Saw this and just had to post it, below in a except from a local story about a man who lives in the same town as me. Just read the story for the full effect and you’ll see what I mean.

The News Story
What started out as an innocent marketing ploy could turn out to be the worst nightmare for Andrew Fields – Managing Director of online debt collection firm, Avonmere Collections.

Whilst trying to work out a rather ingenious method of gaining new customers for the successful firm, Andrew has been informed that an ancient bylaw could mean he could still be put to death, with the Queen’s permission.

Andrew explains, ‘I had recently heard of a way that estate agent’s used to get farmers to cattle auctions. They would send the farmer a really expensive Wellington boot and explain within the letter that the other one could be collected on the day of the auction. As we were having a rather quiet month I thought I would apply this simple rule with something rather more pertinent in our industry – money.’

Andrew continues, ‘My idea was to cut £5 notes in half and, together with a letter, send half of the note to local businesses explaining that if they registered on our website - Avonmere, I would immediately send them the other half of the note – i.e. collecting money for them even before they register any debts – what a debt collection firm!’

‘Naturally, it worked tremendously well until an anonymous caller to the newspaper pointed out that this action alone constitutes treason which, apparently, is still a crime punishable by death’.

Mr Fields recently stated, ‘what started out as a laugh has been taken really seriously by the police and I am truly sorry for breaking the Law. I just thought that as most forms of advertising fail miserably, this would be a way of grabbing people’s attention, particularly when they receive a letter with real money in it’.

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