Sonny Kaushal (37) the director of Airtime Parking Ltd, falsely advertised the company as offering \u201csafe and secure\u201d vehicle storage with security fences, CCTV, and 24-hour security patrols.<\/p>\n
Among services offered were \u201cpremium valet parking\u201d, a \u201cpark and ride\u201d and capacity to store 1,000 cars safely in the firm\u2019s own authorised roofed compound within 5km of the airport. The parking was described as being \u201cas safe as your house\u201d with a \u201cstrong perimeter fence\u201d and \u201cfully insured\u201d and \u201cprofessional\u201d drivers.<\/p>\n
But in reality, customers\u2019 vehicles were parked in a variety of insecure locations, from a field in Datchet, Berkshire, on the roadside, an industrial estate, and even sometimes being left in Heathrow Airport\u2019s own short-stay parking.<\/p>\n
Kaushal, from Buckinghamshire, was jailed at Isleworth Crown Court on Tuesday, after admitting one count of fraudulent trading and two counts of engaging in an unfair commercial practice at a previous hearing on June 1, 2023. He was also ordered to repay more than \u00a3725,000.<\/p>\n
It comes following an extensive investigation by trading standards officers from Hillingdon Council.<\/p>\n
Despite claiming to be the leading Heathrow parking solution provider, Airtime Parking in fact had no allocated sites at the airport and were not supported by it as a third party \u201cmeet and greet\u201d company, the court was told.<\/p>\n
Some cars had been damaged while under the care of Airtime Parking Ltd, some had even received parking tickets, the court was told.<\/p>\n
Car keys had been lost, customers were charged extra drop-off and collection fees, some failed to receive their shuttle to the airport, staff were aggressive, and there had been a failure to respond to complaints or requests for reimbursement or refund.<\/p>\n
The court was told 93pc of 116 reviews on the website Trust Pilot gave the company no more than a \u201cone star\u201d rating.<\/p>\n
The council was made aware of the issue in June 2022 following numerous complaints to Citizens Advice about the business.<\/p>\n
At Tuesday\u2019s hearing, Judge HHJ Edmunds KC, made a confiscation order against Kaushal and Airtime Parking Limited to the value of the currently available assets of \u00a3708,606, but the total value gained from the scam was deemed to be \u00a31,357,171, the court heard.<\/p>\n
\u200bHe was further ordered to pay \u00a33,053.13 in compensation and \u00a314,319.80 in costs. He was also disqualified from acting as a company director for 10 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sonny Kaushal (37) the director of Airtime Parking Ltd, falsely advertised the company as offering \u201csafe and secure\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,61,60,898],"class_list":{"0":"post-21832","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-latest-news-ticker"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}