Cases - R v Director General of Fair Trading, ex parte Benhams Ltd
Record details
- Name
- R v Director General of Fair Trading, ex parte Benhams Ltd
- Date
- [2001]
- Citation
- 1 EGLR 21
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Estate agency - Estate Agents Act 1979
- Summary
-
The applicant estate agents were retained by the vendors of a property. Expressions of interest for sums between £1.1m and £1.2m were received. Contracts were exchanged for the sale of property for only £950,000. Shortly afterwards the property was put up for auction but sold beforehand for £1.2m. The applicants suspected that 2 of their employees had taken a bribe from the purchaser to ensure that he purchased the property cheaply with a view to a resale. After conducting inquiries, the applicants sacked the 2 employees and notified the Director General of Fair Trading. The director reported that no triggering event had taken place enabling him to issue a prohibition order or warning order under the 1979 Act. The applicants sought judicial review of this decision.
The High Court held that, assuming the employees had taken a bribe, a triggering event had occurred, in that they must have misrepresented the details of the purchaser's offer, contrary to the Undesirable Practices Order. The judge also held that the drafting of the Order indicates that a single event may constitute an undesirable practice.
Note that the judge found that the failure to provide information as to the 'services' to be provided to the purchaser did not constitute a trigger, as the Order refers to services ordinarily made available. An undertaking to ensure that a particular person becomes the eventual purchaser in return for a bribe is not a service ordinarily made available.