AN engineer’s bid to poach customers from a rival company could have led to voluntary organisations and a small business paying twice for fire safety checks, York magistrates heard.

Stuart Barrie Wilkes, 75, sold his fire extinguisher business Eastern Counties Fire Protection in 2010 and began a new firm, East Yorkshire Fire Services, in 2011.

His son Mark continued to work for his old business, said Claire McKinlay, prosecuting for North Yorkshire trading standards.

On three occasions in 2013, Stuart Wilkes or his son visited premises that had fire extinguisher safety check contracts with his old business but didn’t tell the staff they encountered they were there to do fire extinguisher services for the new business.

Senior personnel at Thorganby Village Hall and the Selby District Association of Voluntary Services contacted the new business the day after the visits to object and say they would not pay for the work done by the Wilkeses.

The owner of Jay Jay’s cafe in Goole ordered Stuart Wilkes out of her premises before he could do any work.

Ms McKinlay said if the organisations hadn’t done so “they would have paid twice for the service, been out of pocket and possibly tied into a service contract they didn’t want or need.”

Wilkes, of Wistow Road, Selby, pleaded guilty to three charges of engaging in misleading representation to organisations and was fined £450 plus £646 prosecution costs and a £20 statutory surcharge.

District judge Adrian Lower told him: “The business regulations are there for a reason – to enable fair competition, to prevent customers being poached and cheap business practice.”

Mark Wilkes, 40, of White Street, Selby, has been cautioned for a similar offence for his part in the fraud. He visited the village hall and marked its extinguishers as having been serviced by his father’s new business, the court heard.

For the father, Keith Haggerty said he had observed a clause that forbid him from operating in the same area as his old business for three years after its sale.

He was now retired from business and the relationship between him and his son had broken down.