The FCA has this week stripped permission to carry out regulated business from a West Yorkshire-based claims management company called Fair Return Legal Services Limited (FRN 838208).

The decision to revoke the Wetherby-based firm’s Part 4A permissions means it can no longer carry out regulated business.

The FCA said it had made the decision yesterday (28 July) because evidence suggested that the firm was failing to satisfy Threshold Conditions.

The regulator said it was not satisfied that the firm has appropriate non-financial resources. Specifically, it said the firm did not have any individual approved to perform the senior management function required.

The firm was authorised by the FCA in February 2021 to conduct claims management activities. It was trading under the name Fair Return, according to the FCA Register.

But the only approved person to perform the management function at the firm ceased performing the role.

The regulator made contact with the firm via email from August 2024 to February 2025 about the issue, during which correspondence the firm failed to submit a form for a new senior manager. The correspondence ended in March when the FCA received a failed email delivery message in relation to its chaser emails.

The FCA said it concluded that" “The Firm is therefore not a fit and proper person having regard to all the circumstances because it has failed to satisfy the Authority that its business is being, or will be, managed in such a way as to ensure that its affairs will be conducted in a sound and prudent manner.”

The FCA Register shows that the firm had three directors, Stephanie Jane Leather, Philip Simon Miller, and Andrew Taylor-Pick. Ms Leather was the only director listed as having SMF29 Limited scope function.

According to Companies House records, Fair Return Legal Services Limited was incorporated in September 2018. At that time its only director was Philip Simon Miller, listed as financial consultant, who owns 75% or more of the shares in the business. He remains listed as a director of the firm.

Stephanie Jane Leather was appointed a financial consultant with the firm in January 2019 but resigned in September 2022. Andrew Taylor-Pick was appointed a director in January 2021 but resigned in June 2024.

The firm did not refer the matter to the FCA’s Tribunal within 28 days of the date on which the Decision Notice was issued to it, so its Part 4A permission was cancelled on 28 July.