A JUDGE condemned “sharp and shoddy” practices of a Huddersfield businessman.

But Jack Darrell Henry escaped jail and was given a suspended sentence after making exaggerated claims about obtaining council tax rebates.

The activities of Henry’s Huddersfield-based firm Council Tax Review prompted complaints from across the region and yesterday he was sentenced by a crown court judge in the first prosecution of its kind in the country.

Bradford Crown Court heard how Henry’s firm was guilty of breaching the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 by sending out misleading flyers, failing to make applications on behalf of clients and not making refunds to people who cancelled their contracts within the seven-day “cooling off” period.

But the 45-year-old’s barrister David Friesner insisted the business was not a scam and he told the court it was still trading under the name Re:Band and had 7,000 active clients with 33 employees.