Keep the ideas coming!
Posted by Stephen Grey on June 29th, 2009
Thanks to all who have responded to the announcement last week about the new Investigations Fund. We’ve updated the website just now to reflect those who’ve registered as supporters. And thank you to all the offers of support and great ideas. They’re all being digested and we’ll get back to all those who’ve written as soon as possible. I’m pleased to announce two new partners to the project: the Center for Public Integrity in Washington DC, which has been one of the most successful pioneers of not-for-profit journalism, as well as the UK and Ireland’s own National Union of Journalists, which is offering us considerable support in starting up. Am glad also to announce that Sandy Smith, editor of the BBC’s flagship Panorama program, joins our team of advisers.
Please keep those idea flowing in and do sign up for either email updates or as a supporter of the project.
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July 21st, 2009 at 11:15 am
Hi
Thanks for setting up this fund. I edit the Salford Star, a big, glossy, 100 page community magazine which hasn’t appeared since last September as we’ve been turned down for every bit of public money we’ve applied for since its launch.
We believe that public money set aside for things like `empowerment’ and `giving people a voice’ should help community mags like ours. Unfortunately the very bodies that are responsible for giving out these funds are the same bodies (or connected to the same bodies) that we’re investigating and criticising. The same with advertising. We’re biting the hand etc…
In other countries they blow up journalists’ offices and shoot them – here you’re financially assassinated for trying to do investigative journalism.
The Salford Star has awards coming out of its ears – runners up in the Paul Foot awards a couple of years ago, current winners of the Plain English Award for regional publications, the Salford Lotta Bottle Award etc… but now we’ve been forced financially to do the mag online only(www.salfordstar.com) despite two thirds of people in Salford not having access to the net.
No idea what the answer is or whether this fund can help but, away from Fleet St and the broadsheets, down here in Salford we’re very much at the sharp end of the media debate.
December 6th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
here’s an idea you could work on – and the case is still ongoing…
Saturday Dec 5th 2009
Over £3million pounds of public money wasted
Head of Oldham Trading Standards, Tony Allen, is accused of wasting over 3million pounds of taxpayers money pursuing a personal vendetta against an innocent businessman.
With evidence drawn from over 270,000 seized documents, and originally estimated to take around 6 months to hear, the largest, most expensive fraud case ever brought by a Trading Standards authority in the UK, is just about to enter its 13th week.
The four co-defendants, charged with conspiracy to defraud, include Oldham entrepreneur and controversial business man, Vance Miller (subject of the T.V. documentaries Brits get rich in China, Notorious )
Opting to conduct his own defence, Mr Miller has developed a unique, incisive (if somewhat unorthodox) cross-examination style that has, so legal rumour suggests, become the talk of the bar.
As the cross-examination of the penultimate witness of a seemingly endless procession of almost eighty prosecution witnesses continues into it’s third day on Monday, every body involved with the trial is anticipating with interest the appearance of the last witness, Tony Allen, on either Monday or Tuesday.
Well known in government and local authority circles as a staunch advocate of radical increases in the enforcement powers of all UK Trading Standards Officers, Mr Allen, Lead Officer Without Portfolio, will face a barrage of questions from Mr Miller and barristers representing the other three defendants regarding a number of matters that have come to light during the trial.
• Reportedly, at least £3m of public money has been spent on pursuing this case by Tony Allen through Oldham Trading Standards and it is believed it could be as high as £5m.
• The case was investigated and prosecuted solely by Trading Standards officers without going through the usual stringent procedural and evidential checks used by the police and the C.P.S. There are allegations based on strong evidence, of bias, irregularities and ignoring evidence beneficial to the defence.
• Since 2001, both the OFT and Trading Standards have issued regular statements quoting “unprecedented“ levels of complaints as the basis for enforcement action being taken against Miller. These have ranged from “between 60 and 100 per week” to “over 50,000” Repeated FOIA requests for details of these complaints have been refused by Oldham MBC and T.S.
• Based on these uncorroborated complaint levels, Mr Miller has been arrested and imprisoned several times, banned from being a company director till 2014, fined hundreds of thousands of pounds, , and finally been charged with conspiracy to defraud, where , if guilty, he faces up to 14 years in jail and the confiscation of all his assets,
• Soliciting the help of the media, Trading Standards have run a 7 year smear campaign using Mr Millers now-spent criminal record and his alleged complaints figures to avoid libel actions and convince the nation that Mr Miller is a rogue conman.
• Unbelieved, powerless to respond and shunned by the banks, Vance Miller has doggedly continued to trade, build his business and pay his taxes by acting as a sole trader and using the bank accounts of friends. He is currently the 4th largest supplier of kitchens in the UK and the largest privately owned kitchen company in the world.
• Quoting only numbers of complaints, not once in 8 years have Trading Standards or the OFT ever attempted to find out the number of kitchens sold or the turnover of the business to determine what % the complaints are of his turnover.
• Forced disclosure by T.S. of the true figures during this case, has determined that, in reality, there were 214 complaints made over a 5 year period that relate to the charges he faces. Over the same period, despite being hounded, fined and imprisoned, Mr Millers business supplied 72,000 kitchens, averaging a turnover of approx £20m to £30m per annum, and the complaints amount to 0.3 of 1% of turnover – about 3 complaints per 1,000 kitchens sold!!
• All banks operating Millers accounts (business and personal) were sent threatening letters by T.S. resulting in all accounts being closed and immediate payment demanded of Millers operating overdraft (in excess of £1m) This was well over a year before the present charges were laid, let alone proved.
• In November 2006, Tony Allen (through “Operation Church”) launched the biggest Trading standards “raid” in history on Maple Mill, Oldham, the base for Vance Millers’ kitchen business. After 5 months of planning, 130 police and trading standards officers, many in riot gear, swamped this successful business and seized all the cash, records for sales enquiries, orders, customer service, accounting and deliveries. They also took all computers, phone systems, video/tape recordings and mobile phones.
• Tony Allen had convinced police that he had most of the proof needed to charge Miller with fraud, but needed to raid his headquarters to “fill in evidential gaps” Evidence has been given that there was no such proof, and that Tony Allen’s intention was to seize all the records so that the business would be unable to trade and therefore collapse. He did not expect to have to justify the raid by making serious charges. He certainly did not expect the tenacious Mr Miller to continue to trade.
• Tony Allen appears to have recklessly misused powers which he has argued for years should be given to trading standards officers, proving what can happen when such powers are given out carelessly to untrained officials without including a high degree of accountability.
• In a bizarre attempt to protect against things going wrong and in order to distance himself from responsibility for what is now clearly seen as a totally unjustified attempt to malign and ruin an innocent man, 2 weeks before the raid, in November 2006, Tony Allen promoted a junior member of staff to principal trading standards officer – then told her he was “retrospectively” making her the senior investigating officer for the whole investigation and raid. She agreed to take responsibility for all decisions he’d made in the case since June 2006, – FIVE MONTHS EARLIER!!!
• After conducting a media smear campaign against Vance Miller for over five years, using his position as spokesman for Trading Standards to make unfounded accusations of fraud and consumer detriment and to issue countless press statements that branded him, amongst other things, a ‘Rogue’, ‘Conman’, ‘Scam-artist,’ ‘Gangster’ and ‘Most complained about trader in the UK’, ….WHY is it now almost impossible to find a quote by Tony Allen, Trading Standards referring to Vance Miller using search engines such as GOOGLE?
• Why is it that from 2004 till 2009, only stories that do not feature Tony Allen slating Vance Miller can be found in the online archives of any of the local, regional or national newspapers they originally ran in? (e.g. The Manchester Evening News has been running Mr Allens press releases for years…WHERE ARE THEY NOW?)
• Has a hacker been used to cleanse Mr Allen’s vitriolic character assassination from the records without the media’s knowledge?
• …Or has Tony Allen once again abused his powers and used Official Secrets Act threats to force the newspapers to comply and withdraw the articles themselves?
The case continues on Monday in court 7, Manchester Crown Court
BACKGROUND
Tony Allen was allegedly sent to Oldham in 2004 to “target” Miller and find a way to cease his business activities, after he was released from prison but continued to trade. Miller’s ability to sell high volumes of kitchens at up to 40% below traditional outlets has had a marked effect on the market. MFI closed down its kitchen outlets over a year ago, and in 2005/6, B&Q reported a slump in profits of 52% that didn’t improve much for 18 months. During the same period, Vance Miller reported record sales of up to 400 kitchens a week.
Rumour has it that Mr Millers problems started when he bought the liquidation stock of United Kitchens in 2001, a company formerly owned by Malcolm Healey.
Malcolm Healey, had built up Humber kitchens and acquired the brand name HYGENA in 1981, then sold out to MFI in 1987 for a reputed £200m. (The majority shareholder of MFI was Lord Sainsbury of Turville, who became minister of science for the Department of Trade and Industry in 2001)
Then he went to America and started Mills Pride, now one of the biggest U.S. kitchen companies.
In 1998, back in the UK, he started another kitchen company, United kitchens which didn’t share the same success and, in 2000, went into administration after only 2 years.
Mr Miller, opportunistic as ever, sold the kitchens using an advert stating that he had bought liquidation stock from the ex-Hygena boss. This attracted complaints (because it implied that he had bought HYGENA kitchens – Hygena were alive and well and still owned by MFI) and the ASA told him to withdraw the advert. Undaunted, Miller simply altered the advert slightly, making it into a statement of fact, and the ASA were reluctantly forced to allow it to be published.
Very soon afterwards, in late 2001, Vance Miller began to attract the unwelcome attention of the Office of Fair Trading, regulatory arm of the DTI that had been newly formed despite arguments about who would regulate its power as a regulator.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200102/ldhansrd/vo021104/text/21104-17.htm,
Difficult to check or challenge in these pre-FOIA days, allegations began about unprecedented levels of complaints being generated by Mr Millers kitchen company, and in 2002, the OFT created a new regulation, The STOP NOW order, seemingly for the sole purpose of stopping Mr Miller trading. He was the first ever trader prosecuted by the OFT under this law and the courts banned him from being a company director till 2014. In 2003 he was sent to prison for breaching that order. In January this year miller, and three employees were arrested and charged with conspiracy to defraud and a number of lesser charges. The case began in September and continues next week.
Yesterday, Judge Foster presiding, has asked for submissions of no case to answer to be presented by all defence barristers involved.
January 14th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
Here Here M. Assheton. And now 14/1/10 the whole case has been thrown out as ‘Abuse of process’ and ‘No case to answer’ which has now left ratepayers of Oldham over £5mllion out of pocket. It is disgusting that any porky little councillor should have powers like the ones Tony Allen used against Vance Miller who I believe provides huge employment within Oldham Borough. Even the judge ruled that he found it ‘disproportionate and oppressive’along with saying he did ‘not believe he cold rely on the evidence of Tony Allen.’
130 police to raid 4 houses and a mill. What the hell kind of overkill is that. I think Tony needed to make this case seem massive in order that he could then be the man that addressed the masssive issue thus catapulting himself into both the limelight and as I am sure he had considered a higher ranking job (maybe politics hey Tony you wannabee.)
I HONESTLY CANNOT TELL YOU HOW SHOCKED I HAVE BEEN THE MORE I HAVE LEARNED ABOUT THIS CASE AND THE GUY HIMSELF. I BOUGHT A KITCHEN THAT WAS FANTASTIC THEN SAW ALL THE BAD PRESS WHICH FOLLOWS MR. MILLER. I DID NOT UNDERSTAND AND HAVE SINCE THEN BECOME MORE AND MORE INTERESTED IN THE LIFE AND WORK OF VANCE MILLER. I STRONGLY SUGGEST THAT PEOPLE LOOK INTO THIS CASE AS I THINK IT SPEARHEADS A CALL FOR CHANGE IN THE POWERS THAT COUNCIL MORONS ARE GIVEN.
January 15th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
The Trading Standards Institute holds an annual media awards ceremony. This comes from 2006.
Best Local Authority Press Officer: Dawn Bunnell, Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council
‘In another very popular category, Dawn Bunnell’s approach really stood out. It included a mixture of innovation and sheer professional persistence. The latter is demonstrated through the fact that she manages to place a story in her local paper virtually every day, generating around 1,000 column centimetres every quarter. Her innovation shines through in the launch of a new initiative, which involved Oldham trading standards boss Tony Allen being interviewed once a month by local radio journalists, with the material not only being used on their programmes but also placed on the council’s website – as trading standards embraces the podcasting generation!’
Not anymore. Now that investigative journalists want to interview him, he is unavailable.
January 19th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
I have written a book about Vance Miller, his background and his troubles with Tony Allen. It is written in the words of those I interviewed, including Vance who gave me open access to his previous life, his business and his staff. For two years I turned them upside down and inside out and found nothing wrong. I interviewed Tony Allen in the same way (much to the surprise of Vance and his lawyers)and experienced evasions and management speak when asking the obvious awkward questions. I attended most of the court case for the final Chapter and listened with interest when, bound by oath, Allen had to give direct replies to the same obvious questions about his actions during a truly dishonest, inept and astonishingly inefficient investigation. Trading Standards and Oldham Council should be ashamed of themselves. Had this been a police case it would never have passed the simplest CPS test and been thrown out in contempt. After my interview, Tony Allen suggested I return for a further interview after the court case. “Win or lose?” I asked. “Yes,” said he. Unlikely now he has been suspended and probably killed his career dead by his own arrogance and stupidity. If you read this Tony, I would love to have the follow-up chat. John
January 21st, 2010 at 10:58 pm
What you need to do is present topics for investigation and journalistic teams in a similar way to the music site slicethepie.com presents bands.
This would especially work if there’s investment potential should some stories get a lot of coverage and ad revenue and hence pay the investors a small dividend.
I think you might be amazed at how many people would rather support journalists and stories *directly* than pay newspapers for processed news.
(I also think this website is a bit indicative of the problem, I’m afraid – it’s so incredibly dull and cramped and out of date and devoid of community. And I think this and I’m in my 40s – can’t imagine a teenager sticking around for 2 minutes…and they’re the ones who’s behaviour you want to influence.)
February 17th, 2010 at 12:15 am
What a fantastic idea and am interested to see someone asking for the story of Vance Miller to be made. Then to see the author of an investigation about him commenting. Likewise I feel there should be a further investigation into this to expose the serious misuse of taxpayers money and the powers that we trust these people with ie the trading standards to do their job fairly! A great read and certainly made me change my opinions and beliefs and therefor trust in tabloid jourhalism and government organizations and my opinion of Vance Miller. I only hope this book gets the publicity it deserves having been written in a fair non-biased fact found way.Best wishes in getting to the often hidden stories where the truth is hard to find.
February 21st, 2010 at 2:49 pm
My book about Vance Miller and the nefarious dealings of Oldham Trading Standards and others is now out and available through bookshops. Titled KITCHEN GANGSTER? it is already under consideration as a film or documentary. Whether such a project goes ahead or not, the book lays out detail of the whole farrago of underhand actions against Vance and includes a final Chapter covering the Court Case – the Big Fraud Trial – and the Judge’s conclusions that he could not rely on the evidence of Tony Allen and that the prosecution was misconceived. The result of Vance defending himself and winning, although a complete layman at law, has interested many in the legal profession. It also seems to have repercussions for Trading Standards and the way they mount operations and for Oldham Council, now under pressure to sack for force the resignation of senior figures, including the Chief Executive. My book KITCHEN GANGSTER? should be of interest on several levels – how did Vance manage to build such a massive business in such a short time? how did he do so under such enormous personal, business and legal pressures? and how did he manage to build several factories and a distribution and retail operation in China? All this whilst under continual investigation, intervention and harassment from the Oldham authorities that, among other things, resulted in no bank allowing him to hold or open accounts after Barclay’s threw him out, possibly under official pressure? A website link will soon appear in this Blog giving access to more detail of the book and Vance, complete with videos of his life and various doings. If any journalist is interested in following up with some form of investigation my extensive research is available to assist.