Penman & Greenwood Investigate
The Daily Mirror
£40,000 VICTORY OVER THE LOACH LEECHES
by Andrew Penman and Michael Greenwood
16 February 2006


CAR NET SNARES DRIVERS
WE HAVE a thank-you card from Peter Fletcher, who says: "Do your best
to put these *******s in jail."
He's talking about two men who we have no hesitation in describing as
Britain's nastiest car dealers - brothers Richard and David Loach.
Peter paid a £5,772 deposit to their firm, Micronet Showroom, for two
Volkswagen Passats.
Micronet offers new cars imported from abroad at lower than UK prices,
boasting: "You are in safe hands."
But there is nothing safe about dealing with these liars. Six weeks
after they took Mr Fletcher's deposit they wanted the balance on the
VWs - a further £23,000.
When Peter asked for an invoice they fobbed him off, saying it was "in
the post", and they couldn't guarantee him a delivery date.
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Peter, of Grays, Essex, says: "I looked on the net and found a
catalogue of complaints about this firm. The blood drained from my
face."
He told Richard Loach he now had no confidence in Micronet and felt he
had no option but to cancel.
We stepped in and now Peter has recovered most of his dosh - although
Micronet had the cheek to deduct a £1,500 "service fee".
Peter says: "I'm just glad to get something back from these scammers.
Thank you."
The Loach brothers are not new to us. They have been at it for years.
We exposed them in 2000, telling how they'd run two car import
companies which were shut down by the High Court with debts of more
than £1million.
An investigation by the Department of Trade and Industry found that
they had, among other things, failed to supply cars as promised.
A judge later branded them "dishonest" and they were banned from
running limited companies until 2013. We revealed that despite this
they continued to trade, using a company registered in the Virgin
Islands called Micronet.
The DTI tried to prosecute the Loach brothers for fraudulent trading,
but when the case got to Blackfriars crown court in 2003 the judge
threw it out because the DTI lost evidence important to the defence.
Since then the Loaches, of Nottingham, have caused yet more misery.
Last month alone Richard Loach was twice sued in the county court and
ordered to repay customers more than £40,000. In the past three years
he's been sued for more than £100,000.
Richard Loach insists that we are wrong and customers can trust
Micronet.
He told us yesterday that he and his brother have almost 6,000 happy
customers since 1999 and only "a very small proportion" of sales don't
work out.
That will be no consolation to Keith Otter of Bushey, Herts. Last
summer he was lucky enough to be able to treat himself to a Porsche
sports car.
Keith paid £37,000 to Micronet for the dream car, expecting a saving of
£4,000. Naturally, as he was dealing with the Loaches, the deal went
sour.
The car wasn't delivered and Keith says: "I asked for a refund or a
definite delivery date. Neither was given."
Although we've chased Micronet and Keith now has his money back, he
told us: "I want to make sure nobody else falls into the same trap. It
was a very stressful time and others should be made aware."
Consider it done.