Beltring.
This is extract of the IMPS chairman’s report for information.
I make no comment or observations, please don't shoot the messenger.
R.
Quote:
Chairman’s Annual Report 2003
The War & Peace issue! Until now, I have had to keep quiet about the action being taken over the War and Peace Show. This has been for legal reasons, but I can now tell you about some of the very considerable work that has been going on over many months.
As you know, we, the Club ran the War & Peace Show for a few years in the late nineties, after Nigel Hay dreamed up the name in 1996. In August 1999, without our knowledge, Rex Cadman and Brent Pollard set up a company called “War and Peace Ltd”.
In December 1999 it was agreed that War & Peace Ltd could run the show for ten years. The name was to be shared for this period, and existing members would have free access. We were to provide some labour, and they were to pay us £10,000 each year.
As you know, there were shows in 2000,2001, 2002 and 2003. We were paid for the first three of these, but last years payment wasn’t made.
Now I expect most of you think War & Peace Ltd ran these shows. Sorry – wrong!
Their accounts, like all companies, have to be filed at Companies House. According to those accounts, the company has never traded. The company is now registered by them as “dormant”, meaning that it has no financial affairs whatsoever, which includes anyone acting as its agent.
It’s an offence to file false information at Companies House, so we can assume someone else has been running the shows. Another point in the contract was that War & Peace Ltd could assign the agreement. We looked carefully at all the public documentation around the shows, and the letters coming to us about them. If you look at your entry forms, or at past programmes, you will see phrases such as “The War & Peace Team”, “The War & Peace Show”, but never the name of any legally recognised body – except one.
Rex Cadman has signed many documents, and his name appears regularly. This means one of two things, bearing in mind we know War & Peace Ltd is not running the shows. The first possibility is that the agreement has been assigned to Rex. The other possibility is that the agreement has been assigned to someone else, or to another company, and Rex is acting as an agent, or front man, for that other person or company.
Another brief bit of law. If an agent says he is an agent, and names his principal, he’s not responsible to third parties – the principal is responsible for his agents work. But if he doesn’t say he’s an agent, or doesn’t say who he’s acting for, the agent is personally responsible. Either way, therefore, the buck stops with Rex.
For the first months of being chairman, I tried to work with Rex. Most people know this. However, when last year’s fee wasn’t paid, we went to solicitors – and have been advised to keep everything quiet, except for one or two who were helping with our enquiries and research.
Finally, I wrote to Rex, asking him who the agreement had been assigned to. As expected, no reply came from him. However, on the day he got the letter, Brent wrote to me saying no assignment had taken place! This puts him in an impossible situation, since only a couple of weeks earlier he had written to Companies House to say War & Peace Ltd was still dormant!
The upshot of this is that a Statutory Demand – used to be called a “Bankruptcy Notice” – has now been served on Rex. This gives him three choices: -
· He can ignore it
· He can pay up, including interest and costs
· He can challenge it in Court.
He won’t ignore it – he would be made bankrupt. It remains to be seen whether he will pay up, or fight it and risk the judge reporting certain matters that have come to light to the relevant authorities. That would be for the judge to decide – our only purpose is to get our money.
Since the matter now may go before the courts, I regret I can’t reveal more, nor can I take any questions at all – even innocent and genuine ones. I can say, however, that we have been very grateful for the helpful and supportive comments and suggestions from some members. I hope that those who have been critical will now understand why their criticisms could not be answered until now, but you may all be assured that a very considerable amount of work has been carried out, that we have been acting under advice from the start, and that we hope for success. We are also very sorry that we’ve had no alternative to this action, and I’m sorry we couldn’t tell you anything till now.
It would appear we have another issue with them, a proposed book, “21 Years of War & Peace at Beltring”, co-authored by Rex. This is not true, and we are taking legal advice on this also. I have written an article in the Spring issue of Imprint giving the correct history, please read it; the information has come from various members.
Before I sign off, I must take this opportunity to thank all those who gave their help, advice and support to me during the past year. You all put a hell of a lot of time and effort into the Club, and I can’t thank you enough. You are supposed to finish on a high note, so I wish you no breakdowns! warm dry weather when rallying! and good health. May your God go with you.
Jon Burford, Chairman IMPS
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