Unscrupulous East London health supplements company shut down
Unscrupulous East London health supplements company that secured £128,000 from elderly and vulnerable customers has been shut down by the courts.
Registered to a residential address in East London, GoNutri Limited was wound up in the High Court on 12 February 2019 for trading with a lack of commercial probity, objectionable trading practices and improper sales techniques.
Following confidential enquiries, investigators from the Insolvency Service found that GoNutri targeted elderly and vulnerable people, bombarding them with cold calls and high pressure sales techniques to coerce them to purchase vitamin and mineral supplements.
Using a call centre based abroad to push the products, sales operatives occasionally misled customers in thinking they were representing health centres in the UK or other parts of the NHS.
Products were sold at highly inflated prices and the same item could sell for different prices, ranging anywhere from £11 up to £49.99.
Some customers were told that they hadn’t paid for items and were forced to pay multiple times for a single product, while others were sent items they hadn’t requested before being hounded into paying for them.
One victim, who was 91-years-old at the time, reported they were pestered with calls saying their card payment hadn’t worked. When the customer asked the call centre to send a bill in the post instead, operatives refused. This led the 91-year-old to write another cheque, although later on the customer found out the bill had been paid the first time round.
And in another example, an 84-year-old was persuaded to specifically make three orders because it was only after the third instalment that they would feel the physical benefits.
Investigators established that Go Nurti targeted circa 409 customers, with an average age of 85, and between May 2016 and June 2018, the health supplements company generated sales of approximately £128,000.
The hearing was held before Mr Justice Snowden who made the winding up order in the public interest.
By virtue of the appointment of the Official Receiver all public enquiries concerning the affairs of the company should be made to: The Official Receiver, Public Interest Unit, 2nd Floor, 4 Abbey Orchard Street, London SW1P 2HT. Email: piu.south@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk.
Notes to editor:
GoNutri Limited (Company Registration: 09981433), was incorporated on 2 February 2016. The companies registered office is: 37 Shoebury Road, London, E6 2AQ.
The petition to wind-up GoNutri Limited was presented under s124A of the Insolvency Act 1986 on 3 January 2019. The company was wound up on 12 February 2019 and the Official Receiver has been appointed as liquidator.
Company Investigations, part of the Insolvency Service, uses powers under the Companies Act 1985 to conduct confidential fact-finding investigations into the activities of live limited companies in the UK on behalf of the Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Further information about live company investigations is available here.
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