Bob Imrie's background
I grew up in Cheltenham, and after a spell at university in London (running the university folk club and editing the student newspaper), joined Gloucestershire County Council in 1971 as a Trainee Trading Standards Officer.
I qualified in 1974, and started as a Trading Standards Officer with North Yorkshire County Council, working from the then Harrogate office. At my own expense, I attended an introductory evening class on the (to me exciting!) new Consumer Credit Act 1974, run by a lecturer from the University of Hull.
In 1980, I gained promotion to the post of Divisional Trading Standards
Officer at Cleveland County Council to run a small unit dealing with Consumer
Credit and Fair Trading matters.
I moved to Devon County Council in 1986 to be Assistant County Trading Standards Officer, a member of its HQ unit dealing with all aspects of Trading Standards work, but still specialising in Consumer Credit and Fair Trading matters.
From the early days of my work in Cleveland, I became a trainer, initially having to develop notes for consumer advisers working in the County, and then being asked to undertake work on the NALGO (later Unison) correspondence course, and also to help out with the Weston-Super-Mare courses run by the then South Western Provincial Council (now the South West Regional Assembly). In 1989 I was asked to become an examiner for the Trading Standards Institute's Diploma in Consumer Affairs (now Diploma in Consumer and Trading Standards), a post which I held from 1990 to 2008.
While I worked in Devon, I was lead officer on Credit for the Trading Standards Institute, and was also a member of the credit panel run by LACOTS (now renamed LACORS, the Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services).
Throughout my time in Devon I was a member of the Exeter Citizens Advice Bureau's management committee, and for two years was its chair. I also chaired the Exeter Welfare Rights Project and Exeter Money Advice Project management committees.
Following local government re-organisation in 1998, I left Trading Standards, and went into the finance industry, working as National Compliance Officer for the Finance Industry Standards Association, based in Lincolnshire. My functions included the development of training for credit brokers and lenders in the second mortgage market, investigation of fraud and other breaches of legislation and industry Codes of Practice.
Current work
In early 2002, I became a self employed consultant and trainer on Consumer Credit matters. I continue to organise and run courses for the Trading Standards profession, acted as their examiner until 2008, and write correspondence course notes for the National Extension College in Cambridge (who took over this function from Unison). I am also working on revised qualifications for the profession, as well as assessing competencies within individual Departments.
I also become an external consultant to LACORS, and have also joined the management board of the Optical Consumer Complaints Service.
In 2007 I was made an Honorary Member of the Institute of Consumer Affairs, and after five years as its treasurer, took a back seat, acting as its webmaster. In 2008 I reverted to the treasurer post for a short time, to assist ICA out of a hole.
Apart from my professional career above, in 1986 I obtained a first class Honours degree at The Open University, as well as a postgraduate Diploma in Management Studies. I am currently studying, again with the Open University, for a Masters Degree in Ecological Studies, which I am now half way through
Other interests
I live in the village of Collingham in East Nottinghamshire, in an ecologically sustainable house, and enjoy travelling around on my Brompton folding bicycle. I am a member of the Tall Persons Club, Transport 2000, the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway, CND and the Vegetarian Society.
In the village, I am Vice Chair of the Collingham Scout & Guide HQ Management Association, a charity campaigning to build a new scout & guide building for the village, and Assistant Editor of "The Fleet", Collingham's parish and village magazine. I am also chair of Friends of Collingham Station, a group campaigning to improve our rail service, as well as webmaster and treasurer of 2020 Green Vision, a climate change group covering the area.
This page last updated 19 October 2008