Oh heh ok now I've actually read it.... much worse than they realised etc. Poor mugs who propped it up last year just ended up giving LJ a bit of his own money back. Christs sake.
On Tom Baker’s birthday the other day somebody upped an interview with him from 1978 when he describes a typically dissolute day including coffee at ‘Valerie’s’, and that was how it was best, before the bloated expansion. Oh, and fvck LJ in the hoop.
I was reading about this and wondering if internet banking has made this stuff easier. Once upon a time there would have been paper statements and cheque books and the like for the two secret overdrafts lying around the office so it's likely other people would know about them. These days you could conceivably have the FD as the sole person who even knows of the accounts and has access to them and the only way someone else will know they exist is if they go through his browsing history on his computer.
I’m not usually Luke Johnson’s biggest fan, but he seems to have acted quite decently here, putting in his own cash in order to try and make a run of it.
It looks like fraud on a massive scale of they’re talking about thousands of false entries in the accounts, and I suspect that means it goes wider than the FD. As above, wtf are the auditors doing if they aren’t spotting this? It doesn’t seem like the FD was doing this for personal gain, and I just don’t see why you would do it.
What price for a hugely expensive and lengthy fraud trial ending in acquittal on all charges?
Zero sounds to me like the old tale of FD screwed up then went further and further trying to cover his tracks thinking things would turn around and he could quietly pay the money back and get away with it. Typical gambling mentality to some extent.
"Did you have to go to jail,
Put your house up for sale, did you get a good lawyer?
I hope you didn't catch a tan,
I hope you'll find the right man who'll fix it for ya...Valerieeee"
LJ seems to have been quite decent about this. He is the biggest shareholder and has lost most. He put in £20M when it first went down the pan, later reduced to £10M by the refi. More recently he put in £3M to make sure the January wages were paid.
But someone will buy the business out of administration and make a packet as leases will be renegotiated, and so will staff salaries. Suppliers will probably only lose a few weeks' worth if any.
It does all add to the mystery though. As one investor is broadly quoted, it’s a simple business, it makes and sells cakes. Fine, there’s some fraud and misstatement going on but given it’s had c£30(?)million put in to it since then, with a further £10m reverse from where the board thought it could get to 6 months ago to being insolvent now, just what the fvck were the board up to then and since?
Well we don't know if the fraudster was the FD and anyway he'd already been arrested when those other investors bunged in £15m which LJ took and said "thanks lads"....
This is yet another example why one should leave the fook well alone from investing in AIM listed companies. Relatively little regulatory oversight, nefarious activities aplenty , scrutiny hit and miss . There are no end of AIM companies who could list on the main market, they chose not to as they don’t want people looking too closely.
how many stories are there of AIM companies being at it so so to speak? Plenty.
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Thought they were doing a debt for equity on the supersenior stuff. That’s odd.
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Oh heh ok now I've actually read it.... much worse than they realised etc. Poor mugs who propped it up last year just ended up giving LJ a bit of his own money back. Christs sake.
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Can't be arsed to read what went wrong, but assume it had
something to do with Gordon Brown style ' innovative off balance
sheet' debt financing
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Boatload of false ledger entries - it really does look like the auditors are in more than a little shit here.
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How is Giraffe still going? That's owned by the same guys isn't it?
That one in Terminal 2 can't be THAT busy can it?
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I thought one of the supermarkets bought that non?
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LJ has lost it appears a fair amount. He got some of the loan back, but the rest appears unsecured.
since that docu I recall in nineties on Belgo restaurant chain he never appeared a very appealing personality.
i actually like philpots food but they always seemed massively over staffed with their stupid food ordering system and it was pricey.
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Really?!
That's an odd purchase
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I’m on phone and can’t be arsed to check if I’m getting it mixed up with something else.
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Giraffe was bought by Tesco but I think they sold it at a loss
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36496884
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Ok I weakened because I hate being wrong lol. He sold it to tesco who then flogged it on last year to boparan
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Patisserie Valerie too posh for Northerners
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On Tom Baker’s birthday the other day somebody upped an interview with him from 1978 when he describes a typically dissolute day including coffee at ‘Valerie’s’, and that was how it was best, before the bloated expansion. Oh, and fvck LJ in the hoop.
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Was quite nice in the early 2000s, remember going to one in Piccadilly when there must have only been a handful of them in London.
But then the Big Four trained, Oxbridge Private Equity lads came a knockin’ for their profit...
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I first came to London in '95 as a student and having a croissant at Pat Val was such a treat.
Now, it's all vile free coffee because I have a Barclays Bank account.
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I was reading about this and wondering if internet banking has made this stuff easier. Once upon a time there would have been paper statements and cheque books and the like for the two secret overdrafts lying around the office so it's likely other people would know about them. These days you could conceivably have the FD as the sole person who even knows of the accounts and has access to them and the only way someone else will know they exist is if they go through his browsing history on his computer.
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I’m not usually Luke Johnson’s biggest fan, but he seems to have acted quite decently here, putting in his own cash in order to try and make a run of it.
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It looks like fraud on a massive scale of they’re talking about thousands of false entries in the accounts, and I suspect that means it goes wider than the FD. As above, wtf are the auditors doing if they aren’t spotting this? It doesn’t seem like the FD was doing this for personal gain, and I just don’t see why you would do it.
What price for a hugely expensive and lengthy fraud trial ending in acquittal on all charges?
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that is decent. Mike Ashley wouldn't do that.
The problem is that too many opened and the quality went enormously downhill and lots more competition.
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Bernstein has it
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Zero sounds to me like the old tale of FD screwed up then went further and further trying to cover his tracks thinking things would turn around and he could quietly pay the money back and get away with it. Typical gambling mentality to some extent.
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oh yes, the classic double down.
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"Did you have to go to jail,
Put your house up for sale, did you get a good lawyer?
I hope you didn't catch a tan,
I hope you'll find the right man who'll fix it for ya...Valerieeee"
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Mike Ashley is going to end up with HMV I reckon :-(
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Do we know which ones are closing yet? MummyMeh and Lilttlesis are meant to be going there this weekend for afternoon tea!
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Meh -
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46974727
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Yup. Mummy Meh's Pat Val ha shut. Which is a shame as her name is also Val. No Pat for Val.
Sad face.
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LJ seems to have been quite decent about this. He is the biggest shareholder and has lost most. He put in £20M when it first went down the pan, later reduced to £10M by the refi. More recently he put in £3M to make sure the January wages were paid.
But someone will buy the business out of administration and make a packet as leases will be renegotiated, and so will staff salaries. Suppliers will probably only lose a few weeks' worth if any.
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Hang on, he put in £25m then got a load of other people to buy him out of £15m of it.
Then four months later it goes bang. If I were those investors from last year I’d be calling up m’learned friends pdq
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It does all add to the mystery though. As one investor is broadly quoted, it’s a simple business, it makes and sells cakes. Fine, there’s some fraud and misstatement going on but given it’s had c£30(?)million put in to it since then, with a further £10m reverse from where the board thought it could get to 6 months ago to being insolvent now, just what the fvck were the board up to then and since?
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Oddly enough fraudsters like the FD don't put a big sign up telling everyone it's a fraud and what the fraud is.
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Well we don't know if the fraudster was the FD and anyway he'd already been arrested when those other investors bunged in £15m which LJ took and said "thanks lads"....
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This is yet another example why one should leave the fook well alone from investing in AIM listed companies. Relatively little regulatory oversight, nefarious activities aplenty , scrutiny hit and miss . There are no end of AIM companies who could list on the main market, they chose not to as they don’t want people looking too closely.
how many stories are there of AIM companies being at it so so to speak? Plenty.
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True dat. The fact that I worked on a few listings in 2006-2007 for AIM should be sufficient data for roffers to steer well clear ;)
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If you see Sid, tell him.
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One of the administrators has the name Dave Costly-Wood
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Yup it’s the audit which will hurt most. IFRS signed off, just lol @ how much they must be bricking themselves.
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Who were the auditors?
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GT
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