This Is Cheshire.co.uk:
Several angry businesspeople regret paying £20,000 each to buy franchises from a Warrington firm.
They believed they were investing in great business opportunity - selling perfumes and aftershaves from vending machines in pubs and clubs.
But instead they have found themselves out of pocket - and their complaints have sparked an investigation by the Department of Trade and Industry.
The bought franchises for First For Fragrance, which was owned by businessman Malcolm Hague from Stockport Road in Thelwall before it was sold in August.
His next-door neighbour, 31-year-old Michael Anderson, acted as the sales manager in some deals.
It had head offices in Cadishead and St James Court off Wilderspool Causeway and is now based on an industrial estate in Leigh under new ownership.
The business plan for the firm, claims it has been franchising since 2002 and has had huge growth in sales - although the company was only set up in 2005. It revealed minimum expected operating profit was £39,780 a year. The Guardian has spoken to around 10 FFF franchisees and only one said he was making a worthwhile profit - most have barely covered their costs or still do not have the machines.
One of the numbers given out as an existing franchisee for prospective franchisees to contact turned out to be Brynn Morgan - a former employee of Michael Anderson at Tan Kwik, a company which was wound up in the public interest.
Rob Williams (photo), a former firefighter from Worcestershire, bought his franchise in December 2005.
He said: ‘Malcolm Hague told us that they were a family business and we would have no worries with them. Mike Anderson introduced himself as the sales manager and told us that they had been into miniature fragrance vending for a long time. It started as a hobby at first and had taken off in a big way. Read it all.
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