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EVERY week, Tony Hetherington replies to readers' letters, adding comments, advice and the results of his enquiries.
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If you think you are a victim of financial mismanagement, or want advice before investing, write to Tony Hetherington, Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS.
Sorry, but he cannot give personal replies. Please send only copies of documents - if these are relevant to your enquiry. We regret that they cannot be returned.
M. T. writes: I received mailshots from First Post Racing of Newport, South Wales, saying that I could make money from betting, so I decided that I would find out more.
It asked for £100 to be paid to the Racing Tipsters' Association, which is supposed to hold this as a bond. People in the racing industry have never heard of this association. Its phone is answered by a machine and messages receive no response. Letters to the association
receive no reply either. I wrote to Martyn Fisher, who signs First Post Racing's letters, but he also did not reply.
First Post enthusiastically claims: 'Profit Manager Millennium has rocked the betting industry. The Racing Tipsters' Association has warned that in general circulation, Profit Manager Millennium could spell the end of horse racing in the UK.'
The bottom line is that First Post will give you the tips its computer generates in return for a third of your profits. All you have to do is send £100 as a 'holding deposit' to the Racing Tipsters' Association in King's Lynn, Norfolk.
First Post's mailshots include a letter from the association confirming that its tips have produced profits. And, better still, losses are covered by something called the 'Punters' Protection Scheme'.
I have tried three times to contact the Racing Tipsters' Association, and like you I have found that it is a very shy organisation. It has attracted no publicity, inside or outside racing circles, and its address in King's Lynn is a maildrop. Letters and calls from me have gone unanswered, just like your own. You might almost conclude that the association does not exist.
Similarly, First Post Racing and its boss Martyn Fisher would not talk to me, though in Newport he is well known, not to say notorious. Fisher, 38, has run a string of failed, corrupt or cheating businesses. In the early Nineties, he sold sex aids and abandoned his offices in Cardiff owing thousands of pounds in rent.
Fisher was later given a 12 month suspended prison sentence for selling pills that he claimed would increase penis size. They turned out to be Vitamin C tablets. The court noted that he also sold a non-existent get-rich-quick book for £20.
Fisher's next venture was more dangerous. He imported and sold a designer drug called gamma hydroxy butyrate, popularly known as GBH. Through a legal technicality, he could be convicted only of selling an unlicensed medicine. The court fined him £2,000.
Later, Fisher set up Nationwide List Brokers, which warned people that their fax machines would be flooded with advertising messages unless they paid to be taken off the circulation list.
There were also projects such as his Magidial gadget, which supposedly allowed people to make free phone calls, and his Jammer, which was supposed to make fruit machines pay out.
After reading this, you may be under the impression that I think First Post Racing and the Racing Tipsters' Association are nothing more than a scam.
And you would be right. Fisher is a crook and a fraudster. He should be stopped, now.
Court halts data protection trick
A TRICKSTER whose company made thousands of pounds posing as an official organisation with government links has been stopped by the Office of Fair Trading.
Michael Sullivan set up the Data Collection Enforcement Agency, based in Southport, Merseyside, and wrote to businesses all over the country. Headed 'Final Notice', his official-looking letters demanded more than £100 in registration fees under the Data Protection Act.
But his company had no official status and the true fee for businesses that handle personal data and need to register with the Information Commissioner is £35. Sullivan passed on the registration forms with the required £35 fee and pocketed the difference.
Financial Mail warned last November: 'The so-called Data Collection Enforcement Agency is totally unofficial . . . demands amount to little more than obtaining money by deceit.'
Now the Office of Fair Trading has won a High Court injunction banning Sullivan from issuing misleading mailshots. OFT head John Vickers said: 'Misleading advertising harms honest businesses and consumers.'
Insurance cover landed us with a bill
L. J. P. writes: We bought a computer from Tiny for £1,143 with a five-year cover plan for £449 through First National Tricity Finance. The plan was to be paid in instalments, but we were burgled and the computer was stolen. We informed First National and were told to cancel our payments for the plan. We have now received a letter saying we are in arrears and owe £860. YOU bought the Premier insurance package, covering the computer against damage, lightning strikes - and theft. After reporting the theft, instead of receiving a payout you got a bill for £860.
This was the £499 premium plus the interest you would have paid under the agreement. Needless to say, this was wrong, and First National has quickly sorted it out. When you called the finance company after the burglary, you should have been asked for a police crime number and a report from your home contents insurer.
I was told: 'We fully accept that our customer service staff should have informed Mr P of these requirements. We have written to apologise.'
First National now has the crime number and information from your home insurer. The account has been cancelled. You don't owe a penny.
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