A fly-by-night killing

The multi-million-pound fortunes made by the men behind illegal flyposters that blight London can be revealed today.

An investigation by the Evening Standard has identified the company that is believed to be the biggest player in the trade.

While local authorities have stepped up the fight against flyposting by threatening to prosecute companies whose merchandise is illegally advertised, this "guerrilla marketing" firm has proved untouchable.

The law allows councils to take action against people caught in the act of flyposting and film and record companies or promoters who benefit from the posters.

But while hundreds of councils nationwide suspect the involvement of one flyposting company, they have been unable to prove its role because the adverts are put up by freelance workers who do not co-operate when challenged about who their clients are.

A firm called Diabolical Liberties, which is based in a converted house in Camden Town, is seen as the biggest flyposting operation. The firm, whose parent company turned over £8 million last year, denies direct involvement in flyposting, but its glossy brochure showcases the way it has blitzed London to promote films such as Kill Bill Volume 1 and top music artists including Dido.

When our reporter contacted the company posing as the manager of a new band, he was told it would charge £1 each for 6,000 large posters for a campaign "to cover central London".

We asked if flyposting was illegal and the company's salesman said it was. "It's unauthorised advertising. It's not legal, that's for sure. The situation is that it's not a criminal offence so you can't be prosecuted for it.

"The worst that can happen is that individual councils can ask you to remove posters they want removed. But we deal with that at this end."

He told how each individual borough council had to send a notice giving 48 hours to remove posters. "If you tell us we will remove them. It's something we do all the time. We have a good system for dealing with it."

The man behind the company is 46-year-old Timothy Horrox, who lives in a picturesque Nottinghamshire village. He is the sole shareholder of Diabolical Liberties' parent company Build Hollywood, which saw its turnover jump by £1.3 million in a year to £7,901,384 last year. In the same period its gross profits were up £650,000 to £2,311,553.

The company has two directors, Timothy and Jeremy Horrox, who between them were paid £211,500 last year - Timothy took an additional dividend of £80,000 on his 50,000 shares in the company.

Evening Standard has been unable to speak directly to Timothy Horrox after several requests for an interview, and a spokeswoman for Diabolical Liberties would not answer questions about how it could justify offering a service that might result in unlawful flyposting. In a statement, the company said: "The usual method of booking marketing campaigns for clients and media agencies often involves a chain of three or four agencies communicating varying service requests to out-sourced independent suppliers in a sequence.

"Instructions and budgets are spread out and passed along the lines. Diabolical Liberties takes its part in this chain, passing work to specialist organisations, as clients require. Diabolical Liberties do not directly participate in placing posters on the streets."

However, Sue Nelson, assistant chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy, called on local authorities to investigate the company to see if legal action can be taken against it. She added: "We get a number of complaints from councils who believe Diabolical Liberties are behind flyposting on behalf of music companies. It is costing £250,000 a year to clean up flyposting just in Camden. That could pay for 10 teachers."