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Surepass and RED Instructor Training: Testing the patience

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X-Ray production team X-Ray production team | 09:10 UK time, Monday, 22 February 2010

This week X-Ray investigates the world of driving instruction and discovers the pitfalls that can lie in wait for both learner drivers and learner instructors.

Photograph of the rear of a car with L plates attachedWhen Brandon Thorpe from Aberbargoed, near Caerphilly, turned 17 in October 2008 his father Michael decided to book him some driving lessons for his birthday.

He phoned a company called Surepass and signed up Brandon for 30 hours of tuition at a cost of £590. After paying a deposit of £125 he says he was told he could pay the balance to the driving instructor at the first lesson.

Acting as an agent providing pupil referrals to self-employed instructors, Surepass put Mr Thorpe in touch with local instructor Gareth Arnold.

The cheque - made payable to Mr Arnold - was handed over, but after two lessons Arnold began to cancel lessons and refused to book any more until Brandon passed his theory test.

Brandon followed his advice and after passing his theory test, he tried to contact Mr Arnold to book more driving lessons, but to no avail.

"He just wouldn't get in touch with me," said Brandon. "I was texting him, phoning him - nothing."

Expired

After weeks of ringing, Mr Thorpe contacted Surepass and demanded another instructor or his money back.

Surepass told him that because he had paid the balance directly to Mr Arnold it was a personal arrangement. They were no longer responsible, they said, and therefore unable to refund the money.

When X-Ray contacted the Driving Standards Agency, the body that regulates driving instructors, about Gareth Arnold it transpired that Mr Arnold's registration as a trainee driving instructor had expired in August 2008.

This meant that when he had given Brandon tuition, Gareth Arnold had not been entitled to give instruction for payment.

Michael Thorpe talking to Rachel Treadaway-WilliamsWhen approached by X-Ray, Surepass admitted that giving Mr Arnold's details to the Thorpes had been "a serious error". The firm offered an unreserved apology and said it would be giving the Thorpes a full refund of almost £600.

"For Surepass to put Brandon, a 17-year-old lad, in that position, I was mortified," said Mr Thorpe. "And more so, knowing that I had put him in that position as well."

X-Ray understands that Mr Arnold was experiencing financial difficulties with Surepass, which has retrieved the driving school car it had leased to him.

Instructor training

And training to be a driving instructor can be just as problematic, as Bruce Boe, a former RAF training school manager from Anglesey discovered.

After retiring he was inspired by a TV advertisement to top up his pension by learning to become a driving instructor, so he signed up with RED Instructor Training.

Mr Boe arranged a meeting with a RED sales representative and was told he could be trained, locally, within 16 weeks, and once trained he could become a RED driving school franchisee.

This would mean paying the company £175 a week, for which they would supply a car, insurance and an unlimited number of pupils.

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Bruce Boe in a car with Rachel Treadaway-WilliamsTo help him complete his training RED, offered to arrange a loan to pay for it - at a cost of £3,700 over four years, with nothing to pay in the first year.

Suspicious

As it turned out, Mr Boe's training was split into sessions over a minimum of eight months, and he learned he would have to travel to the sessions, driving a round trip of 150 miles from his Anglesey home to Ellesmere Port in Cheshire.

Sixteen months after signing up, Mr Boe met with another RED representative. Now suspicious, he secretly recorded the meeting on a dictaphone.

To his shock he was told that working for RED would be on totally different terms to those he'd expected. As a trainee instructor, he would be paying £275 a week, not £175 as he'd believed, and RED would not be finding him unlimited pupils.

"The whole experience has left me feeling extremely disappointed," said Mr Boe.

Ìý"I was promised this, that and the other. Everything I was promised has not happened. And I don't think they should be allowed to do it."

When X-Ray contacted RED's parent company, Lansdowne Venture Group (LVG), it said it takes all complaints seriously but as Mr Boe had not made a formal complaint, it had not had a chance resolve his concerns.

The company denied its sales methods were misleading and said it did fulfil its training obligations. LVG said the majority of its clients rated their training as "good" or "exceptional" and added it would investigate the content of Mr Boe's recording.

Since X-Ray's investigation into Mr Boe's case, LVG has gone into administration.

Avoiding the pitfalls

X-Ray asked Neil Evans of the Driving Instructor Association in Wales for advice on how to find out whether a driving instructor is genuine or not.

"There are two badges to look out for," said Mr Evans. "There is a green badge to prove you are a driving instructor, and then you also have the pink badge which is a provisional driving instructor.

"Clear things to look for on the badge are the reference number and also the date."

If in doubt, Mr Evans also recommended contacting the Driving Standards Agency to check the validity of the badge number.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    I signed up with Red when they were still The Instructor College and can honestly say it was one of the worst mistakes of my life. I was led to believe that passing the tests would be easy and I could earn a good wage. The reality is that the tests are difficult and stressful and my earnings are non existant. I am now thousands of pounds in debt with no hope of paying it off for several years. Their sales methods ARE misleading and if their training is so good how come the qualification rate is so low?

  • Comment number 2.

    It is a shame many vulnerable people who could ill afford to be in debt have been taken in by the Red sales scheme. As the Red franchise manager who was caught on tape on the the above Xray episode stated in response to why Red hadn’t delivered any of the promises made to the Red trainee (really decent ex-RAF man):
    "They only tell you what you want you to hear they are like car salesman ..."
    He was also reported as saying in regards to why the Red sales team make false promises he said “We do tell them but they don't listen". This poor guy must have been absolutely fed up with the Companies sales approach to make such comments. Therefore any suggest this is an isolated case is clearly a nonsense.
    I hope the Company changes its culture and doesn't sack the Red franchise manager who was taped. Probably like many other employees in that company he just wants them to stop grossly miss-selling the product.

  • Comment number 3.

    HI I DID THE SAME. I SIGNED UP WITH THE FALSE PROMISES THEY MADE THE COURSE HAS COST ME APPROX £9500.00 SO FAR. I AGREE IF THE TRAINING IS SO GOOD WHY AM I HAVING TO PAY AN ADI TRAINER FOR MY TRAINING ? PLEASE CAN ANYBODY HELP US TO GET OUR MONEY BACK FROM THESE PEOPLE, IT`S GOT TO BE STOPPED. I AM REALLY DESPERATE FOR ANY HELP ANYBODY CAN GIVE. ISN`T THE INFORMATION GIVEN MISLEADING SO THEREFORE IF A PRODUCT ISN`T WHAT IT SEEMS ISN`T IT MIS-SELLING

  • Comment number 4.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 5.

    In the programme it stated Red driving school had gone into Administration. The Red operations made up 96% of the business of LVG limited and 90% of the company’s income was from selling courses to become a driving instructor with Red driving school (according to the company’s last published accounts). It appears just like other companies highly reliant on selling courses to become driving instructors once it experiences a drop in sales it would go bust. The company lost £2.2 million in its last 16 weeks of trading after sales plummeted by around £5 million in comparison with an equivalent period last year. However, the Red operation (i.e. the company’s assets without the liabilities) was sold by the Administrators to Kelso Place and placed in a new company called Driving Results limited.

    For those who would like to find out more from an insolvency point view what potentially happened with Red/LVG please look at the link below:



    A Facebook group has been set up by the students of Red driving school who like Bruce Boe in the programme feel they were misled called Anti Red driving School. These students who are trying to get their money back from the either the new Red company or Barclays Personal Finance (BPF). BPF under the Financial Services Act may be equally liable where courses have been mis-sold and misrepresentation can be proved.

    The future for the tens of thousands of students who have bought Red driving instructor training courses is still not clear according to members of the Anti Red driving school facebook group. Neither the receivers of Red/LVG (i.e. MCR) or indeed the new company have contacted the students to officially explain in writing what rights they now have, if any. Although unofficially the new Red company are still providing training to students of the old Red company but anyone claiming a refund are being directed to MCR the Administrators of LVG limited.

  • Comment number 6.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 7.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

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