Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about a Trading Standards investigation. This is because the Council’s actions did not cause Mr X significant injustice.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council failed to properly investigate his complaint about a local trader. He believes the Council’s Trading Standards team did not consider the trader’s actions over a sufficient period and did not follow the Fraud Investigation Model in reaching its decision not to prosecute the trader.
2. Mr X says he lost several thousand pounds as a result of the trader’s actions.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start or continue an investigation if we decide:

• there is not enough evidence of fault to justify investigating, or
• any fault has not caused injustice to the person who complained, or
• any injustice is not significant enough to justify our involvement, or
• we cannot achieve the outcome someone wants.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended, section 34(B))

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How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

5. The Council’s decision not to prosecute the trader did not itself cause Mr X significant injustice. Mr X’s injustice lies in the money he says he lost to the trader and this is an entirely separate matter.
6. It is not the Council’s role to recover Mr X’s money for him; he may only do this by making a private civil claim against the trader at court. The Council has advised Mr X his prospects of recovering his money this way are greater than its prospects of a criminal conviction due to the lower standards of proof concerned.
7. I appreciate Mr X is unhappy the Council has not prosecuted the trader but this is not an injustice to him. There is also no guarantee that even if the Council did prosecute, this would lead to a conviction. This is because it is the courts, rather than the Council, that would decide if the trader is guilty.

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Final decision

8. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the Council’s actions did not cause Mr X significant injustice.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman