Directors of Peterborough firm which pressure sold furniture to vulnerable residents ordered to pay thousands in compensation

Last year, four directors of Peterborough firm Life Comfort Products were jailed over the aggressive way they sold furniture to elderly and vulnerable residents across the country.

While their staff would boast to customers - including elderly people and dementia sufferers - of their home made chairs, beds and other products, the goods would actually be shipped in from a factory in Wales.

Staff spent hours in their homes persuading them to part with cash, and were even caught filling in cheques for their vulnerable victims.

More: Directors of firm which 'treated customers as enemies' jailedYesterday (July 3) all four were back at Cambridge Crown Court, where they were given a bill for thousands of pounds, and told if they did not cough up, they would be heading back to jail.

Husband and wife Geoffrey and Jaqueline Turner, from Werrington were both directors, and were told to pay a total of £172,879.50 each, of which £15,329.50 (each) will be compensation to victims.

The pair were also ordered to pay £12,130 each in costs. If they do not pay within three months, they face another two years behind bars. Geoffrey Turner had previously been jailed for 12 months, while his wife had been locked up for nine months.

Geoffrey’s brother and sales manager David Turner, from Spalding, previously jailed for nine months, was given 28 days to pay £5,000 or face another three months in jail, while national marketing manager Tim Clark was given a £1,000 bill, to be paid in 28 days. He was given a six month sentence last year, and faces a further one month in jail if he does not pay.

Judge Jonathan Cooper, sentencing last year, said: “The business model was based on bullying and lies.”

But while their victims said they had been left too frightened to answer the door as a result of their experiences, the directors had shown no remorse. Three sales staff were also given suspended jail sentences at last year’s hearing.

More: Experience of Peterborough firm left my elderly mum frightenedAll had entered guilty pleas to a charge of contravening professional diligence, while Geoffrey and Jacqueline Turner were given bans preventing them being business directors.

More: Whistle blower reveals pressure put on staff at shamed Peterborough firm