Mirror newspaper investigators Penman & Sommerland have been investigating Rogue HGV training brokers. One company in particular under investigation formisleading and miss selling was FastTrack HGV.
Messrs Penman and Sommerland caught up with FastTrack owner Mr Hardeep Bharya whilst he was leaving his company premises in North London.
Mr Bharya was formally the owner of Highlife LGV , a company that was prosecuted for breaching consumer protection rules, for (amongst other things) claiming 80,000 HGV jobs available nationwide.
To date FastTrack HGV have been successfully sued 6 times and ordered to pay back almost £16,000.
One of FastTrack HGV’s unhappy customers was former placeman Steven Rich. Mr Rich paid a total of £1,500 to FastTrack HGV for an HGV training course. Mr Rich was sold the course under the presumption his driver training would be carried out local to where he lives in Cornwall. Just before his training was due to commence he was informed by FastTrack HGV the training would actually be 300 miles away in North London.
The deceit begins when customers are lead into thinking they were signing up with a national HGV training company. The reality was FastTrack HGV have a small number of vehicles located in North London. Mr Bharya blamed problems at his firm on staff who have since been dismissed for gross misconduct.
Lack of Regulation.
It’s not just FastTrack HGV that are fault here. A lack of regulation in the commercial transport training industry makes it relatively easy for rogue HGV training Brokers to exploit the goodwill and intentions of “new drivers” who want to enter the industry.
HGV Broker, Highway LGV Ltd, based in Docklands has managed to accumulate no less than 15 County Court judgements. Also, HGV Broker, Direct LGV (also been sued) operates from the same office block as Highway LGV.
To help you avoid using a broker for your HGV training please check out our hints and tips page.
