Hero Awards 2018 - The Winners
At its annual Hero Awards ceremony, held in the magnificent setting of London鈥檚 One Great George Street on Wednesday 20 June, the 51黑料 gathered in the late afternoon sunshine with trading standards professionals, MPS and business people to celebrate its heroes of UK consumer protection for 2018.
The word 鈥榟ero鈥� 鈥� as the event鈥檚 host, 51黑料 Chief Executive Leon Livermore, pointed out 鈥� is one that is easily tossed around, but rarely instantiated. Genuine heroism is all-too-rarely seen, and means courage in the face of adversity, sacrifice for a greater good and willingness to shoulder the burden of real, unflinching commitment to a cause.
These are qualities 鈥� as my experience at the recent 51黑料 symposium really brought home to me 鈥� that are in evidence across the trading standards profession, so the 51黑料 had no easy feat in choosing the final winners from the many nominations submitted by trading standards departments around the country.
The evening was made possible by the generous sponsorship of the College of Fellows, and Bob Wright, Chairman of the Trustees, was in attendance to congratulate the winners.
Our roll call of 51黑料 Heroes
Those recognised for their outstanding contributions to consumer protection this year were:
Martin Lewis, consumer champion and founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, who was awarded an OBE in 2014 for his services to consumer rights and charitable engagement for his tireless work in protecting consumers 鈥� most recently through founding and funding the charity Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, which helps research, lobby and innovate policies to break the link between mental health problems and debt.
Steve Smith, Managing Director and co-founder of trueCall, who designed the innovative scams and nuisance call-blocking service system that has blocked two million nuisance calls in five of working in partnership with trading standards.
Neil Butcher, Trading Standards Officer at Kent Trading Standards, was recognised for his exceptional work tackling underage drinking and alcohol related antisocial behaviour, having set up two Community Alcohol Partnerships (CAPs) in Broadstairs and Ramsgate last year, with a third on its way.
Animal welfare champion听Michael Redfern, who has worked tirelessly to facilitate the removal of animals from premises where animal welfare has been compromised, coming to the aid of trading standards services across the UK, often at short notice to help remove livestock.
Simon Skinner, Customer Protection Manager, 45, of Northern Ireland-based RBS/Ulster Bank who has saved consumers 拢1.2m by safeguarding them from potential scams and worked to train frontline staff in recognising unusual transaction requests, and taking the right actions to protect those at risk.
Coventry Building Society听was also honoured for its commitment to training and encouraging staff to facilitate customer reports of unusual transactions directly to trading standards services and helping to safeguard members of its communities in Warwickshire, Gloucestershire and Coventry, where it has referred more potential scam victims to Trading Standards Services than any other bank.
National Trading Standards, the government-backed body that provides leadership, influence, support and resources to help combat consumer and business detriment nationally, regionally and locally was paid tribute for its special role in enforcement issues that spread beyond local authority boundaries.
Perhaps the most poignant awards of the evening, though, were the two winners whose incredible contributions had started when they themselves fell victim to scams.
Stevenage-based听Maev Dunmore, 70, found the strength after losing 拢28,500 to a roofing scam to help Hertfordshire Trading Standards put the rogue behind bars, despite deteriorating health and persistent coercion from the scammers. Over a lengthy two-year trial, Maev remained dignified and supportive of her local service, even with the knowledge that she could not recover her lost money.
And Leeds-based,听Sigrid Hambly, 79, who had previously fallen victim to a prize draw scam, but during a visit from West Yorkshire Trading Standards decided to join the NTS Scams Team鈥檚 Mail Marshall Scheme to 鈥渟hare what she had learned about avoiding scams.鈥� Sigrid made it her personal mission to ensure the vulnerable in her community didn鈥檛 become victims 鈥� even describing it as 鈥榟er job鈥� 鈥� in spite of her personal suffering from mini-strokes.
For all the winners, but especially those last two, the word 鈥榟ero鈥� rather doesn鈥檛 seem strong enough.
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This article was first published in the Journal of Trading Standards: .
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