A RUARDEAN man says he has been 'trapped' into a year's contract with Cellnet phones after following their advice and assurances that he would face no charges.

Now, he says, the company is being completely inflexible and stony-faced about his commitment and has told him if he cancels payments they will send debt collectors after him.

It all started when Robert Knight of Ruardean and his wife, who had recently had a triple heart bypass, decided with the rest of the family they ought to have a big holiday reunion in Portugal – 18 of them in all!

Mr Knight reckoned that as he had to meet up with some relatives at Birmingham airport, then contact other family members on arrival in Portugal, he would need his mobile phone.

But when he called the company he was told the model he had would not work in Portugal and they reckoned a Cellnet replacement would – and it would cost him nothing, the Cellnet salesman assured him.

"When the phone came it didn't have a Sim card to make it operate which meant a call to Cellnet to get one sent," Mr Knight said. "But in a way that's beside the point, other than that I have spent about £10 on calls to them, because even when it was sorted out the phone didn't work at the airport and didn't work in Portugal."

When he called the company to complain about this after the holiday, which was wonderful in spite of the phone, he was offered a replacement – but was amazed to find that because he had held the phone for a fortnight this amounted to making an agreement to keep it for a year.

"Now it is going to cost me another £7.50 a month whether I use it or not," he said.

Last week the Review highlighted the plight of a Lydney man who had found he was unable to return a Cellnet phone, again with the threat of debt collectors if he did not pay mounting bills.

Gloucestershire Trading Standards Officer Chris Hitchins said both cases were similar to a growing number of complaints about mobile phone dealing which badly needed a form of regulation.

He said complaints could be addressed to the Trading Standards Department in Gloucester and staff would try to help.