Any retirement site on the list should contact Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation to ensure proper compensation is paid for this cheating
The secret contempt with which Peverel-Cirrus treated their elderly, vulnerable customers is revealed by the Office of Fair Trading.
It has published emails from Cirrus employees in its full 268-report into the price-fixing scandal. This can be read here
These include one Cirrus employee referring to the scam in these terms:
‘Hello I have updated the process but think its best if we keep this one ‘in house’ as the bits in red are what we do behind the scenes and not an official part of the process (tee hee).‘
On p.62 para 5.36: An email from Cirrus to the stooge company Owens on 30 November 2007 explicitly sets out the framework for collusion with CCSL:
‘Hi [an individual acting on behalf of Owens] as per our telephone conversation today, I will be supplying your name to PMSL [Peverel] to supply an alternative tender as they require two quotes to put to the residents for all upgrades. You will then receive a tender pack from [a PMSL Senior Administrator]. I will email you our prices the day the tender lands with me, so that you can get out your price, if you can put in a higher cost than ours, i.e. 5%, 10%, 20% etc but vary it each time so it doesn’t look suspicious.’
On p.67 para 5.54: ‘ Moreover, it appears that over time CCSL developed a mechanism, to avoid residents getting suspicious, of delivering the work through a contractor who had not submitted the competing bid.
On this point, the OFT’s file contains a meeting note from March 2007, which records a meeting on 28 February 2007 between Cirrus, representatives of stooge companies Jackson and O’Rourke and others.
The meeting note records: ‘A brief discussion took place regarding Peverel and a senior Cirrus employee reiterated the importance of ensuring that tenders are returned on a timely basis.
Also, “Cirrus need to ensure that whenever possible, the sub-contractor carrying out the work on site is not the same sub-contractor who provides the alternative tender”.
In para 5.55: In her witness interview with OFT officials a Cirrus administrator explained that this system was implemented by the competing bidder for contracts being located in a distinct geographic area from the property which was the subject matter of the bid, with northern based contractors being asked to submit a bid for southern based tenders and southern based contractors would be nominated to bid for contracts in the north.
A Cirrus employee explained how Cirrus decided which contractor to nominate to Peverel to avoid ‘the residents getting suspicious’.
Hi all
To imply that this behaviour is NOT criminal but a civil matter defies belief.
A prison sentence for the SENIOR executive in charge is required. NOW.
Who can you trust ?
Happy Days
Whatever next – the government will be granting leniency to known murderers and terrorists?
OK, that may be a bit extreme, but there is no way the OFT / SFO / government have carried out justice here. It is clear that the OFT and their political masters know who the individuals are, and it is also clear that very senior executives in the businesses were involved and aware.
The blame should not be limited to Peverel subsidiaries, this clearly went right to the top. ARMA / ARHM should take action or stop pretending they are capable of self-regulation.
Miss Entwistle,
Doubtless you are fully aware of the gravity of the emails.
All this to “earn” an extra £100,000? I don’t think so!
Pay back all the money Peverel have cheated residents out of.
Given the OFT ruling concerning the Peverel/Cirrus price tendering that has been admitted to by Peverel/ Cirrus it is the case that many innocent leaseholders in the affected 65 developments have lost money and have yet to be properly compensated it should be very easy to begin court proceedings.
It is not as if a resident has to prove wrongdoing by Peverel to a court. That is already established.
May i ask Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation as to just how easy any such action would be to take?
ME,
A year after asking for the tender documents for the Warden Call System at Ashbrook Court I eventually received them by email.
After checking the figures and the other documents, sent to me from the OFT, it can be seen that collusion between Peverel Management Services Ltd and Cirrus Communications, along with Glyn Jackson, had occurred.
Glyn Jackson was the contractor found guilty of cheating 37 out of the 65 Retirement Developments, in the recent OFT Investigation, and was finned some £27,000.00.
Cirrus Communications a subsidiary of CarelineUK had been found guilty of all the 65 Retirement Developments Price Fixing and some thousands of Pensioners were cheated over a 4 year period. The amount of money that was involved in the Price Fixing was, £1.4 million pounds
Peverel Group reported the Price Fixing after The Times Newspaper outed them on 07/11/2009 and not the 04/12/2009 or the 05/12/2009 as was reported by Chris Owen.
I have asked Janet for compensation but as usual she refuses to communicate and instead Chris Owens has emailed me.
I have refused to communicate directly with Chris Owens as he refuses to accept that Peverel Management Services can do any wrong.
Chris Owens has taken the customary 7 working days to inform me that he will report back to me when he has looked at my complaint?
Never has so little been done, by so many, as Peverel?