MR RAMAKANT LAL

Disqualified from

2020-03-02

Between incorporation on 15 July 2013 and liquidation on 29 August 2018, Ramakant Lal (Mr Lal) caused and/or allowed Vivid Lifestyle Ltd (Vivid) to trade with a lack of commercial probity and/or with a lack of suitable governance as it engaged in objectionable and improper sales techniques in relation to the sale of healthcare supplements. In particular, Mr D’Silva: 1. Failed to supervise the direct selling of Vivid’s products by an overseas call centre which used high-pressure sales techniques to vulnerable members of society in order to induce them to purchase health supplements. Calls made by the call centre were misleading and lacked transparency as the call centre staff wrongfully claimed to be: a. medically trained or with appropriate medical qualifications; b. existing health care providers; c. a government organisation; d. working with the National Health Service 2. Allowed the call centre staff engaged by Vivid, who were not medically trained, to act in a reckless manner when selling health supplements to vulnerable members of society as: a. there was no assessment as to whether the supplements were harmful if used in conjunction with existing medication; and b. the mental state of potential customers was not taken into account when making high pressure, persistent and repeated calls; 3. Failed to ensure customer credit card and bank details were used for their intended purpose, in that 17 complaints have been made of customers having payments taken for goods they either did not order, did not receive or were pursued for additional payments 4. The company providing services via the overseas call centre has benefitted from at least £1,941,250 in payments made to them by Vivid.