PLEASE APPRECIATE THAT I GET SENT MORE INFORMATION AND LEADS THAN I CAN USE. I TRY TO RESPOND TO EVERYONE WHO CONTACTS ME BUT I CANNOT POSSIBLY USE EVERY BIT OF INFORMATION I’M SENT. DIOLCH YN FAWR
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How better to start a new year than by catching up with old friends and meeting some new faces. Though as many of us – me included! – are still paying the price for recent over-indulgences this is a ‘shortie’, but still very interesting.
I urge you to pay particular attention to the familiar faces’ foray into luxury kitchens.
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UNCIVIL PARTNERS
Some of you, especially those who read the Daily Post, will be aware of the spat between the former owners of Plas Glynllifon and Seiont Manor, Paul and Rowena Williams, and the new owners, represented by Myles Andrew Cunliffe. (Though the Gruesome Twosome and Cunliffe & Associates may still be partners, for who owns what is not entirely clear.)
As I reported in Weep for Wales 15, the first inkling that all was not well came in this December 2 report on the possibility of Plas Glynllifon Ltd being struck off the Companies House register because accounts were overdue.
Though what I found strange was that even though the accounts covered the period before Cunliffe came on the scene it seems to have been him holding back on submitting them.
The accounts for Plas Glynllifon Ltd, due 31 May, have still not been submitted.
Later, in the run-up to Christmas, came news that staff at Seiont Manor were not being paid (again), or else they were being paid late. Things got so bad that just a week before Christmas itself staff staged a protest outside Seiont Manor.
We read: “Mr Cunliffe has stated that neither him or Mylo Capital (his company) are responsible for the wages or the running of the hotel. They say that is down to the tenants, with workers saying Seiont Manor Ltd is the company that pays their wages.”
Here’s a letter sent to Seiont Manor staff ‘explaining’ why they haven’t been paid. Though I’m told that certain employees ‘loyal’ to the management were paid, it’s just the majority – 25 in total – that lost out.
Note how the message ends with, effectively – ‘We didn’t start this, but we’re we’re gonna finish it. Oh yeah!’ It seems there are some people who just can’t write anything without it containing a threat, explicit or implied.
And then, when the unpaid staff tried to get their money, their elected spokesman was given the old heave-ho for ‘gross misconduct’! I am delighted to report that this latest attempt at intimidation has backfired gloriously.
An application has been accepted to have the unpaid employees’ case heard at a tribunal, and it’s hoped this will be held in mid-February. Also, Companies House has been informed of the dispute (in case anyone should try to dissolve the company).
UPDATE: BBC Cymru reports that there is to be a hearing in the High Court 17 January. Paul and Rowena Williams allege that Companies House documents have been changed without their permission. This could get interesting.
For the record . . . Staff also went unpaid when the Williams duo was in charge. And to my knowledge, there are still two former members of staff waiting to be paid the damages awarded them by Industrial Tribunals against Paul and Rowena Williams.
So it’s a bit rich for the Gruesome Twosome to now present themselves as model employers.
Here’s the letter of dismissal sent to the workers’ representative. It’s a gem of it’s kind, with a few sparklers worth highlighting.
First, the addresses. Whoever penned this masterpiece couldn’t spell ‘Llanrug’ in the hotel’s own address or ‘Caernarfon’ in the addressee’s. There is no quotable reference, no telephone number, no e-mail address, no signature, not even a name. Just ‘Seiont Manor Ltd’. The sole director of Seiont Manor is Thomas Jacob Hindle, but I doubt if he wrote this letter.
But anyway, who is Thomas Jacob Hindle?
UPDATE 03.01.2020: Staff have been sent a letter telling them that the hotel is closing. Let’s hope that the ‘Welsh’ media (in English) and local politicians now start taking an interest, because up until now they’ve avoided it like the plague.
UPDATE 04.01.2020: The Seiont Manor gang made the front page of the Daily Post. Though I cannot understand why people like the Williams duo and Cunliffe draw attention to themselves in this way. Given how they operate you’d think they’d want to stay out of the limelight.
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NEW BOY, TOM
Despite him resigning 18 November, ten days after the appointment of Thomas Jacob Hindle as sole director, I’m told Myles Cunliffe still runs Seiont Manor Ltd on behalf of Jon Disley and perhaps others.
On the same day Cunliffe officially left Seiont Manor Ltd Hindle also replaced him as director of Goldmann PLC. Then on 8 November, Hindle became a director of Glynllifon Mansion Ltd, again ‘replacing’ Myles Cunliffe. (Glynllifon Mansion Ltd recently transmogrified into Waterford Interiors Ltd. Read about it in the next section.)
The only other company I can find with which Hindle is linked is T Hindle Consulting Ltd, a company Incorporated as recently as 10 July 2019.
It is universally agreed that Hindle is nothing more than a dupe. One good source even says Hindle’s almost a decent guy, who may not fully understand who and what he’s got himself involved with.
Is Hindle the ‘tenants’ referred to in the Daily Post article?
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WHAT’S COOKING IN THE KITCHEN BUSINESS?
And now we come to a truly bizarre twist in this saga, for on 12 December Glynllifon Mansion Ltd changed its name to Waterford Interiors Ltd, a company specialising in luxury kitchens!
Now I’m used to companies changing their name, and for all sorts of reasons. But this is more than just a change of name, this is shape-shifting. Which at first sight makes no sense . . . unless we do a little digging.
First, let’s look at the Waterford Interiors website.
It looks glossy . . . but sort of basic. It’s supposed to be a family firm in Bolton that’s been in business for “almost 30 years” and yet there’s none of the intimacy one would expect, no names are mentioned. And the images could have been downloaded from the internet.
If you scroll to the bottom of the home page, where you’d expect to find the name of the website designer with the year it was launched or updated, there’s nothing. As I say, this website is very basic, and perhaps unconvincing.
And there seems to have been no company called Waterford Interiors registered with Companies House before Glynllifon Mansion Ltd changed its name last month.
Certainly, someone has been trading as Waterford Interiors in recent years, there’s evidence in this Lancashire Life article from August 2017. The article even gives us the name, Jon Hubbard. Who crops up again on this site of testimonials.
One that caught my attention mentioned “a customer in Marbella, Spain” and I thought to myself – who do we know in Marbella? And then it came to me – Jon Disley was the ‘King of Marbella’, though he may now have come back to Blighty.
But also resident in Marbella is the ‘other’ Cunliffe, Neil, currently director and CEO of Arden Wealth Ltd, which was Incorporated in June 2018 and threatened with strike-off by Companies House last September. Maybe he was the Marbella resident who bought the upmarket (£50,000+) kitchen.
Staying on the Waterford Interiors website, click on the ‘Retailers’ tab and you’ll bring up a page listing five other companies or outlets. (Available here in PDF format.) Here’s what I’ve been able to find out about them:
- Harwood Homes Interiors Ltd (formerly Harwood Holmes!), seems to be the only one listed with Companies House. Though the accounts suggest it might not be in good financial health.
- Blue Swan Design Ltd was dissolved in September 2019.
- Greensmith Interiors Ltd was dissolved in November 2018.
- Luxury London Interiors Ltd was dissolved in May 2019.
- Which just leaves the Kitchen Company of Uxbridge. There are a number of companies using that name registered with CH, but none of them in Uxbridge. But there is such an outlet, and here’s the website. Even though it says the company was set up in 1985 the website only came online in 2019.
So we have six linked companies or retail outlets, three of which have recently been dissolved and the other three may not be in the best of financial heath. And yet the Waterford Interiors website looks new, so why does it list three dissolved companies? Though if the website’s not new, why hasn’t it been updated?
Or maybe the real question is – why is Thomas Hindle, fronting for Myles Cunliffe, fronting for Jon Disley, getting involved in luxury kitchens?
UPDATE: Although there was no evidence of a company called Waterford Interiors, I have been told of a kitchen furniture company called Waterford Reproductions Ltd, in Farnworth, Bolton.
Also in Farnworth, there was a company called Waterford Freeman Ltd, until it was voluntarily dissolved 2 April 2019.
The deadline for submission of Waterford Reproductions’ accounts was 31 December, and a cynic might suggest it’s about to go the same way as Waterford Freeman. Which would make it attractive to the kinds of people who appear in this saga.
UPDATE 03.01.2020: As might be expected, Waterford Reproductions is being dissolved. Here’s the notice from The Gazette. So once again we see Myles Andrew Cunliffe getting involved with companies about to go belly-up. Doesn’t anyone wonder why?
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And, finally . . . North Wales Police has had a quiet word with Myles Cunliffe regarding his penchant for threatening letters delivered by hand after dark.
I’ve received two, so far. The first 26 March, and the second 28 August. Plus of course letters from solicitors.
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