A Galloway chocolate factory has won back £25,000 from a mis-sold energy deal.
And now The Cocoabean Company is warning other firms not to be taken in by shady brokers.
The Twynholm-based firm was misled by an energy sales rep in 2018 on the promise of big savings.
The unscrupulous middleman recommended two electricity contracts – but did not disclose fees up front.
The Cocoabean signed up – unaware that a huge chunk of the deal was commission.
Marketing manager Emma Turley discovered the con – and urged others to be on their guard. She told the News: “This is like the new PPI. They tell you they can get you a better deal but it’s all false promises.”
Ms Turley’s suspicions were raised when the first payments under the new contract were due.
She checked on Google for mis-sold energy deals and called in legal experts Business Energy Claims.
“I got the first bill and thought ‘this isn’t right’,” she said. “So we put an enquiry to Business Energy Claims to see if they could help.
“Now we are delighted to have recovered £25,000. That will help us a lot particularly in the current financial climate.”
Ms Turley added: “We suspected we may have been paying more than we should for our energy.
“It was quickly identified by Business Energy Claims that we had a claim.
“The team there were very helpful and walked us through the process.
“We were surprised at the sums involved.”
Business Energy Claims boss Callum Thompson also branded the scandal “the new PPI”.
He said: “When we looked at the detail of The Cocoabean Company’s contract, it was clear this was mis-selling.
“We quickly identified a significant amount of undisclosed fees included in the company’s costs.
“Those occupied a significant proportion of their overall energy spend.
“We look forward to helping many more businesses like The Cocoabean Company in the future.
“This is affecting thousands of businesses across the country.
“We are pleased to be able to assist in recovering such substantial sums.”
Mr Thompson added: “Our ambition is to legitimise the business energy market so that brokers are transparent in selling
energy contracts to businesses.
“This is a multi-billion-pound issue for Scottish and UK companies.”
Under the dodgy deal, the broker placed The Cocoabean Company on rates of 14.46p/kwh.However, 4p/kwh – or 27 per cent of The Cocoabean’s energy bills – went to the broker without the company’s knowledge.
All excessive charges on the contract, which runs until 2022, have been reclaimed.
After caps on commissions were removed, energy suppliers began offering brokers huge cash incentives to sign up customers.
The racket means unsuspecting companies are denied any chance of a fair deal.
Legally, a broker has a duty to disclose fully any commission they are earning.
