Fraudulent Hire warning

[John Marchant]

You may already have heard this, but I thought I'd share the below that came to us via our insurers:

Allan Chapman & James have recently been advised of two fraudulent thefts.

We understand that camera equipment totalling over £70,000 on each occasion was hired to Zain Jaffar and Red Square Events & PR Ltd.

The address given was:

Tall Trees
Mount Park Road
Harrow
Middlesex
HA1 3JU

Company Number 07115765

The hirer provided adequate information on their identity and address.

The kit has not been returned and the address provided is unoccupied.

The Police are investigating, unfortunately, that is all the information we have to hand.

I would reiterate again the importance of thorough hire checks, in particular, new customers to your company. Please advise all relevant staff of the above name and address in case they make contact with you.

Kinds regards

John Claffey Dip CII
Commercial Director

 

[MARK SVEN OLSEN]

As I keep saying, deep background check, company & personal references from reliable sources in the industry, ALWAYS send someone from your crew along the renters, from minute one to the return, don't EVER leave the gear not even for a sec away from your sight, get it back overnite to your facilities, don't believe in nice websites neither on cash in the spot payment, get credit card pre-charge for a resonable amount of money that could get you covered in case of if any loss, get legal advise making sure the Insurance Policy will pay for fraud and/or theft. But, anyway, don't trust in any insurance company.

If the renters come from abroad, get some local references and call them, research them on google, phone directories and all kind of reliable sources.

Doing like this you won't take no chances to fraudulent hires.