A carpet cleaning firm allegedly charged customers up to 22 times more than they expected after luring them with a special offer of just £19.

Businessman Adam Vallier’s two companies offered to clean two carpets for £19 but when their staff arrived to do the work the cost soared as customers were allegedly charged for unexpected extras.

Clients from Newton Abbot, Exmouth and Torbay contacted trading standards officers after being faced with demands for much more than the £19 they thought they were going to pay, Exeter Crown Court was told.

An analysis of payments made to Vallier’s Dorset-based firms showed only a small proportion of his customers paid £20 or less and one forked out £449.

The two companies were paid £480,000 by customers using bank and credit cards between April 2014 and April 2016 and Vallier allegedly transferred £54,000 to his own account.

Vallier, aged 34, of Hennington Road, Pokesdown, Bournemouth, denies four counts of fraud, one of misleading customers, and two of converting criminal property.

His two companies, A Star and Premier Carpet Cleaning, face a total of four counts of fraud and one of misleading customers.

Mr David Sapiecha, prosecuting, said Vallier set up A Star Carpet Cleaning in 2014 and Premier in 2015 and both used similar special offers to attract customers who were cold called.

He said: ‘The two companies lied to customers about the availability of a promotion. It was a device to get into people’s homes so they could be sold a more expensive product.

‘The cold call told customers there was special offer to clean carpets in two rooms for £19 or £20. A number of customers believed it was a good deal and took them up on it.

‘No questions were asked in the call about the size of the rooms or to the carpets or the state of them. It had the appearance of an all-in price.’

Mr Sapiecha said customers were sent an appointment card which mentioned extra charges but on some occasions they were not told of the true cost until the work had been done.

They were then charged far more than they expected for ‘deep cleaning’, having larger carpets, or the use of supposedly expensive cleaning fluids and treatments.

One customer in Teignmouth was charged £449, an 86-year-old woman from Newton Abbot was charged £150 and others from Exmouth and Paignton £240 and £300.

Customers were not given the chance to cancel with a seven-day statutory cooling off period and the A Star’s website made false claims about the technical qualifications of their staff.

Trading standards officers traced card payments to both companies which showed total income of £487,000 from 1,650 customers of whom only 68 paid £20 or less.

Vallier told trading standard officer he and the companies explained the scale of charges to clients before work was done and had not overcharged anyone.

The trial continues.