An insurance broker has made the national news after confronting a salesman who he claims took advantage of his elderly dementia-suffering mother and came away with a £6,000 sale.
Dominic McMahon, 50, posted a video to Facebook which was then published on
The Sun Online, which shows him confronting a Zenith Windows salesman who had convinced his 81-year-old mother to purchase two new doors which he says she did not need.
Salesman Mark Gibson was sent to the home of Dr Heather Collins by Zenith Windows where he spent three hours, following a cold call in which Collins told the company that her front door handle had come loose.
The broker confronted Gibson by calling him back to the home under the guise that his mother wanted to make a further purchase.
He then told Gibson, “She suffers from dementia – you came here, you pressured her, you deceived her,” adding: “Your behaviour was beyond what is expected of a human being.”
Gibson said he could not tell that Collins has dementia, and admitted when asked that he gets a 7-10% commission on sales.
McMahon is adamant that his mother did not need the doors, for which she handed over a cheque for £6,000 upfront to Gibson, and has said that he believes her vulnerable state was used against her – adding that she initially thought she had bought two new door handles.
He told
The Sun: “It’s not sales – it’s preying on older people and it’s not acceptable in our society... Mum struggles with time and quantity – she has no idea what the implications of signing a cheque for £6,000 are.”
Collins, who has three carers call in on her on a daily basis, said the situation was “upsetting” adding: “All I said to the man was that if I shut the doors, they didn’t stay shut.”
The broker is now calling for tighter controls on companies and charities that he claims take advantage of the elderly.
A spokeswoman for Zenith Windows told
The Sun that the company was aware of the complaint, but said no comment could be offered until an investigation had taken place.
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