The new scam on the block targeting Manchester’s small businesses

‘They started to be aggressive, shouting at me down the phone’

Dear readers — Carmelo and Chiara Signorelli arrived in Manchester in 2019 in search of a new beginning. They opened Bar Etna, a small Italian restaurant in Altrincham, last year and things had been going well, but they were keeping an eye on their outgoings. Soon after they opened, a business rate agent turned up at the door with an unusual offer. He claimed he could cancel their business rates bill altogether, and all they had to do was pay an upfront fee. It seemed almost impossible, too good to be true. That’s because it is.

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👩‍⚖️ Two boys aged 14 and 15 years old have been convicted of the murder of Nathaniel Shani. The boys have both been sentenced to a minimum of 10 years in prison. Shani, who was also 14, was an air cadet. He was killed in Tavistock Square in Harpurhey, with the 15-year-old being encouraged by the 14-year-old to do it. The former admitted to stabbing Shani in the neck. 

🎨 Finally, a portrait of Dame Nancy Rothwell has been unveiled at Whitworth Art Gallery. The chancellor of the University of Manchester was its first when she took the role in 2010, and will be standing down next month, with political philosophy professor Duncan Iverson taking over the post.

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The new scam on the block targeting Manchester’s small businesses

By Mollie Simpson 

In June last year, Carmelo and Chiara Signorelli, the owners of Bar Etna, a small Sicilian restaurant in Altrincham, had an unexpected visitor. A smartly-dressed man in his 50s arrived unannounced bearing good news. He could cut them a much better deal on their business rates. 

The couple had moved to Manchester from Sicily in 2019, with a dream of setting up a restaurant together. They managed to open last summer, and were doing well. When we met across an empty table in the restaurant in May, Chiara balanced their toddler Nicholas on her hip, stroking his dark curls, while their daughter Rebecca sat across the room, quietly reading a book. After our conversation was interrupted by calls from suppliers and people wanting to reserve tables, Carmelo made me a strong black coffee and we talked about the stresses of running a small business.

Carmelo and Chiara. Photo by The Mill’s Mollie Simpson.

When they opened, like any small business in the hospitality sector, the line between profit and loss was wafer-thin, so they kept a keen eye on their outgoings. That included business rates.

Business rates are a type of council tax for business premises, calculated by the Valuation Office Agency and paid to the local council. Carmelo and Chiara thought they had already received the maximum possible discount under the government’s rate relief policy to help small businesses: a whole 75% off. But the agent promised he could go further. All they had to do was sign a contract with his company, Rateable Value Experts, and pay £700, plus VAT.

“I remember him saying, your business rates will be reduced, probably even cancelled,” Chiara recalls, her voice angry. Then, the agent gave the ultimate reassurance: if he couldn’t secure them a discount, they’d get all their money back.