Council successfully prosecutes bogus surveyor
A dodgy surveyor who falsely claimed membership of the profession's official body was fined £1500 after a successful prosecution by Hammersmith and Fulham Council.
On 10 January 2006 at West London Magistrates Court, Francis Patrick Gonzalez pleaded guilty under Section 14 of the Trade Descriptions Act of stating that he was a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
Following a contractual complaint from a member of the public, Trading Standards officers
discovered that Mr Gonzalez of Montague Road, Ealing, had been trading as a Chartered Building
Surveyor despite his membership of the RICS having expired in 2001. Only members of RICS can
call themselves Chartered Building Surveyors and use the initials MRICS.
The Court ordered Mr Gonzalez to pay a £1500 fine and £1038 costs to the council.
Councillor Stephen Burke, Leader of the Council, said "Our residents and the wider public must be able to trust that the professionals they employ to carry out work like surveying, have the expertise and and experience that their credentials suggest. Without this certainty they risk employing untrained and incompetent people and this could have very serious consequences for their safety and security. This is why the work carried out by our Trading Standards team to unearth conmen and women is particularly important, and why I am delighted that the courts have responded with a heavy fine in this case."
January 24, 2006
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