The High Court in Manchester has wound up a Wirral company behind a number of emergency services magazines.
KMG Promotions is the third Merseyside publisher in less than a year that’s been investigated by the Insolvency Services for falsely claiming to work with the emergency services.
Deputy District Judge Watkin heard that KMG Promotions Ltd was incorporated in November 2016 and traded as a publisher, with its registered offices in the Wirral.
Since 2016, it has self-published 2 different publications, Crime Awareness, and fire-prevention magazine, Scorch.
It offered advertising space on the understanding that a copy was going to be sent to a police and fire station local to the client. The business would also receive their own copy of the magazine they advertised in.
Investigators found that 771 customers had paid for adverts but only 340 adverts appeared, plus the number of magazines printed “were short of the client’s expectations.”
They also discovered misleading claims made to advertisers about the volume of printing and distribution.
It was also revealed that the company had falsely informed potential advertisers that they were from the real emergency services and had pursed them “using aggressive sales tactics.”
“As part of our enquiries, we spoke to KMG Promotions’ customers and none of them were satisfied with the level of service they received,” said Scott Crighton, Chief Investigator for the Insolvency Service.
“The company acted in an unscrupulous manner and thankfully the courts recognised the severity of their actions when they ordered for the publisher to be wound-up.”
The Official Receiver has been appointed as the Liquidator.
Within a matter of weeks last year, The Hannay Partnership of Print Publishing were both wound up for falsifying links to the emergency services and charities.
