A COMPANY director has been jailed after his sales staff were found to have tricked old people into buying security equipment.

Martin West, director of Catch Monitored Security Ltd, was jailed for six months at Leeds Crown Court yesterday.

The firm, registered at Mandale Road, Thornaby, Cleveland, pressured pensioners across the country into buying equipment including alarms and smoke detectors.

Trading standards officers said sales staff would use high-pressure selling techniques lasting several hours to get a sale.

They would also claim to be working with the police or local councils and some pensioners were told the equipment would be fitted for free.

The company pleaded guilty to 18 offences under the Trade Descriptions Act 1968 and the Consumer Protection Act 1987. West pleaded guilty to eight of these offences.

Prosecutors from North Yorkshire County Council trading standards put together a case after one man recorded one of the firm's staff claiming a security system was subsidised by the Government.

Councillor Carl Les, the county council's executive member for trading standards, said: "The whole company ethos was based on lies and we are delighted that justice has been served.

"All too often these rogues lie their way into the homes of those that need the most protection and this case will send a clear message to traders that we will not tolerate doorstep criminals."

Graham Venn, head of the county council's trading standards service, added: "This has been a long and protracted investigation.

"It has taken many hundreds of officer hours to put a case together. I cannot praise my officers enough."