Veritas-IT - unpaid invoices.....

[TheFaQQer]

As one of the contractors who is losing out (or already lost out) in 6 weeks pay, I feel for these recuiters as they are now without jobs also. I'm sure those guys/gals are just as worried about their future as we are. (Fellow Veritas contractors, please do not shoot me for saying that!)

My contract with Veritas is due to end this week anyway so my main focus is to find another contract (no joy so far though). However, my client may indicate soon that they have found another agency to take us on from 19th Sept to the end of Sept. 18th was when Veritas was closed down, so a new contract with a new agent starts on the 19th. I am definitely on for some paid work from 19th to end of month but I am still within the Veritas contract until the end of the month. However, with what have said so far, does anyone know whether I am OK to have the new contract because the client has changed agency and asked me to move, without being sued by Veritas based on the following grounds:

1) Breach of contract for not completing the work with Veritas until the end of contract?
2) Working for the same client through another agency within a certain period set out in the Veritas contract?

Even though the client is changing to a new agent and asking me to move over, this is no protection that my contract is still valid with Veritas and that the client would not care about my Ltd company gets sued or not. It is up to me to get legal advice whether this move is possible. Anyone out there know the answer to that?

If you are out of contract, and there is no tie-in period that restricts your right to go with another agent, then you have no problems. Unlikely though - most contracts have something that limits how quickly you can go back through a different agency. If you do, then they could sue you and / or the client for breach of contract.

If you thing that they probably have enough on their mind to sort out, then leave and go somewhere else. Given that it's a quick win for the administrators to get some quick income by suing for a blatant breach, it might not be worth it - find another gig somewhere else, with a different agency.

[bigD]

I've just called Companies House and no one has contacted them regarding administration/liquidation of Veritas. It may therefore not be in the hands of the administrators. Can anyone confirm that Veritas IT is in administration since Companies House couldn't? All Companies House said was that the company has been dormant and probably should not have been trading since the 'dormant' status. If anyone is interested, you can also purchase the name and address of all the directors of Veritas IT from Companies House for only £3.

I've received this statement from Companies House regarding Veritas IT:-

'There is no trace in our records that the above company, VERITAS IT, is in administration. If an appointment is made, the administrator should notify us within 14 days following their appointment. I suggest you write to the above registered office address and send it by recorded delivery. If your letter is returned undelivered, you can contact us. We can request the company file a change of registered office address but cannot force them to do so.

If we believe the company is not operating, we can strike it if and dissolve it as a defunct company. This procedure is detailed in our guidance booklet GBW2 Strike-off, Dissolution and Restoration which is available via the link http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/about/guidance.shtml'

[funkyd]

Yes but contracts state 'Veritas Recruitment Group LTD', not Veritas-IT

The lack of administrators coming forward is not a good sign.

Do we know whether the staff that left last week, did so from the MK, London or Bristol office - or was it all three?

http://idealpeopleblog.blogspot.com/

[bigD]

Yes but contracts state 'Veritas Recruitment Group LTD', not Veritas-IT

The lack of administrators coming forward is not a good sign.

Do we know whether the staff that left last week, did so from the MK, London or Bristol office - or was it all three?

Hi, just called Companies House and
VERITAS RECRUITMENT GROUP LIMITED
VERITAS HOUSE, SNOWDON DRIVE
WINTERHILL
MILTON KEYNES
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE MK6 1AR
Company No. 03694134

has NOT notified Companies House of administration/liquidation. However, as mentioned previously a company has 14 days to do so. Therefore, we may not know until next week.

The quicker we get this information the quicker we can move forward.

[NickNick]

More reading

As with others on here, I'm owed for 5 weeks work from Veritas who have not exactly been the best agency to work for over the last few months. This is only realistically one week over due because of thier payment schedule of 30days.

As an aside there is some interesting reading on page 14 of this pdf
http://ivory.vnunet.com/assets/binaries/financial-director/pdf/decisions-credit-oct06.pdf

(re typed inital paragraph below, so spelling is all mine own.)

Pramos Dhalwani knows all about distressed recievables. He is the finance director of Veritas, a recruitment consultancy for the IT industry, which last Christmas was owed £2.5m by its largest client. "We have monthly receivables of around £2.3m, so this was a significant gap for us. Some of the invoices dated back more than 18 months and we were having problems getting any money at all out of this company. The situation was threatening the survival of our business" he says.

Doesn't exaclty fill you with hope does it?

My end client has sent the following out this morning.
"The circumstances surrounding the current financial difficulties of Veritas as alerted to us last Wednesday/Thursday are far from clear or certain. On the one hand we hear that they are going to go into liquidation and on the other we hear they may be selling off certain assets to keep trading. It is unlikely that anyone will have a clear and confirmed picture of what is actual/fact and what is conjecture/fiction for a few more days. We are told from reliable sources that no liquidator has as yet been appointed and that certain alternative rescue measures are being discussed with the Banks. But as at today we have had no formal notification at all and like you we are left to make certain decisions without knowing the full picture."

So I guess it's just a case of wait for creditors to be announced and take if from there.

[Candela Media]

Rats- Olfactory signature?

Ok,

I've been mulling over the posts here recently and there are some very odd aspects to this.

Bear in mind that we're an agency so have a view from both sides of the fence and that I can't suggest anybody would actually do this as that would potentially lead to legal action against us so.....

Once upon a time in fairy land,

Suppose I decided that I wasn't getting enough margin on my contracts and I had the morals of a pole-cat (sorry to any pole cats out there). I come up with a wicked wizard plan.

Instead of billing my clients I stop raising invoices and stop paying my contractors. This means I build up a residue of creditors (people I owe money to) and debtors (people who owe me money) .

I decide that FairyLand Inc is getting boring and I fancy a new yacht so I create FairyLandTwo Inc.

I then go to my wicked Uncle Receiver who advises me to sell the rights to the debtors to FairyLandTwo at a knock down price. Of course wicked Uncle Receiver is just doing his legal duty in getting a price for the contracts.

Of course, Wicked Uncle Receiver only flags the fact that Fairyland Inc is liquidating at the maximum legal time.

This gives me two weeks to do the sleight of hand. Of course it also gets Wicked Uncle Receiver out of his bind as he places an ad in "The Barely Read News" advertising the contracts and as no-one replies, he can safely say he sold the rights for the maximum he could get, honest guv.

As soon as FairyLandTwo is running I then raise the invoices against the clients. As FairyLandTwo doesn't have any creditors I'm making all the contract value for those periods. Now I need to service the rest of the contracts so I offer to re-start the contracts for people from today. So I get 6 weeks full credit on the contract and ongoing contract revenue from the poor saps the contractors.

Now the only flys in the ointment:

What if people realise whats going on and refuse to restart the contract with FairyLandTwo? Well, I can force them to by getting the client by the exclusivity clause in the contract I bought. Of course, if the client is smart he can point out that actually HIS contract is with the original company and is at liberty to opt out.

If there are any other shareholders in the original company who are not included in FairyLandTwo, they can legitimately claim that the directors were not acting in the shareholders best interests.

If the Wicked Uncle Receiver can be proved to have sold assets without proper process he will be in trouble with the Grand Legislator.

So if I were a poor sap contractor I'd be VERY interested in finding out:

1) The exact shareholding and directorship of FairyLand Inc
2) The exact shareholding and directorship of FairyLandTwo Inc
3) The date Fairyland Inc entered administration
4) The date Wicked Uncle Receiver posted the administration publically
5) The dates of any transactions immediately prior to 3 and before 4

Armed with this info I'd probably go and talk to a very good Grand Legislator.

Of course all the above is just a fairy story and bears no relation inferred or otherwise to any person or company, real or imagined. These are just my personal thoughts and are NOT related to nor authorised by Candela Media Limited.

If anybody wants to chat this through our web-site is pretty easy to find (won't post it here as I will get flamed again!!).

[dev0173]

Yes but contracts state 'Veritas Recruitment Group LTD', not Veritas-IT

The lack of administrators coming forward is not a good sign.

Do we know whether the staff that left last week, did so from the MK, London or Bristol office - or was it all three?

http://idealpeopleblog.blogspot.com/

Yes, I reckon its "Veritas Recruitment Group" that's gone into administration. Company number 03694134. They're still listed as active on the Companies House website.

[NedIsPhilip]

Whose responsibilty is it?

The article you refer to also gives enough details, in the final section, to suggest that the client concerned is the one I'm currently working for, which leads me to conclude that they need to take some responsibility for the present situation.

[NickNick]

The article you refer to also gives enough details, in the final section, to suggest that the client concerned is the one I'm currently working for, which leads me to conclude that they need to take some responsibility for the present situation.

Also the client that I'm working for at the moment. Appears that this isn't the first time that an agency suppling this client has gone under due to outstanding unpaid invoices.

[zoomit]

administrator

the administrator is BDO based out of baker st, London