I am posting this to warn others and to record my own experience.

My wife contacted the locksmith service through locallocksmith24.org after being locked out of the house with our two very young children. The website advertised locksmith prices from £39, together with claims such as fixed prices, upfront pricing and no hidden fees.

On the telephone she was told approximately £50. After the work had been completed, and a lot of sales talk about it being a high security lock, further sums described as labour (24 mins work), and VAT were added and she was charged £454.80. The website contained fraudulent representations that they have 500+ 4.9star reviews on Google.

The receipt did not come from “Local Locksmith 24”. It came from Definitive Trading Ltd and simply described the whole £454.80 as a “Manual charge”. Despite VAT having been added verbally, the receipt contained no VAT registration number, VAT amount or any meaningful breakdown.

WhatsApp messages are now being ignored, contact numbers have changed on the website (from 020 7862 6133 to 0800 123 4567 (two days ago it was 012 4580 8501, and then 01245 373377).

This website - https://locksmithscams.co.uk/definitive-trading-ltd -shows Definitive Trading Ltd was previously linked to ontimelocksmith.co.uk, before this website was closed down for fraud. Definitive Trading Ltd is owned by Mr George Cristian Hosu, a Romanian National.

There is also a remarkable earlier connection in our own case. Approximately three years ago we had another locksmith attend the same property who scammed us. Having reviewed our doorbell footage, it was the same individual who attended this latest job. On the earlier occasion the invoice was issued under a different company name, DIYBEST LTD, and gave VAT number 436790664. DIYBest was then featured on BBC Watchdog / The One Show where they secretly recorded a scam Diybest Ltd Reviews | Read Customer Service Reviews of diybest-ltd.co.uk and here https://gowork.uk/diybest-london

Accordingly, my own evidence links the same apparent locksmith operative with two different fraudulent companies across two entities over three years.

The payment trail is also worth noting. Our £454.80 payment was made through a Zavolla payment link - zavolla.com . Zavolla's own published terms state that its merchant payments are processed by Stripe and that merchants establish a direct payment-processing relationship with Stripe through Stripe Connect.

Zavolla was incorporated on 19 July 2025 and is owned by Nexttech Software Ltd, incorporated on 12 August 2015 which is owned by Mr Emilian Unguru - a Romanian national.

The circumstances have also been reported to HMRC because of the representation that VAT was being charged and the absence of VAT information on the resulting receipt.

Please contact me if you have used locallocksmith24.org, Ontime Locksmith, or Definitive Trading Ltd, and or paid through Zavolla for either of these services or any locksmith services. Please contact me privately.