Tutti Frutti, Good Booty (Little Richard)

On 18/04/202418/04/2024 By JacIn Corruption Bay, Public Funding, Welsh Business Community, Welsh Government32 Comments

No, this is not a homage to the founder of Rock ‘n’ Roll, but I’ve used the title of his timeless classic because it kinda fits. But my use of it is not an endorsement of the original (and thankfully expunged) lyrics.

Truth is, I used the song because Tutti Frutti can of course refer to ice cream. It’s Italian for ‘all fruits’.

To explain . . . About a month or so back someone drew my attention to an article in the Daily Post about an ice cream company on Ynys Môn coming back from the dead.

This report can be read as written, though my source hints there’s more to it than meets the eye. So I delved, and it took me on quite a journey.

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MAYDAY! MAYDAY! RED BOAT SINKING!

The company you’re going to read about is The Red Boat (Ice Cream Parlour) Ltd. Set up 9 December 2012. The two shareholders / directors, Anthony Green and Lynda Green. Presumably husband and wife.

To set the scene, here’s the company’s main retail outlet, 34 Castle Street, Beaumaris. (Image from December 2021.) There were other outlets, including Prestatyn.

Also, a ‘production hub‘ on Pen yr Orsedd industrial estate in Llangefni.

Though just down Castle Street, at the Liverpool Arms Hotel, we find a company called Red Boat Ltd. Owned by a couple named Ormond. It was formed over two years before Red Boat (Ice Cream Parlour) Ltd.

Seeing as it’s always filed as dormant it might be a ‘spoiler’, set up to grab the ‘Red Boat’ name. Which would account for the brackets in the other company’s name.

The Red Boat (Ice Cream Parlour) Ltd (hereinafter referred to as RBICP) was put into administration on January 30. After which things moved very quickly.

And for a small company there are interesting players involved, some as far away as San Francisco; and considerable governmental involvement.

I just hope I can make sense of it all. Anyway, sit back and enjoy!

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THE SHAPE-SHIFTING ACCOUNTANTS OF FLINTSHIRE

RBICP used as its registered address accountants Hill & Roberts, at 50 High Street, Mold, Flintshire. It’s the doorway next to the bank, plus the top floor.

There seem to be a number of entries with Companies House for Hill & Roberts Ltd, but the only entry I can find for the company itself is this one.

The address is right, but the company name uses ‘and’ rather than an ampersand (&). And if that wasn’t confusing enough, the only director of Hill and Roberts Ltd is Dylan Vaughan Evans.

There was a Maes Hyfryd Cyf, of Mold, formerly known as Cyfrifwyr Hill & Roberts Accountants Ltd (until 31.10.2019). The directors were Hilary Baines, Ffion Eleri Hampson, and Richard Andrew Roberts.

And also Baines & Roberts Ltd (27.06.2017 – 05.01.2021), with Roberts the majority shareholder. Ffion Eleri Hampson set up Cyfrifwyr H & R Accountants Ltd, again in Mold.

But let’s not overlook HB Accountants, found behind another Mold doorway. This one 8A Chester Street, next-door to and above the constituency office of Bob Roberts MP.

Heading into the sunset, I also found a Hill & Roberts office in Bala. At 76 High Street, behind the war memorial.

The entities not using ‘Ltd’ or ‘Cyf’, are almost certainly partnerships. Perfectly legal, but confusing when we see the same people pop up in different combinations and under slightly different labels.

But what might cause me some concern would be that the companies registered with Companies House (apart from Hill and Roberts Ltd) seem to be very short-lived, and file hardly anything.

Anyway, let’s zip along the A55 back to Beaumaris.

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REARRANGING THE DECK CHAIRS?

As the article I linked to explains, to get around the financial difficulties afflicting RBICP, a new company was formed in January this year. This was The Artisan Gelato Group Ltd (TAGG). When formed, with a single penny share, the sole director was named as Kelly Donald Pattullo.

TAGG then bought RBICP. To quote the Daily Post article . . .

KBL Advisory approached in January. After discussions it was decided that a pre-pack administration was the best way forward . . . A formal offer was received by (sic) Artisan Gelato Group Ltd.

This was recommended for acceptance by JPS Chartered Surveyors. It was sold to them for £42,000. Employees were transferred over to the new business . . .

So, in February 2024, RBICP went into receivership owing trade creditors money; £213,000 to the ‘Welsh Government’s Development Bank of Wales, and over a hundred thousand to solicitors, administrators, and other professionals.

Another debt mentioned in the administrator’s report (2.6), alongside DBW, is ‘White Oak’, which I hadn’t encountered in the company’s accounts. White Oak Europe, Ltd offers credit facilities, with the directors all US citizens giving the same San Francisco address.

RBICP’s two outstanding debts with the Development Bank of Wales seem to have transferred to TAGG.

So who is Kelly Donald Pattullo? Well, that’s a good question. And while I may not have the full answer, I can at least give you some more information.

It seems Kelly Frances Donald-Pattullo and Samuel Malcolm Pattullo now own the premises used by Red Boat (Ice Cream Parlour) Ltd at 34 Castle Street in Beaumaris. They bought it at the end of May 2022. The stated price being £525,000.

This is corroborated in the Administrator’s report (2.5).

From the Administrator’s report / proposals for Red Boat (Ice Cream Parlour) Ltd. Click to open enlarged in separate tab

A year later the Pattullos formed 34Castle Ltd, a company involved in the ‘Manufacture of ice cream’. So what’s the relationship between the Pattullos and the Greens?

There has to be one. And it must go back to at least the May 2022 purchase of 34 Castle Street. Almost two years before Kelly Pattullo formed TAGG and took over Red Boat (Ice Cream Parlour) Ltd.

Yet to read the documents filed with Companies House one might think that TAGG came out of the blue.

(Seeing as we’re talking of Italian ice cream, and in case you’re thinking the ‘Pattullo’ name is Italian, it is in fact Scottish. I believe the first element is Pictish, the second Gaelic.)

In the documents filed with Companies House, and specifically the Administrator’s report, we read that Covid is claimed to have played a big part in the RBICP downfall. But the company was already in trouble before the Covid virus was released from a Chinese laboratory.

This is shown in the accounts up to 31 March 2020. These figures cover the summer of 2019 when people were sauntering around Beaumaris enjoying their ice creams.

The accounts suggest that the little Red Boat was heading up Shit Creek at a rate of knots. Just look under ‘Creditors’ (page 2). That figure, £524,678, has gone up over half a million quid in one year!

And while much of it will be accounted for by the DBW loans most, I suspect, refers to the LDF-White Oak hire purchase loans. For it ties in with the rise in ‘Tangible fixed assets’ (page 6) from £246,829 in 2019 to £648,006 in 2020.

The unaudited financial statement submitted by Cyfrifwyr Hill & Roberts of 8a Chester Street, Mold, does not identify the tangible fixed assets, nor does it tell us on what the borrowed money was spent.

As you’ve read, the Administrator’s report of February 2024 says: ‘In May 2022, the Company sold one of its former business premises to support the cash position.’

This has to refer to 34 Castle Street, sold to the Pattullos for £525,000. This influx of cash should then show in the accounts up to 31 March 2023. But I can’t see it.

Where did it go?

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THE RESCUE SHIPS TAKE ON SURVIVORS!

Once it started pulling away from the doomed craft the good ship Artisan Gelato saw many changes on board in a short space of time.

To begin with, two weeks after launch, Kelly Pattullo was joined at TAGG by Anthony Green, who’d presumably swum from the Red Boat. Then we learnt that Green had taken control of the new company at the start of February.

But of more interest, maybe, was the piping aboard of Richard Elmitt. (Am I overdoing the nautical references? “Yes, Jac”.)

Here’s his Linkedin details. In May 2012 he made a couple of career moves.

First, he formed his own company, Redatum Ltd. (Though according to Companies House, this actually happened in April 2011.)

But of more interest to us is that he joined BIC Innovation Ltd, a management consultancy. This outfit is based in Gaerwen, on Ynys Môn. (Though the Linkedin page says Bridgend.) ‘Significant influence’ is exercised by Huw Geraint Watkins.

Watkins is director at a number of other companies. Including Sector Development Wales Partnership Ltd, an agency of the so-called ‘Welsh Government’, trading as ‘Industry Wales‘.

The thought of those socialist buffoons in Corruption Bay directing any ‘strategy’ for our SMEs is quite terrifying. Especially as the Industry Wales website doesn’t seem to have been updated for years.

You may recall Nicola Kneale, a director of RBICP from January 2016 to January 2018, when she worked for Denbighshire County Council. This was likely connected with RBICP leasing the Roundhouse on Prestatyn prom from the council.

Well, last December, Nicola joined Local Partnerships LLP. Here’s the website, and here’s the Companies House entry.

I’m fairly sure there’s a connection between Local Partnerships, owned by the Treasury, LGA, ‘Welsh Government’; Industry Wales, owned by ‘Welsh Government’; and BIC Innovation on Ynys Môn, where the Treasury is a major shareholder.

On the surface, all would now appear to be hunky-dory. Everything and everyone has been salvaged, spruced up, and the re-named Red Boat (Ice Cream Parlour) Ltd is ready to sail serenely on as The Artisan Gelato Group Ltd.

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CONCLUSION

Fundamentally, I believe we are dealing with a kind of deception; not necessarily illegal, but still naughty.

Clearly, the Greens of Red Boat (Ice Cream Parlour) Ltd and Kelly Pattullo of The Artisan Gelato Group Ltd knew each other from at least May 2022, when she and Samuel Pattullo are said to have bought the ice cream shop at 34 Castle Street, Beaumaris.

Next, I believe it was decided to do away with RBICP. A speedy disposal via a pre-pack administration deal was decided upon, and at the start of 2024 the company was ‘put up for sale’.

Along came TAGG, with sole director Kelly Pattullo, snapping up RBICP for a bargain-basement price of £42,000. Soon after, Anthony Green of RBICP became a director, and now he controls the new company.

But with Tony Green in charge of The Artisan Gelato Group Ltd since 1 February he effectively sold Red Boat (Ice Cream Parlour) Ltd to himself.

That was always the intention. The ‘sale’ was a charade.

Another worry concerns 34 Castle Street. Was it really sold in May 2022, or was it simply a ploy by a company in financial difficulties to remove a valuable asset from the reach of creditors?

Because as I’ve said, according to the Administrator’s report the money from this sale was ploughed back into RBICP. But I see no evidence of this in the 2023 accounts.

Click to open enlarged in separate tab

Which would make sense if the property wasn’t really sold, but merely transferred under some clever arrangement to disguise ownership. These things are done.

So many questions. If you know any of the answers, stick ’em in a bottle and chuck it in the sea. I’ll get it eventually.

To help you follow this saga, I’ve drawn up a little timeline of events.

♦ end ♦

A Chance To Be Decisive

On 21/08/202321/08/2023 By JacIn Colonialism8 Comments

This offering starts out as a quickie, and I hope it stays that way. But as you know, these things have a way of growing.

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PORTHMADOG

The origin for this piece was an article in last week’s Cambrian News. After a front-page intro the story was set out inside. And here it is.

The same story appeared a couple of days earlier in NorthWalesLive and, presumably, the Daily Post.

This link to Google maps shows the land in question on the Penamser Industrial Estate in Porthmadog. Overlooked by Travis Perkins and Travelodge.

Local politicians claim that the self-styled ‘Welsh Government’ has some kind of “exclusivity agreement” with a company that has resulted in this land gathering weeds while local businesses want to set up or expand on that land.

The company in question is Morbaine Ltd, of Widnes, in Cheshire.

Here’s a contribution to the dispute from local Plaid councillor Nia Jeffreys.

“It makes no sense at all that public money is being spent on this site whilst the Welsh Government is standing in the way of job creation in Porthmadog. They must seriously reconsider their decision and their priorities for the sake of our local economy.”

For God’s sake, woman, don’t use words like “economy” when dealing with the ‘Welsh Government’! Language like that could have Drakeford falling off his bike.

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WHAT CAN COMPANIES HOUSE TELL US?

The CH entry for Morbaine Ltd seems to confirm what the website tells us about it being a family-owned firm. And that the family is named Finlan, though there are other directors.

When we turn to the Charges tab we see loans and other arrangements related to property and land in Wales, Scotland, and England. With 48 of them outstanding. There were a number of mentions for Caernarfon Road, Bangor.

This would appear to be the area of retail units on the edge of the city which, coming from Caernarfon, start with the Tesco Extra store on the roundabout. This must have made Morbaine a few quid.

The financials certainly seem to have perked up last year, with accounts to 30 June 2022 showing a profit of £727,251 against a loss of £1,168,055 the previous year.

I mentioned the new directors, and this may link with “significant control” passing in March from John Finlan who, if he’s still alive, is 98, to Morbaine Properties Ltd.

So what’s the story with Morbaine Properties? Well, there are 13 outstanding charges. With the latest accounts showing a gross profit of £5.24m on a turnover of just £6.87m. Which is quite impressive.

The entry for significant control shows John William Finlan who, at 31 years old, I take to be the grandson of the old man I just mentioned. Yet this entry might be misleading.

And I say that because when we turn to a document filed on June 22 showing the distribution of shares, we see that John William Finlan is a minority shareholder. And that’s been the case for some years.

Finlan owns just 60 out of a total of 200 shares. With 100 being held by “Helen Woods Equiom (Isle of Man) Ltd”, and another 30 by “Equiom (Isle of Man) Ltd Helen Woods”. (To make sense of the entry note that some listings are for 0 shares.)

Here’s Helen Woods’ Linkedin profile. You’ll see that she’s, “Tax Director at Hotchkiss Associates Limited Isle of Man”.

So through holding most of the shares, Helen Woods / Equiom of the Isle of Man, now owns the company that has some kind of deal with the ‘Welsh Government’.

Or so it might appear at first sight.

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WHO OWNS WHO?

As you’d expect, Equiom is quite a big outfit. I get the impression it provides legal and other services for even bigger fish. One of which seems to have swallowed it.

For an online search revealed that Equiom was taken over last year by Alcentra. Here’s the Alcentra website. With offices in London, New York, Boston, Tokyo and Hong Kong Alcentra has “Total Assets Under Management” of $34bn.

But as the website tells us, Alcentra itself is now owned by somebody else:

Alcentra is a wholly owned subsidiary of Franklin Resources, Inc. (Franklin Templeton) which is one of the world’s largest independent investment managers with $1.4 trillion in total assets under management

And this was another takeover achieved last year.

From what I can see, Franklin is still independent and owned by the Johnson brothers of Silicon Valley. And Franklin Resources are certainly big fish, listed at number 20 in this, “World’s Top Asset Management Firms”. A list headed of course by BlackRock and Vanguard.

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BUT WHAT ABOUT THE LAND?

Tracking something on the Land Registry website can be straightforward if you have an address or a title number. But in this case it’s just land in the vicinity of Penamser Road.

Still, I tried my luck. And the site is easy enough to locate, it’s in the centre of this OS Land Registry map.

This helped me track down, “Land lying on the North side of Penamser Road, Porthmadog (Freehold)”. Title number WA612872. And here is the 30-page title document, but unfortunately there was no plan available.

We see that the owners of the land are, “The National Assembly for Wales”.

A search of the title document turned up two mentions of “Morbaine”.

The first, on page 24, refers to an “option to purchase the land edged mauve”. But without a plan we can’t locate this land. This entry is dated November 26, 1991. It was an agreement between Morbaine and the Welsh Development Agency (WDA).

The second entry is on the penultimate page and it reads:

That title number, CYM402906 refers to land now occupied by Travelodge. It was sold by Morbaine Ltd to Sunville Properties Ltd. Here’s the title document, scroll down for the plan.

From which I conclude that the original title WA612872 covered the land sold off for the Travelodge plus the land now being discussed.

Which means that a week or so before selling it on Morbaine bought the land from “The Welsh Ministers”. And without doing anything, sold the land to Sunville at a profit.

Nice work if you can get get it.

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AND FINALLY . . .

The problem with the land at Penamser Road is that Morbaine has an option to buy. But claims it can’t do so until the ‘Welsh Government’ carries out “remedial works“.

Which will of course be paid for from the public purse.

“The current position is that we are still waiting for the Welsh Government to deal with various issues on the site as part of the land transfer . . . Following these works we hope to then be able to progress expressions of interest received in the site from retail operators. The site has an extant retail consent.

“From our position it has been extremely frustrating that addressing these remedial works has taken so long.”

It has always been the case that too much of the money made in Wales leaves Wales. The Travelodge money-for-old-rope deal suggests Morbaine is just another company making money out of Wales while contributing nothing.

Devolution has made things worse, with successive administrations wanting to single-handedly save the planet, fight trans genocide, confront the fascist hordes . . . which in practice means throwing money at global corporations, unhinged narcissists, and grant-grab grifters.

I think Morbaine – or whoever now owns the company – should be told that 32 years is long enough to sit on an option to buy. And so the ‘Welsh Government’ is cancelling that arrangement and asserting full control over the land at Penamser Road.

Because, if, as the councillors say, there is “local interest to develop the land and create jobs“, then local businesses should take priority over Morbaine’s clients, who will almost certainly come from over the border.

The ‘Welsh Government’ can be decisive enough when it comes to making mistakes; here’s a chance to get something right for a change, and help Welsh people.

Remember us?

♦ end ♦

Jac o' the North

Tag: Porthmadog

Tutti Frutti, Good Booty (Little Richard)

A Chance To Be Decisive