Heating oil fraud inquiry

Yesterday's Sunday Times carried a story that may be of interest to all users of heating oil, in other words, the vast majority in the Audlem area.

The story details how oil suppliers belonging to DCC are said to have charged customers up to 25p a litre more than agreed on the telephone, then delivered without an invoice before sending an inflated bill weeks later in the hope that the customer would not notice.

DCC is an Irish company based in Dublin and listed on the London and Dublin stock exchanges. DCC, says the Sunday Times, admitted this weekend "administrative mistakes" had been made, but strongly denied it had defrauded customers.

Audlem Online is carrying this story because the Sunday Times also reports that DCC now has the largest market share of Britain's domestic heating oil suppliers with more than forty companies that it has bought up. It also owns five websites, including the price comparison site BoilerJuice.com

It may be worth checking out the ownership of your supplier and also any invoice and delivery notes very carefully just in case these allegations are true.

Former DCC employees have said the practice was deiberately used to increase profits in Scotland before being introduced in Wales in 2009. An employee says senior DCC managers were aware of the practice. DCC owned companies include GB Oils, GForce, CPL Petroleum, Williams, Owen Fuels and Flogas.

If anyone has had a similar experience locally, please let us know at editor@audlem.org">editor@audlem.org

The Sunday Times says that though the commodity price of heating oil rose by less than a fifth between September and December last year, the cost to consumers doubled in some areas.

Councils in Wales are investigating fraud and unfair trading allegations made over the sale and supply of heating oils by DCC's main British subsidiary, GB Oils. One of the complaints, reports the newspaper, is about customers being billed at a higher price than initially quoted.

The Sunday Times reports that oil prices were slashed by up to 63% on BoilerJuice.com after the newspaper investigated the ownership of the site by DCC.

MPs debating fuel poverty last week in Parliament have called on the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to investigate DCC's influence in the heating oil market. One MP described how the company bought out most oil suppliers in rural Northumberland making it harder to negotiate a good price.

The Government has now ordered the OFT to investigate steep price increases imposed on heating oil and gas users during the recent cold snap. Guy Opperman MP told Parliament: "It is no exaggeration to say that many people have to make a straight choice between heating and eating."

Audlem Online has been studying DCC's somewhat uninformative corporate website to find a list of subsidiaries and to see how many operate in this area. More as information comes in, including comments from the Oil Baron, who now negotiates oil prices and deliveries on behalf of 91 Audlem households.

Tomorrow, he will describe how his ability to negotiate prices with one local company, GForce, seemed to disappear when that well known local company was taken over by DCC. CPL Petroleum also lists GB Oils, a DCC subsidiary, as its head office.

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