TWO company directors are facing jail after admitting carrying out premium rate phone scams.

Mark Hunter, 40, of Hartley Wintney, and 26-year-old Joseph Boll admitted 83 offences under the Trade Descriptions Act and the Consumer Protection Act.

Bristol Magistrates’ Court was told Boll, a director of Cutting Edge Telecom Ltd and Bristol-based Pokie Ltd, and Hunter, a director of Pokie Ltd, were behind 500,000 leaflets and scratchcards which led people into believing they had won a competition.

Hundreds of thousands of people received letters from Cutting Edge Telecom Ltd telling them they had definitely won a either TVR sports car, Sony DVD player, Toshiba 36in widescreen television, personal computer, digital camera or a portable 14in television.

They were encouraged to call a number to find out which prize they had won and how to claim it.

The number was a premium rate number and calls cost £9, of which £7 went to Boll and Hunter.

Pokie Ltd distributed scratchcards free in newspapers and magazines but the promotion operated in a similar way to the Cutting Edge mailshot.

The list of prizes was similar and everyone who received a scratchcard found they were a winner and were encouraged to call a premium rate number.

Many who dialled the number were told they had won a personal computer but when they sent off a stamped, self-addressed envelope they received a leaflet inviting them to contact another company, Key Computers, which — for a payment of £116.33 — would send them a second-hand computer with a one-year warranty.

But to receive a computer with an operating system a total payment of £180.94 was needed.

Few people took up the offer but many complained to Trading Standards they had been misled into making an expensive call because the mailshot stated that their ‘prize’ was definitely worth more than the cost of the call.

The case was brought by Bristol City Council following an investigation by its Trading Standards department after complaints were made from all around the country.

Ian McDonald, prosecuting, said: “If consumers had been properly informed that after paying £9 for a telephone call what they would receive would be a computer leaflet which required them to pay extra in order to receive a reconditioned computer, it is safe to conclude that very few, if any, consumers would have been persuaded to telephone the premium rate number.

“By distributing the mailshots and scratchcards to hundreds of thousands of consumers, even with a low response rate, significant profits could be made with minimal apparent investment or risk.”

Juliet Levy, defending, said the companies had stopped the promotions as soon as Trading Standards officers became involved and they had co-operated fully with the investigation. She said that net income generated from calls to the premium rate lines between June and November last year was £114,000. Boll, who lives in Bristol, would have received half as a joint shareholder.

Ms Levy said gross income from the prize draw promotions was nearly £950,000 and some £700,000 went to the proprietor of Bristol Mail Services, which was responsible for printing the leaflets and distributing them.

District judge David Parsons committed the men to Bristol Crown Court for sentencing after deciding that the maximum punishment which can be imposed in a magistrates’ court — a £5,000 fine — was insufficient.

He said prison should be the first option considered by the sentencing judge.

“I am satisfied that you established a cynical, manipulative scheme to generate the maximum reward for yourselves at the expense of vulnerable consumers,” he said.