• by Ray Schultz , November 3, 2022

A British magazine publisher has been disqualified from the business for 11 years for charging clients for ads that never appeared.  

Alan Peterson of Liverpool is “banned from directly, or indirectly, becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the permission of the court,” UK investigatory authorities reported last week. 

Peterson’s company Sage Media National Limited cold called businesses to sell ads in a magazine titled Copperwheel, on behalf of the West Midlands Police Motor Club, and pulled in £74,000 from clients for advertisements that it failed to publish. 

One charity that had agreed to a single ad was invoiced for two additional ones. A volunteer paid the invoice from personal funds. 

“Sage Media National Limited unscrupulously targeted companies using aggressive sales tactics to advertise in a magazine that didn’t have the reach or associations that it falsely claimed to have,” stated Karen Maxwell, Deputy Chief Investigator for the Insolvency Service. 

Maxwell added, “As sole director of the magazine publisher, Alan Peterson was ultimately responsible for the company’s objectionable tactics and abusing clients of thousands of pounds.”