Evans

Audience members applauded the financial journalist during last night’s The Martin Lewis Money Show Live when he challenged fashion brand Evans and restaurant chain Carluccio’s

Martin Lewis fired a direct warning to two well-known high street brands last night — insisting he has reported them to Trading Standards.

The money guru said fashion brand Evans and restaurant chain Carluccio’s have failed to change information on their websites about returns, claims he found were inaccurate after an investigation in the summer. Some 30 companies were identified by the broadcaster as misleading shoppers in July but, following Martin’s work, the majority swiftly amended their websites.

Two firms are no longer in business, which as of last night left Evans and Carluccio’s. Presenting The Martin Lewis Money Show Live on ITV, Martin looked directly at a camera and said: “Evans and Carluccio’s, you are wrong. Your websites are misleading, change them please. I have reported you to Trading Standards.”

The audience in Manchester clapped warmly at the tirade, which came amid a segment around consumer rights as Brits hit towns and cities for Christmas shopping. Martin informed the audience and viewers of their legal stances when it comes to returns and refunds, some of which appeared to surprise the crowd last night.

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Martin’s website, Money Saving Expert, lists the 30 companies and their misdemeanours, as uncovered in July. The majority of these have changed their websites since the article.

But the table states Evans, owned by the Arcadia Group, says words to the effect of: “Standard returns policy is 21 days for online orders.” However, Martin’s website states what it gets wrong. It says: “You have 14 days to change your mind, then a further 14 days to return the item, so a maximum of 28 days.”

And the table shows Carluccio’s, a chain of Italian restaurants which also offers gifts in its online shop, says word to the effect of: “You can return goods to Carluccio’s Online within 14 days of delivery.” Money Saving Expert writes beside this: “You have 14 days from delivery to change your mind, then a further 14 days to return the item.”

Martin’s team researched more than 400 of the UK’s most popular retail brands and had found 30 list online return policies which suggest customers have fewer rights than the law prescribes. It misled shoppers over their statutory return rights, and areas of their websites listed harsher criteria than the law requires them to offer. HMV, Home Bargains and The Range were among guilty parties but, in his show last night, Martin was quick to point out these have since corrected their websites.

The Mirror has contacted Evans and Carluccio’s for comment. The Martin Lewis Money Show Live said it too had approached the businesses before broadcast.

Evans held a 13-point lead over both Ogier and Rovanpera going into the Toyota City-based event.

However, the Finn’s hopes took an early blow, dropping more than five minutes on Friday after damaging his rear suspension in a collision with a barrier.

Evans began slowly, placing sixth on the opening stage, but put together back-to-back stage wins on Friday and a strong Saturday morning sequence to rise up to second just 1.4secs behind leader Ogier.

The Frenchman responded with a dominant performance on Saturday afternoon, which continued as he was also the quickest driver across the final day’s six stages – including adding a further additional five points with victory in the final bonus power stage.

“It’s obviously a perfect result,” said Ogier, who is looking to equal Sebastien Loeb’s record nine world titles.

“It’s been a challenging weekend because after the rain today nothing was certain, it was the start of a new rally this morning.

“Now, let’s go to the next one. This was a perfect weekend for us to come back so close [to Evans] and let’s hope the last one is not a lottery.”

Toyota Gazoo Racing have already secured their fifth consecutive WRC manufacturers’ title and are now guaranteed to take the top three places in the drivers’ championship.

Rovanpera, though, looks destined to finish third in his final rally season before switching to a career in circuit racing.

“Definitely not the weekend we wanted to have but sometimes it’s like this,” said the 25-year-old Finn.

“Just a bit too inconsistent with results this year.”

The former Seat and Ford driver is part of a Toyota team that have already won the Manufacturers’ World Championship for the fifth year in a row.

And as so often happens in motorsport, Evans’ team-mates are also his closest rivals.

Rovanpera is the youngest ever world champion after winning back-to-back championships in 2022 and 2023.

Now 25 and in his final season before leaving WRC for new challenges, the Finnish driver has already won three rallies this year and will be ready to pounce on any mistakes from his team-mate.

Ogier, 41, is looking to tie Sebastien Loeb’s record of nine WRC titles. The Frenchman has won five rallies this season and led the championship before a crash at last month’s Central European Rally handed the advantage back to the Welshman.

Despite the competition, Evans says relationships are good.

“We all get on fairly well in the team,” he explained.

“Rallying is quite unique in that we’re racing against the clock rather than physically against each other on track.

“That normally means we get on a bit better in the background and the team has a very good atmosphere on the whole.

“Everything is shared among the drivers, so everything is very open and we tend to try and race it out on the stages, so normally we get on pretty well.”

Evans has been competing against the best of the best for years. If he is able to join his team-mates as a world champion the achievement will be monumental.

Fourteen years after his first WRC race he is as close as he has ever been to glory.

Evans will be hoping a journey that started in Dolgellau could have the greatest of endings in Jeddah via Japan.