A SUBSIDIARY of Irish company DCC has been fined £51,000 (€58,000) by a court in Wales for breaching consumer regulations.
GB Oils pleaded guilty last week to 17 offences relating to overcharging, arguing that it was due to a breakdown in the company’s system during a period of unprecedented demand in the winter of 2009-2010.
The company was fined £3,000 for each offence.
The charges are separate to the ongoing inquiry by the Office of Fair Trading in the UK into the heating oil supply industry. It is expected to report in October.
In January, British energy minister Charles Hendry ordered the inquiry amid concerns about steep price rises across the industry despite a 10 per cent rise in the wholesale price and a drop in the price of oil.
DCC controls a large percentage of the British heating and oil distribution market through a number of subsidiary companies.
More than 70 per cent of DCC’s revenues are generated in the UK, and the company has said that it has considered moving its main listing to the UK.
The company posted a 15 per cent jump in pretax profits to €189.6 million in its 2010 financial year.
Last month the company revised downwards its earnings forecast for the year, as milder weather affected its energy division in the first quarter of 2011.
In a statement responding to last week’s ruling, GB Oils said the company would “like to apologise to customers for errors made in two of our west Wales depots . . . The prosecution accepted that the breaches did not involve any element of dishonesty or fraud. However, we fully acknowledge responsibility for our mistakes and have taken steps to ensure than such circumstances do not recur.”
