BES Utilities

Between 2013 and 2016 I wrote dozens of posts on this blog about BES Utilities, the Fleetwood-based business energy supplier owned by Andrew (Andy) Pilley, then chairman of Fleetwood Town FC. Hundreds of you left comments: business owners who had been called by the “meter registration department”, signed up to BES by brokers, and then chased for bills and “emergency rates”.

Those posts came down years ago, and the old links now land here. If you followed one of them, this is what happened next.

Where it ended up

  • November 2015: Ofgem announced a £980,000 settlement after BES admitted breaching its licence conditions, including complaints handling and wrongly blocking customers from switching.
  • July 2016: Police and Trading Standards executed search warrants at BES and Commercial Power premises in Fleetwood and Blackpool.
  • August 2022: BES’s damages claim against Cheshire West and Chester Council, the authority that hosted the Trading Standards investigation, was dismissed in full in the High Court (BES Commercial Electricity Ltd v Cheshire West and Chester BC [2022] EWHC 2162 (QB)).
  • 19 May 2023: after a trial at Preston Crown Court, Andrew Pilley was convicted of fraudulent trading, money laundering and fraud.
  • 4 July 2023: Pilley was sentenced to 13 years in prison and disqualified as a company director for 13 years. Three others were also jailed.
  • February 2026: the Court of Appeal refused Pilley permission to appeal (R v Pilley [2026] EWCA Crim 384).
  • August 2024: the BES supply companies changed their names to Ruby Electricity Ltd and Ruby Gas Ltd, trading as Ruby Energy.

The full story

I’m putting the whole thing together in one place: the original posts, your comments, the High Court case BES brought against me, and the criminal case that followed. It will be linked from this page when it’s ready.

Were you a BES customer, broker or employee with a story to tell? Get in touch.

Sources: Ofgem; National Trading Standards; Crown Prosecution Service; judgments published by the National Archives (Find Case Law) and BAILII.