Restaurant alert on bogus guides
By Angela Jameson
Restaurateurs in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire are warning others nationwide to be on their guard against a salesman who claims to be compiling regional Time Out eating and drinking guides.
The salesman, who fronts a company called Ambassador Publications, has approached a number of restaurateurs in the two counties over the past two months, offering them advertising space in an eating out guide.
He has shown them a copy of the London Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide and said he was compiling one for that region.
However, Mike Hardwick, managing director of the Time Out Group, told Caterer that restaurateurs have bought advertisements in a bogus title and that the group had no plans to produce such a guide, nor had it any links with Ambassador Publications.
Nigel Sutcliffe, licensee of the Crazy Bear & Ragged Staff pub restaurant in Stadhampton, Oxfordshire, told Caterer he recently paid £350 to a salesman for an advert in a Time Out guide. The salesman had said it was going to press that week and had pressured him into an immediate decision.
"This is a young business and we are hoping for recognition. I suppose this made us vulnerable," he said.
Gianfranco Parola, owner of the Graziemille Restaurant at the Cock and Rabbit, near Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, believes he was duped by the same salesman last week. "We took an advert for £298, but it seemed odd because there was no VAT," he said.
He then called Time Out to discover that they did not sub-contract work and that no regional guide was planned. Mr Parola tried to stop his cheque but discovered it had been cleared by express.
Sarah Farr, at the Blacksmiths Forge, Deddington, in Oxfordshire, was similarly approached by Ambassador Publications in September. She paid £150 to appear in a UK-wide Time Out edition, due, she was told, to be published on 1 November.
Ms Farr's suspicions were also aroused by a lack of VAT on the invoice. She has reported the incident to Banbury CID and local trading standards officers, who are investigating the complaint.
