Rights and Wrongs readers from all over the Bradford area have been receiving a new mailshot guaranteeing them a gift worth between £100 and £1,600.

The flyer - from Leisure Line Ltd of Amsterdam - tells recipients they have to phone a hotline to get their "payout" number and the address to send their forms to. But calls to the number cost £1 a minute and last a maximum of seven minutes.

The gifts range from a Rolex watch to a dishwasher. But the largest number of prizes are telephone access systems.

A West Yorkshire Trading Standards spokesman said the mailshots should be put in the bin.

"As I understand it, these access systems enable you to programme in other telephone numbers so if you go out the call will be diverted to the number you want," said the spokesman.

"All these schemes are run for profit and that profit ultimately comes from the consumer who rings the premium rate number."

"It's a well-worn phrase but one worth repeating - if it seems too good to be true, it usually is. You don't get owt for nowt."

The access systems are also being offered by another company called the Payout Group - operating from the same address in Amsterdam.

This letter offers different gifts including a weekend break at a UK hotel - but there is a catch.

The room costs you nothing but you have to eat breakfast and evening meal there and pay for it.

The company gives you the option of swapping the holiday for another gift - the telephone access system.

Both are operated by Buckinghamshire-based Colin Butler, who has featured in the T&A several times in connection with other companies running similar offers with premium rate telephone lines.

Mr Butler set up Ashford Promotions, trading as Disbursement Claims, and was fined when it was later closed down by the premium phone line watchdog the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services.

Last month we told how Icstis has closed down First Phone Ltd and Bradcliffe Corporation Ltd - two other companies operated by Mr Butler from the same address.

The watchdog said he was sending out "misleading" mailshots apparently from Amsterdam to houses in West Yorkshire.

Originally Mr Butler claimed he knew nothing about Bradcliffe Corporation Ltd and did not know why it was trading from his address. He later claimed he was its UK agent for a week. Both companies were fined £2,500 each by Icstis.

First Phone Ltd ceased trading almost immediately and Mr Butler told the T&A he had set up Leisure Line Ltd. He now claims he never said that but is its UK agent.

An Icstis spokesman said it had received about 50 complaints about Leisure Line Ltd since it started operating last month.

Anyone who would like to complain can phone the Icstis freephone number on 0800 500 212.

'A lot of satisfied customers'

Colin Butler denied he ran Leisure Line Ltd but claimed he was the UK agent for it, responsible for distributing gifts to British customers.

When asked why international directory inquiries had no listing for Leisure Line Ltd, he said it was a division of another company based in Amsterdam.

He refused to give Rights and Wrongs the name and phone number of the parent company and added: "As the UK agent, I am the person you deal with - they would not want to be dealing with you, they would just refer you to me."

He said 2.5 million flyers had been sent out, £65,000 worth of gifts and £3million worth of telephone systems had been distributed. "Everyone receives an item or cash - we have a lot of satisfied customers," he said.

Mr Butler claimed 50 complaints was "very, very low" compared with the number of mailshots sent out.

He said he had letters from satisfied customers but they had all been sent on to the parent company in Amsterdam.

Tread carefully, motorists warned

Motorists are being warned to steer clear of buying second-hand tyres. West Yorkshire Trading Standards officers say car owners are far safer buying new or remoulds than part-worn tyres.

Their advice follows an operation in which a tyre was bought from 12 second-hand traders - and all failed safety checks.

Trading Standards divisional manager Paul Cooper said five of the breaches of regulations were so serious the businesses - including one from Bradford - were prosecuted and fined up to £1,000 each.

"Generally second-hand tyres come from cars which have been scrapped or involved in crashes," he said.

"Whenever we carry out checks on them, we find a significant number fail in the structural sense - in terms of their safety.

"Our advice to drivers is don't buy one unless you have to. It is far safer to spend a little more and get a remould or, even better, a brand new tyre. If you do have to buy second-hand one, go to a specialist."

tyre dealer."

Firm is rapped over holiday 'prizes'

A holiday company featured in Rights and Wrongs last week has been rapped by the Advertising Standards Authority.

Flowerlink Touristik AG, based in Switzerland, and its UK general agent Champion Trading Services Ltd, ran a competition in Chat and Woman's Weekly magazines offering three top prizes and 96 coach holidays in Italy.

But Flowerlink wrote to more than 1,000 people telling them they had won a holiday, although the individuals would have to pay a £20 a night single room supplement if they travelled alone or their companion would have to pay all but £30 of the £239 cost of the trip.

The ASA upheld ten complaints that the company's mailing gave a misleading impression that the recipients had won a "prize".

The authority also asked why the two companies had not stated in the advert that the "prize" came with a price tag.

In its judgement, the ASA said: " The Authority was concerned about the promoters' lack of co-operation and the misleadingness of their promotion."

Rights and Wrongs reader Anthony Kellett, from Baildon, received one of the letters and decided to go on the holiday with his girlfriend Beverley Long, who paid the £209.

"There was nothing wrong with the holiday itself but getting there was a disaster," he said.

"The driver who picked us up was German and had never been to England before.

"It was a nightmare getting to Folkstone."

Champion Trading Services Ltd, based in Hampshire, has not replied to any Rights and Wrongs messages left on an answer machine.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.