online bidder at some point.
“They then found transactions appearing on their bank statements despite never having bid. We gave Cameo every opportunity to explain but their explanations weren’t substantiated and resolutions weren’t delivered. We take our good reputation very seriously.”
A typical case was that of Dr Karen Cook from Aldbourne who said she never bought, sold or bid on any Cameo items but nonetheless found during a routine check of her bank statements that £247.86 had been removed from her account by Cameo.
Several other people from across the country have told identical stories.
Meanwhile dozens claimed that, after months of demanding their cash from Cameo, they received cheques which bounced.
Cameo is subject to 18 outstanding county court judgements involving sums totalling almost £20,000.
However many people who have won judgements said they were still unable to extract from Cameo the money owed.
Another customer, leukaemia sufferer Robert Dunlop from Chelmsford, Essex, said he was owed nearly £10,000.
He said that, after numerous phone calls and emails to Cameo went unanswered, he travelled to Midgham where he as eventually given a cheque.
Mr Dunlop said: “Back home, I tried to cash it. It bounced. I still don’t have my money.”
Former Tadley resident Paul Abernethy now lives in Greece and said he was unable to extract the £790 he said Cameo owes him. Some other international callers told similar stories.
Invited to respond to the allegations, Cameo sent an unsigned reply on Wednesday which stated: “We have had dealing with trading standards and to the best of our knowledge have satisfied any outstanding issues - we deal with approx 1500/2000 customers per month and if you expand that by the numbers of lots its inevitable situations will occur, we obviously do our best to ensure every care is taken to avoid mistakes but will admit they do occasionally happen. Its very easy to jump on a band wagon a vilify a person or company anonymously, its a lot different when both sides presented [sic].”
Spokesman for West Berkshire Council’s trading standards department, Sean Murphy, said on Wednesday: “We have spoken to a number of people at length who came forward as a result of the NWN article and we’re currently evaluating all of the information supplied.”
* IF YOU have an outstanding complaint against Cameo, contact West Berkshire Council’s trading standards department via email tsadvice@westberks.gov.uk and headline your correspondence ‘Cameo.’