Compusource, anyone?

[Mulder]

Used Excellium for years before they were bought by Compusource.

They've been producing payslips every week but not paying anyone. I am personally owed over fourteen thousand pounds from this wretched company.

Phones not answered but they're still reading emails as I receive automated read receipts from them. They don't bother replying though.

Six hours commuting every day for the last eight months, for this? Will never recover from this. Off work now with crippling depression.

Hi Mintaka,

A few of us are in or were in the same boat, I can only suggest Money Claim and that triggered paying what was owed, and going to the warrant stage in order to get the interest & court fees paid.

[Mulder]

This is all public domain stuff so assuming no issue posting here. Strange old company set up. Michael Gordon and Darren Symes have literally hundreds of current and previous directorships. the sole sharehold is Paramount Properties (UK) ltd whose shareholder is Neil Cohen. Paramount Properties also on the board of many other companies (quite a few with Darren Symes on board also). Turnaround specialists? Serial entrepreneurs maybe?

Is the company still trading?

CompuSource still appear to be trading, though using Goutham's (he has left) e-mail address as main e-mail contact. With 'Reena' as the default signature and 'Jenny' was the left person to reply to me. (To confirm that they had settled the outstanding court fees & 8% interest (per Money Claim) on the money they owed me.

Given a few of us who were happy with Excellium before they changed to Compusource and were ok with CompuSource until they started not paying out. So it is not just people moaning for the sake of moaning.

I would suggest anyone with CompuSource and doesn't have money owed to them switch ASAP, and those who have money owed to them at least try the Money Claim route (in addition to other routes as mentioned here).

It appears they are implicitly acknowledging the court back Money Claim orders and in my case explicitly acknowledge the remaining amount when it went to the stage of issuing a warrant.

[shorttooth]

Hi all,

Apologies if this has been clarified somewhere in this thread, I've not been able to find it. I'm going the MoneyClaim route myself at the moment, but want to be sure I enter the right name and address details for who the claim should be made against at CompuSource. Can someone who has had luck going down this route, please PM me the necessary details I'll need to put in, in order to make a successful claim. Don't want to have to waste more money making a claim that goes to the wrong people!

[Mulder]

The above poster PM'd and I have replied, however for the benefit of others.


CompuSource seem to be replying to e-mails again.
Give them one last try (I know) and state clearly in an e-mail (even if have called them) that if the money owed isn't in your bank account by COB X, you will utilise the Money Claim service. The e-mail address that seems to be working is "[email protected]" (though will probably be 'Reena' or 'Jenny' that replies from Goutham's address).
Phone number seems to be: 01895 703 800
With me they had 'accounts dept' look into it and even a 'director' look into it, so ignore that b*llsh&t and stick to your deadline.

When it comes to the Money Claim service the address I used was:
Compusource, Lakeside House, 1 Furzeground Way, Stockley Park East, Uxbridge, UB11 1BD

I got paid my pension contributions & pay after the Money Claim but had to resort to issuing a Warrant before they paid the interest (8% per Money Claim) and the court fees.

Whilst CompuSource are replying to e-mails, it may be useful if people could let us know if they are paying up before going to Money Claim or if they still needed to go down the Money Claim route or if they used an alternative route that worked.

And if you are still with CompuSource and they don't owe you money please leave ASAP before you fall victim as well.

[Ramedam]

NI contributions

Signed on couple of weeks ago for contribution based JSA. To my surprise, got a letter that I am not eligible for JSA as I haven't paid enough NI contributions for the past two years. I have been full time under Excellium and then Compusource for the last four years. Not sure why HMRC stating I have not paid NI. Either a mistake on their behalf or the umbrella company not been paying it. got my P60 however on the 7 april from Compusource stating my tax and NI payments for the year. Taking the p60s to the JSA office on thursday and see what they say.

Cheers, Ram

[lucyclarityumbrella]

Signed on couple of weeks ago for contribution based JSA. To my surprise, got a letter that I am not eligible for JSA as I haven't paid enough NI contributions for the past two years. I have been full time under Excellium and then Compusource for the last four years. Not sure why HMRC stating I have not paid NI. Either a mistake on their behalf or the umbrella company not been paying it. got my P60 however on the 7 april from Compusource stating my tax and NI payments for the year. Taking the p60s to the JSA office on thursday and see what they say.

Cheers, Ram

Hi Ram
If you want to PM me with your daily rate and any expenses you may have put through I can let you know what your NI contributions should have been. It may give you somewhere to start from.

[Safe Collections]

We have been watching this thread for a while now and just wanted to give you all a heads up, it would appear that Compusource Ltd company number 7723428 is now kaput, or very close to it.

According to Companies House, the director Mr Michael Thomas Gordon resigned on the 1st of April 2014. At this time the company does not have any officers and a limited company can not exist in any meaningful sense with no one to direct it.

The full listing from CH for Mr Gordon is as follows:

TREVOR COTTAGE THE GREEN
HORSTED KEYNES
HAYWARDS HEATH
WEST SUSSEX
ENGLAND
RH17 7AW
Appointed: 22/01/2013
Resigned: 01/04/2014
Nationality: BRITISH
Occupation: DIRECTOR

Country/State of Residence: UNITED KINGDOM
Date of Birth: 28/03/1954
Appointments: 716

This is all public domain stuff so assuming no issue posting here. Strange old company set up. Michael Gordon and Darren Symes have literally hundreds of current and previous directorships. the sole sharehold is Paramount Properties (UK) ltd whose shareholder is Neil Cohen. Paramount Properties also on the board of many other companies (quite a few with Darren Symes on board also). Turnaround specialists? Serial entrepreneurs maybe?

Is the company still trading?

Given that CH has 716 other appointments listed for Mr Gordon we suspect that his involvement was limited to being "the name on the door" so to speak, it is entirely possible that he had no direct control over Compusource Ltd.

Looking at some of the addresses and companies related to Mr Gordon would appear to support this theory. Mr Gordon is the director of at least one company formation and administration company and this company is listed as a co-director in many cases.

This set up, whilst certainly unusual, is as far as we are aware, entirely legal. We would surmise that the real operator of this company is what is called a shadow director, Ie they control the business but do not appear on any official records.

Given what others have said and the fact the company is now without a director we do wonder if anyone will receive any further payments. But it would appear that currently at least some assets must remain if the company is paying off CCJs. If you are in the process of securing one or have one already, our suggestion is to issue the warrant ASAP as this appears to have triggered payment for Mulder.

If you haven't issued proceedings yet it may be worth trying, or you could potentially look at other avenues as employees of the company. The CAB have a fact sheet here (Pdf 40KB - Basic guidance) that deals with what to do if your employer doesn't pay and the Guardian has a useful article here. PCG members may also want to call the Legal helpline in the MyPCG Section of the site here. Unfortunately we don't often deal with non-payment of wages unless we have a tribunal award to pursue, so we can't offer any real advice on this aspect.

As far as trying to find out exactly what happened here, we have spoken to a contact at the BIS this morning, as we often refer contractors to the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate if they have issues with a recruitment agency. Unfortunately we have been advised that the EAS do not have the remit to look at an umbrella company.

In that case your only real option as far as we can see is for one or more creditors to begin the process of formally declaring Compusource Ltd as insolvent. The court will likely appoint the Official Receiver to act as the liquidator in the interim and they should investigate and report to creditors both on the financial situation and the conduct of the officers.

But the OR may not be the best choice in this instance as they are essentially civil servants, the creditors could choose to try and vote in the appointment of an independent Insolvency Practitioner who may be more inclined to investigate properly, but the creditors would have to fund this themselves.

Our estimation of costs for this would be in the region of £7k. £2k in court and legal fees to wind the company up and in the region of £5k to cover the IP's fees. These fees could be shared between a number of creditors if they wished to work together.

Any creditor/s considering this needs to be aware that even if malfeasance is proven, and that is by no means guaranteed, that winding the company up is unlikely to assist in recovering what is owed. However it may give you an opportunity to pursue a personal liability (but in our experience this is very, very rare).

As stated above, if the company is not formally declared insolvent it will simply sit on the live register of companies until such time as it is struck off for failing to file accounts and this could take years.

Hopefully that helps someone, if you have any questions in relation to the above please feel free to ask

As always this advice/info supplied on the basis of what is in this thread and what we have pieced together, it most definitely does not constitute formal legal or professional advice!

[cojak]

Many thanks SC.

[shorttooth]

Thanks for the information from all sides. Just wanted to let people know my particular experience. I submitted a Money Claim one week ago today. Apparently I must wait 14 days before following it up. Unfortunately, no money has come my way yet, and I have to wait 14 days from the point the claim should have been served to them, before I can issue a warrant etc.

[Safe Collections]

Thanks for the information from all sides. Just wanted to let people know my particular experience. I submitted a Money Claim one week ago today. Apparently I must wait 14 days before following it up. Unfortunately, no money has come my way yet, and I have to wait 14 days from the point the claim should have been served to them, before I can issue a warrant etc.

If no defence or notification from the debtor is received you can normally apply to enter judgment 28 days after the proceedings are issued.

You can get an excellent guide on small claims from the Civil Justice Council on the Judiciary.gov site here.