Four companies that claimed to provide a consumer protection service to the public by offering a free database of trusted builders and tradesmen have been ordered into liquidation in the High Court.

The order was issued on grounds of public interest following an investigation by Company Investigations (“CI”) of the Insolvency Service.

The four linked Brighton-based companies are Building Trades Database Limited, Quality Build Services Limited, Coast 2 Coast Building Services Limited and MTB Sussex Limited. They variously traded between October 2008 and February 2011 and each of the companies operated a website which purported to enable members of the public to secure the services of tradesmen. These are:

www.btd.uk.com

www.qbsukltd.co.uk

www.coast2coastltd.co.uk

www.mtbuk.net

Company Investigations Supervisor Chris Mayhew said: “This sends an unequivocal message to unscrupulous directors; their companies will be investigated and where necessary brought before the Court. Our investigation uncovered that The Building Trades Database Limited preyed on tradesmen to build up a database business built on seriously misleading and unfounded statements to persuade them to enrol for the purported service. The business effectively migrated from one company to another and the continuing deceit on tradesmen unfortunate enough to have been contacted by these companies is perhaps best illustrated by the discovery that the telephone numbers for the positive testimonials about one of the companies, Coast 2 Coast Building Services Limited, purportedly from two tradesmen, matched those for two mobile telephones found at the company’s former trading address”.