A BUSINESSMAN ran a multimillion-pound firm cheating customers by selling supposed high-quality kitchens that were actually made of chipboard and MDF, a court was told.

Vance Miller, 44, of Ramsbottom, revelled in his ‘unconventional approach to business’ as an entrepreneur, but his approach was criminal, Patrick Field QC told a jury at Manchester Crown Court.

Mr Field said Miller's businesses were not ‘small beer’, but had a multimillion-pound turnover, boasting outlets in Poland and China.

The prosecutor said: "This was a big business that boasted about being one of the biggest sellers of kitchens and kitchen components in the country.

“Although the sums involved in each individual sale may not look particularly high, please remember, these are significant sums of money for customers individually, and when added together this was a business with a turnover of many millions of pounds."

Miller ran a number of companies under different names, advertising in nat-ional newspapers and magazines offering high-quality ‘solid’ or ‘real’ wood kitchens and kitchen comp-onents at bargain prices, the jury were told.

Salesmen were sent to the homes of interested custo-mers, who were asked to pay either in cash or by bankers draft.

But when the goods were delivered they discovered the kitchens were not high quality goods but poor-quality kitchens made of MDF, chip-board or laminated block board parts.

Customers complained to the firm and some who did not get a ‘satisfactory response’ went to Trading Standards officers. The prosecution is being brought by Oldham Borough Council's Trading Standards department -– the town where Miller's business was based.

Mr Field told the jury: “This was a fraud in its simplest form.

"The defendants allowed or were involved in telling potential customers they would get high-quality goods, knowing that this was false.

"The customers agreed to purchase the goods, but having paid they discovered they had been duped."

Miller denies conspiracy to defraud customers by dishonestly representing by adverts kitchens that were solid or real wood when they were not.

He also denies conspiracy to commit fraud between January 2007 and January 2009 by making false represe-ntation of the nature and quality of the supplied goods. Three other men are also on trial.

(Proceeding)