Third agent involved in Burnham cartel case is banned from being a director
Graham Thompson was the boss of Somerset firm Saxon PS Ltd, one of seven estate agencies in Burnham-on-Sea involved in the scandal.
A former boss of an estate agency involved in the Burnham-on-Sea fee-fixing cartel scandal has been banned from being a director for five years, it has been revealed.
Graham Thompson is a former director of Saxon PS Ltd which his one of the seven estate agents who were caught entering into an anti-competitive agreement to fix a minimum 1.5% level of commission fee in the Somerset town of Burnham-on-Sea.
The scam was unearthed by investigators from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and made public in May 2017.
The CMA subsequently issued proceedings against several of the directors involved in the scandal under section 9A of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 and asked the courts to decide whether to give the disqualifications the green light.
Disqualification
Forty-nine-year-old Thompson was a director at Saxons PS Ltd from November 2012 until the company was dissolved via a compulsory strike-off in December 2017 after being hit with a £20,257 fine by the CMA.
He is now banned from both being a director of a company or being involved in the formation, management or promotion of a new one.
Thompson is not the only director connected to the scandal to be disqualified. In April last year two directors at Abbott & Frost were also disqualified. Proceedings against another director, Michael Martin of Gary Berryman Estate Agents Ltd, are ongoing.
Three directors from other firms identified in the investigation have been let off more lightly by the CMA after entering into leniency agreements in return for their cooperation in the watchdog’s investigations.
