Sunday Solutions Anyone Else Having A Problem

[Zotter]

Interesting development, all the email addresses for Bradbury have now been deleted. The only one that still works is info@bradburyandco.com. Also there is a new telephone number on the website, but this number does not even exist.

[biggles_1]

Not meaning to alarm but ...

This morning I tried e-mailing Chris collins again as I had been told that he was the person dealing with it. On Saturday he replied to me saying that he didn;t know about my fines and would organise it.

The automated reply I got from his mail account stated:

"Due to change in processes, my contract with Bradbury & Co has now come to an end

To improve efficiency and response times, Bradbury & Co have now introduced automated response systems upon the main website www.bradburyandco.com

Therefore this e-mail address is no longer capable of engaging in indidividual corresspondence

Please direct your enquiry to info@bradburyandco.com"

This is a rather sudden departure from Bradbury. Anyone would think that he didn't realise what he was getting himself into and didn't want to be involved in it all with the speed in which he left as he hasn't been there that long.

Has anyone had any contact from Bradbury in the last day or two?

J.

[Titanic]

online 'form' for approving accounts

If you've been monitoring the Sunday Solutions / Bradbury and Co thread on moneysavingexpert.com, you will have noticed an interesting post today from Zotter:

"There is now an online section on their website where you can approve your draft accounts (or not)."

I've looked at Bradbury's website today (www.bradburyandco.com), and noticed the new "Accounts" page, which seems to be a form for automatically approving the accounts, which from the sounds of it they are in the process of sending to at least some people.

I'm not holding my breath but I hope that I also receive some accounts in the post, at some point before Jan 2010!

[Titanic]

davehh if you don't have anything tangible to contribute please don't pollute this forum with your taunts and rather unhelpful "advice". For all of us affected this is a very serious issue and this forum and others like it are the main resource we've got in piecing together the truth.

To biggles_1: The sudden departure of Chris Collins doesn't surprise me. Many people employed by Bradbury seem to be on very short contracts, and some of these 'consultants' like Richard Jellard were only hired by Bradbury in order to sort out this mess, or so they say. Amongst other sudden departures that have surprised me are:

Chris Pape - he was an accountant working on S.A tax returns at one point, much like Ewan Hayes and Andrew McIntyre.

Sergio Romagnoli - was another accountant who quit (or was fired) last year. Apparently he threatened Andrew Nyiri by suggesting he would go to the HMRC with all sorts of internal documents which, according to him, would implicate Bradbury and Co in a whole bunch of illegal activity. Andrew Nyiri counter-threatened by saying something like 'if you go to the HMRC I'll sue you for stealing company documents' or something like that. So Sergio who seemed to be a very knowledgeable and decent chap left Bradbury's employment and is no doubt working for a more reputable and ethical accountancy now. Sergio if you're reading this please get in touch... (!) It would be great to hear what you've got to say...

[Mike1004]

Hi All,

I'm in the same boat as the rest of you, was transferred to Von Essen earlier in this year.

Decided this week to request the money held by Von Essen to pay my 2009/2010 tax be returned to me immediately. To their credit it was paid into my account the same day! Can't afford to be caught a second time!

[danvito]

In the same boat

Hi guys,

I have only just stumbled across this forum after having been messed around by Bradbury for over a year now. I was a partner in HEYDER TREVINO for three months of the 07/08 financial year. After many emails exchanged with a - then helpful - Andrew McIntyre, I was given my Draft Accounts on Sept 17 this year with no explanation of the values. I had been charged 4k in fees for the 08/09 financial year, when I had clearly left the partnership in 2007. Communication with Andrew dried up after receiving the draft, and after dozens of emails trying to get an explanation of the accounts I was handed over to a Claire Palmer (tax@bradburyandco), who was again very responsive and apologetic, giving me updates daily (no content, but at least there was some level of communication there). Then yesterday her and Andrew's email addresses bounced.

This prompted me to go searching. Now I have read through this thread I can see I am not the only one. Relieving on one hand, but angers me further on the other.

As it stands, "I" owe HMRC around 1.5k and Bradbury is withholding around 3.5k for me. According the first draft accounts which I am arguing, they are trying to charge me 6.5k in fees over the two financial years which means they expect me to pay them a further 3k and foot the bill with HMRC myself. Screw that! They can sue me if they want a penny out of me. Chicken feed compared to your liabilities it seems, but the hours I have wasted, and the frustration I have felt trying to deal with this situation, has left me with a deep seeded desire to get my money back out of principle.

I will continue to monitor this forum and will be more than happy to get involved in any class action against this two bit operation. Who's going to lead the charge here?

On a separate note, what's the general concencus here? Pay HMRC out of my own pocket to get them off my back? I called them up a few weeks trying to explain the situation and they didn't want to know, saying it was up to me to pay myself and they didn't care that there was this outstanding situation with my accountants. I asked for some legal advice, or at least where I could find it, and they point blank refused to even comment in the slightest. I was really quite shocked with the callous response. I am sure there are plenty of people in my/our situation that just don't know where to turn. I know I am ultimately responsible, but it should be obvious to them that there is an issue given the interim payment made earlier this year was by Bradbury. If Bradbury do come through and resolve the disputed accounts, and actually release the funds to HMRC, would I be able to claim that back from HMRC if I pay my liability out of my own pocket today?

Cheers
Danvito

[MarthaT]

does anyone know - is this group still in use - sundaybradbury@yahoo.co.uk

I did mail my details off, but had no response? Is there any co-ordinated group of us on this now as there seems so many of us affected by this situation.

[FICO]

On a separate note, what's the general concencus here? Pay HMRC out of my own pocket to get them off my back?

Hi Danvito,

I recently paid off my outstanding tax bill to get the HMRC off my back and to make sure that I did not continue to accrue interest and late payment fees plus I did not want a black mark against my HMRC account. If anything gets sorted out I should get this back but I am not expecting anything to be honest!

I have contacted a few action groups but have not got very far, I am awaiting a legal update from one group.

fico

[davehh]

Sorry my comments annoyed you, I was actually trying to point you in the right direction without giving you the specifics.

4 years ago, I was approached by a group of contractors who were pretty much in exactly the same situation you guys are in now. They were getting nowhere fast and asked for my help.

Up intil that point, I knew very little about the contracting sector. I spent a few months learning about the contracting industry and the options open to contractors. I then researched the Sunday solution (not that it was called that at the time), the brains behind it and the reasons why the company was so successful and eventaully found enough information to help them get a large majority of their money back. Obviously I made a nice profit from helping.

A few months later I was chatting to a contractor at a party and it became apparent he was using a similar soultion. Once again i did some research and realised it was the same brians, except with better solution and better financial backing. I spoke to a few people and realised if the solution went sour again, I could make a lot of money helping contractors fight these guys.

So over the last few years, I've been watching them carefully. I take my hat off to them. What they are doing now is far more sophisticated than it was even 2 years ago.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, with all my new found knowledge and expertise, I thought it would be a good idea to start networking. So 2 years ago I joined Contractor UK as I wanted to help educate contractors about the pro's and cons of contracting. I thought my experience and knowledge would benefit you all. (it also gave me an opportunity to network and maybe pick up a few new clients!) However, I found the CUK members to be very narrow minded. There seemed to be a few ring-leaders who knew it all (they don't by the way) and the whole site survived on the foundations of what they were saying. After a while, I realised contributing to the site was a complete waste of time. Most of the contractors only heard what they wanted to and were happy to go along with the rumours or theories of certain members. At one time, I even got accused of not knowing what I was talking about because my post count was low! I decided to simply walk away.

Since then, while the members of CUK have been sleeping, the brians behind Sunday have not. As i said in a previous post, they are probably around 3 years ahead of you at the moment. Obviously, they are not moving the Sunday brand forward, but their other business entities are going from strength to strength. They are now so big, that you would of all heard about them, just not realised who they are.

My work has lead me away from the Contracting sector, so I am not really too interested in helping contractors fight for their money anymore. Add that to the fact that i have no intentions of supporting CUK, I planned to stay well away from this site. However, following this thread closely, I noticed that a lot of newbie's were joining this site becuase they have lost money and they didn't deserve to be penalised because of the actions of other members. I having sympathy with those of you who have lost out and considering most of you are new to CUK I wanted to give you a few hints to point you in the right direction.

I've obviously gone about this the wrong way, and for that I appologise.

So, as requested, let me start spelling this out for you in plain English. But before i do, you need to ask yourselves a question. Do you want these people punished or do you want your money back?

If you want them punished, call the police and contact Companies House. If you want your money back I suggest you take my advice and start heading in a different direction.

You need to take them on at their own game. The brians behind Sunday (and all the other compaines linked to it) are intelegent people. From what I can make out, they spend their lives finding ways to resolve things that get in their way. Their attitude is never say never. Most of the suggestions on this forum seem to be around contacting Companies house or calling the police. That's ok, but i would suggest these guys have already thought about that - probably a few years ago and acted accordingly. What this means is they've probably already done enough to be able to justify their actions to the police - after all, this would of been discussed years ago when they thought up the solution in the first place.

Therefore you need to take a slightly differnt approach. What I'm suggesting is, if you want your money back you need to go the extra mile and the only way you can do that is to start thinking laterally. From my experience contractors struggle with this, so let me give you (like I've already been trying to do) a few more hints.

Start registering your details with recruitment databases.
From my experience, most of my contractors signed up to use the soultion after they were cold called. Was this the same for you? If so, you need to try and get them to call you again. I'm unsure where they got the information from, but I'm guessing it was either recruitment agencies or jobsites etc. Get your name out there. Make up a few fictitious characters and start posting cv's on websites and start contacting recruitment agencies. If each of you come up with 4 fictitious people sooner or later one of you will get a call from a company with a different name trying to sell a similar solution. Would that be a coincidence, or is it the same company under a different name?

Visit the Tramshed.
The last time I wanted to track them down i went to the tramshed in Bath. They weren't there, but there was a pub next door. I went into the pub, made a few enquires and was soon given their new address. It only took me 20 minutes to find out the information! (Since then, they have moved again btw). Surely a few of you are local to the area. Why don't you try the same thing?

Look at the information Schnizzle is giving you.
He has compiled a list of companies Nyiri is a director of. From my experience he is not the brains behind the scheme. However he's all you got at the moment, so why don't you divide the list up and each visit a company on the list. Half the ones are no longer in business, but that doesn't mean they no longer exist - it just means they are no longer trading under that name. When I was looking at this a few years ago, my investigations lead me to a few companies which (at the time) I believed were nothing to do wtih the case. Since reading Schnizzle's post and seeing the same names pop up, I now realise they are probably linked into the bigger picture on some level or other.

Even if these enquires fail to be fruitful, if you ask the right questions I'm sure a few old employee's will be hanging around and willing to spill the beans. The combined effort of doing all these things should give you a few leads. Remember - this company want to make money, this means they are looking for you more than you are looking for them!

If you all gang together and plan this properly, i think you have around a weeks work.

Either take my advice or leave it, but at the moment your progress seems painfully slow. Surely, one of you has the ability to do more than contact the police, HMRC or Companies House?

I don't think I can put it any more suttley than that. If you want any more help, hints or specific information you will have to start paying for my services.

[Lewis]

It's like a mystery novel. So are you some kind of Magnum PI?

The $100m question in my head is, having found them 4 years ago, how did you get your client's money back?!