A payroll recruitment specialist has been given a reprimand by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for printing misleading claims in a trade magazine.

Portfolio Payroll, based in London, has been told not to re-run two adverts that appeared in issues of Pay Magazine in July and September last year.

The adverts, which suggested that Portfolio Payroll was the 'UK's largest payroll agency' and that it 'fills more payroll jobs than anyone else', led to complaints from three direct competitors — Harley Recruitment Consultancy, Burnham Resources and Chase Moulande.

Director of Burnham Resources, Nick Reeves, told Recruiter in a statement: "As professional recruiters within the payroll sector it is important that we all maintain the highest possible standards. After a period of Portfolio Payroll making an ever-increasing number of unsubstantiated claims, I felt it necessary to act by bring their actions to the attention of the Advertising Standards Authority. The ASA have acted swiftly and I am entirely satisfied with the outcome of their judgment."

For its part, Harley Recruitment Consultancy told Recruiter: "Payroll professionals at all levels depend on us in the recruitment sector to provide them with advice and information of the highest integrity and accuracy.

"With this in mind, we at Harley grew increasingly concerned with the mounting number of unsubstantiated claims made by Portfolio Payroll in their advertising in the trade press. We are therefore delighted that the ASA has agreed with us in their final adjudication that these advertisements were contrary to the spirit of the ASA code."

Nick Day, divisional manager for Chase Moulande, said: "We were just really encouraged that the ASA upheld the complaint and were very pleased with the speed at which they handled the process.

"This [misleading advertising] had been going on for some time and we had to make a stand."

In defence of his company, Portfolio Payroll's managing director Danny Done told Recruiter: "Naturally we are disappointed by the ASA ruling and are more than willing to adhere to the advice that we have been given. However, we firmly believe that our growth in terms of turnover and fees over the last three years speaks for itself.

"We are one of the fastest growing recruitment consultancies in the whole of the UK, as demonstrated by our recent listing in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100, which ranks the fastest growing private companies in the UK. It's interesting that none of the competitors that complained about our advertising were included in this list."

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