A COMPANY has been cleared of delivering unsolicited goods to a York fish restaurant and then demanding payment for them, following a three-day trial.

York trading standards officers brought the case against Merchant Retail Supplies (MRS), a UK-registered company with a York post box address, following a complaint from the Wetherby Whaler at Poppleton.

MRS had delivered credit card machine till rolls following two phone calls to restaurant trainee manager Rebecca Hardaker, who later claimed she had never been asked whether she wanted to order them.

However, the MRS sales telephonist said she never deviated from a script, which included questions about the product, order, and whether the person was an authorised purchaser.

District Judge Anderson found MRS not guilty at Pickering Magistrates' Court. He said he could not be satisfied from the conflicting evidence that the restaurant had not ordered the goods, which were the correct brand for the restaurant's machine.

Referring to the first sales call in December 2003, Ms Hardaker said: "The caller said we had received a new credit card machine, and there would be some new till rolls sent."

She assumed it related to the delivery of a new machine.

"She didn't say anything about invoicing or whether we wanted to order the till rolls."

A further call from MRS confirmed delivery details, with the caller asking: "Can I put your name as the authorised purchaser?" to which Ms Hardaker agreed.

Explaining her response, she told the court: "All I can think is that I didn't hear properly."

Company director Janine Murphy contacted MRS to say Ms Hardaker was not authorised to order goods and asked for them to be collected.

MRS solicitor Gary Cousins asked why she did not return them within the required 15 days of receipt for a full refund.

She said: "We had to pay £20, which is a lot if you did not ask for something. I felt within my rights to ask them to collect them."

However, when asked if she believed Ms Hardaker had placed an order, she replied: "She must have said 'yes' for the till rolls to arrive."

Neil Cameron, for trading standards, said MRS neither checked that the sale was made to an authorised purchaser, nor that Ms Hardaker accepted responsibility for payment.

Mr Cousins said staff followed a script to check whether customers wanted the goods and confirm order details.

He acknowledged Ms Hardaker may not have been an authorised purchaser, but said both calls satisfied the company that "a proper order had been placed and they had reasonable cause to believe there was a right to payment".

Updated: 09:56 Thursday, December 01, 2005