TWO Ashford businesses feel they were scammed by a con man posing as a BT phone directory representative.

In February a man named Colin Mitchell approached Colin Batt Removals, based at Forest Lodge, Buck Street, Challock, Ashford, and Linda's Florist which has branches in High Street, Ashford and Bank Street, Ashford.

Mr Mitchell was from the company Go Local, described on its website as a "dynamic and fast growing company" offering "an ingenious system of phone exchange technology".

He explained there would be one free dial number at the front of the new BT telephone directory which users would attach a suffix to depending on which trade they required. Both companies signed up to be the direct contact for their trade.

Six months and several hundred pounds later Mr Mitchell and Go local are unreachable.

Manager of Colin Batt Removals Shelley Hathaway-Batt said: "We thought it was a legitimate advertising opportunity, he was very convincing and had a laminate with him of how it would all be laid out.

"We signed up, wrote him a £532 cheque and set up a standing order, they said we'd receive a pack within a few months so we got sceptical when it didn't turn up. We phoned the number he gave us and they said there was a real backlog so we waited and waited.

"The next time we called the people who answered said they were temps and didn't really know what was going on. Apparently now they're going into liquidation.

"We called the local trading standards who said they were aware of some scamming going on but couldn't say much about it, they did say we could take them to court but there's no guarantee we could get the money back. We also called BT who knew nothing about it.

"We're a relatively small company so the £700 we ended up paying out is quite a lot to us and now we have no advertising budget left. It was a real shock and has made us very sceptical."

The same telephone trickster conned Linda's Florist out of £400.

Business manager David Church said: "Me and Shelley got talking at the Ashford business network international breakfast meeting and it was then we both realised we'd been conned by the same man at the same time.

"He sold us what we thought was a really good product, we signed up in good faith. The real rep for the BT phone book came round the other day but we told her that we haven't got as much money to invest in advertising because of what happened.

"She confirmed that she's the only BT directory rep round here and said she'd take it further, I know she called the company and the temp on the phone wouldn't even say where they were based.

"Being conned is not something you go bragging about so it's lucky that me and Shelley did get talking, we don't think we'll let them get away with it.

"We're reasonably big companies so I suppose we can take a hit like this but for smaller trades and businesses it could be much more damaging. Something like this makes you cynical and leaves a bad taste in your mouth."

Assistant head of trading standards in Kent Richard Pilborough said: "We have had about 20 complaints and enquiries from businesses in Kent over the last 18 months about the Go Local scheme.

"The company are based in Brighton so we have put the matter into the hands of our colleagues there who are looking into the validity of the firm."

The Kentish Express contacted Go Local to give them the opportunity to give their side of the story.