Prior charges
AN UNHAPPY Christmas past, and the prospect of a New Year out of pocket, are the experience of those fledgling sharehol- ders in British Gas who dealt with Prior Harwin. These dealers in securities were licenced by the Department of Trade and Industry, which swooped on them in Christmas week and asked for a court order to wind them up. I do not prejudge the case. It happens to come within weeks of the British Gas issue, when Prior Har- win and other licensed dealers were busily advertising their offers to deal in the new shares, free of commission. Some were there to add to their mailing list. New customers who had just discovered the joys of shareholding and were convinced by the Gas issue that it was an easy way to make money could now be sold a more exciting stock, which the dealer happened to have on his books. As a way to inaugurate the share-owning democracy, it looks less than clever. A Government which relies on the new democrats as its natural allies has obviously lost the ones who have been switched into Gold Bricks PLC or are simply waiting for their cheques. That, though, is what comes of privatisation by mail order. It has sought to create a mass market for shares, without any thought of creating a retail network through which the market can operate. Into the vacuum so established, come Prior Harwin and the others. Licensing and unlicensing them is no way to encourage the new investor, or give him the service and the rights he would expect when he bought a pair of socks. •
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