‘I have never been that scared in my life’: Café owner forced to pay £2K claims agency ‘scammed’ him

A café owner who had to pay nearly £2,000 on the spot when bailiffs came to his café claims he has been “scammed” by an agency who promised to bring down his business rates.

Mustafa Murat, 56, owns Coco’s Café and Espresso Bar, in Court Yard, Eltham.

In February he was called by Clements Agency, an independent company that works with business rates appeals and property valuations.

Mr Murat, who moved to the UK from Cyprus 30 years ago, said: “When they first called I told them I’m not interested but they kept ringing and ringing.

“At the time I was paying £400 in business rates and they told me I shouldn’t be paying so much and that they could contact the council for me and cut my rates to zero.”

Mr Murat claims he has never signed any documents but the agency told him that by paying an initial £5.99 sum he had entered an agreement with them, which the company claims he then breached by ignoring its emails.

Mr Murat was sent an email outlining the agreement by Clements Agency before making the payment but claims he did not read it.

The agreement was deemed legal and the breach of terms allowed Clements Agency to file a court judgement against Mr Murat over a failure to pay “contract fees”, amounting to £996.

Mr Murat said: “They said they only wanted £5.99 from my debit card.

“I thought, that’s not much money they can have it. That was my biggest mistake, ever paying them that money.”

“I started getting emails from them telling me to sign these forms. I’m not young, I don’t know how to use emails so I didn’t sign anything.”

Then a few months later, Mr Murat saw his business rates had dropped from £400 to £187, he called the council who confirmed that this was a council scheme to help all small businesses.

He said: “So the company has done nothing, it was the council.
“But they are still calling and calling to say they dropped my rates and now I owe them £1,000.”

“My friends told me it was definitely a scam, so I left it.”

On July 20, two bailiffs from the court arrived to inform Mr Murat he now owed a total sum of £1,967.90, as he had incurred court fees.

“I was working in my café serving customers and two men in uniform turned up.

“They turned the close sign around. I was very scared.

“They said I needed to pay nearly £2,000 within 20 minutes or they would take my cappuccino machine and grill and the bill would go up to £3,700.

“I had to pay then, I had no choice. I have never been scared like that in my life. I don’t know if they were entitled, I don’t understand.

“Luckily I had been saving up to pay bills so I had the money but it nearly pushed me over the edge into bankruptcy.

“These people don’t care, we rang them and they said there’s nothing they can do.”

Mr Murat is not the first person to fall foul of the company – of 57 one-star reviews of Clements Agency on Trust Pilot, 47 include the word “scam” or “fraud” and many complaints match Mr Murat’s experience with the agency.

Mr Murat said he called the Met while the bailiffs were in the cafe but they confirmed that it was not a criminal matter, but a civil one.

He also said he called the council and emailed Eltham MP Clive Efford more than two weeks ago and has still received no response.

Clements Agency declined to comment.

Greenwich council and MP Clive Efford had not responded with a comment at the time of going to press.

Pictured top. Mr Murat outside his café in Eltham (Picture: Mustafa Murat)