It's now 3 days since staff were laid off and locked out. Still not received our codes for claiming redundancy (which will take 6 weeks even when the process begins!). Absolute farce for the people left behind.

We've also begun pursuing advice over 4 months of pension contributions which have been literally stolen from the staff wages and never deposited into a pension fund.

'Angry' doesn't even begin to cover how people feel right now. 

Noticeable that Gleek hasnt resigned from his directorship on his property venture though.  That must be a sound, non-fraud, going concern.  The other director - Pragnesh Modhwadia....

Ince staff - you need to start compiling your victim statements for the sentencing hearing. The ex-management at Ince have something to answer for.

You really do have to wonder why the regulator doesn’t play a bigger part in M&A (if it had the capability). Lawyers are spectacularly good at the legality of M&A, spectacularly inept at the more rounded requirements of actually doing it! You have to feel very very sorry for 99.9% of those involved. Wild Wild West!

It baffles me that any of these directors are employable. They are going to spend the foreseeable dealing with regulators, administrators and the courts all at the same time as trying to not be declared personally bankrupt. They will have ex employees after them by the dozen and some of them must be implicated by the fraud. Has any new employer thought about any of this???? 

Who's the next one to fail? Popcorn at the ready. Reckon Rosenblatt, Knights or BCLP.

I have found the whole process revolting how the support staff have been treated is horrific. And how AxiomInce have continued to rob money from our pay for non existent pension contributions when questioned no response.. they have been absolutely horrendous!!

The SRA have been more concerned for the CLIENT than those left struggling because of their incompetence they are just as much to blame for this mess they have behaved very insensitively! Almost cocky and with no shame swaggering around the London office questioning us on security which made me laugh as they couldn’t arrange a piss up at a brewery they are just as BENT as Pragnesh Modhwadia in my opinion! 

How the wider media hasn’t latched on to this hideous spectacle is beyond me! 

Directors gone and no word! A so called ‘skeleton crew’ have not had their employment terminated and have been left behind to clear up, help the SRA and the administrator (once/if appointed). No confirmation on what they have to do or who and how they will get paid! They can’t even leave now as that means forfeiting their redundancy and they get nothing! Talk about a final insult to injury!

I would urge anyone reading this to go onto Companies House and make a note of the Directors and spread word not to employ the useless, spineless pathetic individuals!

Absolutely disgusting what you have done to everyone! You need to hold your heads in shame until karma comes for you! 

Unhelpful cheap shot by the blogger in my opinion. It appears none of the directors resigned when this came out, they stayed to try and help. People shouldn't be damned for trying to earn a living. 

@A balanced view

You must be joking. There has been no help. None.

"People shouldn't be damned for trying to earn a living."

What about pimps?

I think that pimps should be damned for trying to earn a living.

Wouldn't worry too much about your 4 months of pensions contributions...perhaps better focus on getting a new job?

Amazed anyone stuck around until the bitter end...sheep like behaviour and Plexus staff who went through this 2x before should have leant something and known better. Head in the sand...

Let's mark this:

1. 'It appears none of the directors resigned when this came out'

Wrong. They announced this week they were starting new jobs.

2. 'they stayed to try and help'

Wrong. Unless you define 'stayed' as 'stayed long enough to see the SRA come in as they fastwalked the other way down the road'.

3. 'People shouldn't be damned for trying to earn a living.'

Irrelevant. Management should be held to account when they are in charge of a business and run away and leave everyone to fend for themselves after it all goes wrong.

0/3 must try harder

I wouldn’t touch any one of the partners with a 20 foot pole, any firm that is taking on those directors/partners clearly is a red flag

@a balanced view 

you’re either a director trying to defend the indefensible or an outsider unaware of what is going on here.

you would not believe it if you weren’t involved first hand. Yes this has all been triggered by Pragnesh thinking he deserved a life he was incapable of but the directors have made error after error. They have tried to be uninvolved. They have pretended they don’t have directors duties. They have pretended they are victims. And they have made no meaningful communication to the support staff full stop. Then three of them resigned on Monday (and the majority of others started new jobs on Monday despite not actually resigning). 
they are a collective disgrace and whilst they may (note MAY) not have stolen £64m their behaviour since august has been an absolute disgrace. The damage they have caused to 100s of staff, unnecessarily, through a complete dereliction of duty is unforgivable. And the vast majority of what you read here is true but is only half the truth. Hopefully it all comes out… 

@a balanced view

Guessing your a director trying to justify your massive failings?

A balanced view

i understand the need for free speech but please shut up

If all the directors resign and leaving only Prags, Iddy and shamlo. Could Prags disinstruct the action against himself ?

f***ing mess !  

@amazed

So you don't think people should worry about having hundreds of pounds stolen from them? You think people should just suck that up and let the thieves get away with it? What an odd perspective to have!

I can't imagine anyone having that opinion unless they were involved in the theft.

'Amazed 06' there are some very good people who worked at Plexus Law - be nice please. 

Thanks for your advice though - really appreciated .

My advice to you....

Go and play with snakes (Cobras are cute things), if you have no access to snakes an alternative would be go and play on the motorway and have some fun kiddo. Bless ya 

Haha I just bought a swimming pool !! I’m having water flown in (business class of course) from Bahamas to fill it ! Haha

Amazed 06 October 23 10:17

Wouldn't worry too much about your 4 months of pensions contributions...perhaps better focus on getting a new job?

Amazed anyone stuck around until the bitter end...sheep like behaviour and Plexus staff who went through this 2x before should have leant something and known better. Head in the sand...
DICK HEAD 

@balancedview - you absolute b*ll end! That comment backfired on you pretty quickly!

Unbelievable 🤣

I know it's a rival site, but can we give a shout out to Bianca at the Gazette for (I'm fairly sure) only mentioning the location of an Axiom-related hearing so that she could get the words "bacon" and "rolls" in such close proximity?

Respek. 

https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/court-hears-of-former-axiom-ince-chiefs-late-decision-to-instruct-solicitors/5117441.article

Interesting to note that Daniel Gleek remains a director of Pragma Fortune Ltd and that a co-director is none other than Pragnesh Modhwadia. 

Also interesting that the nature of business is:

• Buying and selling of own real estate.
• Other letting and operating of own or leased real estate.

So:

• Did Modhwadia introduce any funds into the company? As the accounts say the company owes him £190K, I guess he did.
• What was the source of those funds?

How fitting that, in the week that Liz Truss is welcomed back on stage to lecture us all about where the economy is going wrong and how to fix it, former directors of Axiom Ince are all over social media celebrating their career progression.

Whatever happened to shame, humility, or even basic levels of self-awareness?

I hear there are a few Directors left from the plexus side that are tirelessly trying to help those left behind and have done an amazing job with transferring of client files over the last couple of months.

Getting answers from the elusive Axiom board of Directors was non existent previously so I would imagine the plexus Directors are really up against it trying to get anything now. 
 

There’s a few that clearly appreciate your efforts but the rest of that board can go f*ck themselves! 

Big shout out and congratulations to the SRA for a job well butchered!

We haven’t seen these levels of continued incompetence since Boris Johnson's “Partygate”, and ironically not unlike good old Bojo they too deny the part they played in the handling of the situation. Quite honestly, I have seen more intelligence in my cat litter tray after the cat has used it than I have within the SRA.

As many, many other people have said across a number of platforms, plain and simply the SRA are not fit for purpose, they need a radical overhaul, new leadership and the handling of the Axiom/Ince/Plexus situation needs to be thoroughly and independently investigated.

Betty Swollox 06 October 23 13:06 But the SRA said they’d dealt with it just fine!

"Daniel Gleek remains a director of Pragma Fortune Ltd and that a co-director is none other than Pragnesh Modhwadia"

I quite like 'to Pragma' as a new verb. A word inspired by the life and times of Pragnesh Modhwadia which can be used to describe the act of fruitlessly squandering money, possibly with a connotation of graft or breach of trust.

So you could say thinks like: 

A: How's your pension doing Jim? 

B: Dreadful, it got completely pragmaed by my IFA putting it all into Haitian penny shares.

Or even:

A: Haitian penny shares? Why did he do that, isn't it a shithole country?

B: Hey, you can't call it that! Just because the country's ruling elite pragma all of its wealth on coke and hooker binges in Paris and New York doesn't make the entire nation a shithole.

Donald Trump: I think it's a shithole.

B: Shut up, you pragma more money than anyone!

and so on and so forth.

Shocking these Director's have resigned leaving their staff in limbo, do they honestly think they can absolve themselves from responsibilities by distancing themselves from the problem?

Pathetic!

Any sighting of Jonathan Metliss? 

@14.39

Yes Metliss is around.  He has stat demanded the company for two months unpaid fees, he's then resigned with immediate effect and demanded payment for his three months notice period.

I shit you not...

Classless.  Like the rest of them

What about the international offices? What is happening there? They seem to be trading on … 

Any sighting of David Wershof? Last seen in Spain while former Wiseman Lee office Wanstead intervened by SRA. Dereliction or what!

I think a good lesson here that most lawyers should stick to fee earning, and not attempt to run a business. Look at any other industry and you will struggle to find a boardroom full of lawyers acting as directors. In any other industry, you'll find one lawyer in the boardroom, the GC.

Bad acquisitions, bad hires, bad retention of superstar Partners, bad financial management.

We haven't heard the last of this scandal.

As others have said, how this joke hasn't been reported by the media in any meaningful way is bizarre.

It'll be interesting to see if those directors are able to slink away and avoid any responsibility for the failure to safeguard the client account.

£64 mil disappears from the client account and nobody is any the wiser? What were the checks and balances in place re. payment authorisations? Was a blind eye turned for all payments to "the Bank of Pragz"?

I've seen piggy banks managed better.

Does the staggering incompetence amount to breach of fiduciary duty? Have they fallen so below the reasonable standard expected of directors that there's and argument for criminal negligence?

All interesting questions to ponder.

Watch this space...

With all this plus the Wombles what a sorry state solicitors are in. Hope the SRA can start to sort this lot out for all our sakes.

It’s axiomatic that a massive fraud has been perpetrated. The extent of those culpable, directly or indirectly will be revealed - their identities are already known. Their guilt is merely a matter of extent.

What is baffling is the tardiness and indolence of those tasked with investigating it. The inactivity is currently masquerading as indifference and incompetence. If it carries on any longer it will, rightly, be considered as connivance.

You’re either part of the solution or your part of the problem. I would ignore every single process and protocol expected by the court and the regulator in relation to this and instead be singing from the treetops. Whistleblowers are outside the realm of those with a vested interest in limiting the extent of the stench - ie the profession and those expected to regulate it. Both has failed catastrophically. Time to shine powerful spot lamps on this incredible situation. 

It is what it is and very unfortunate, but it is not unfortunate it is pre meditated and the Sra can reverse timely actions to hold those accountable to accountability. Whilst the current situation is what it is = It is a timeline repeating issue of the entire history of the name of Ince right back to at least 2017 via Gordon Dadds and the Sra need to reverse engineer the current situation and beyond to the starting point and hold all accountable. The Sra CEO Paul Phillip made a statement that is utter tosh and now needs to admit it and reverse engineer the whole actual situation and not just the past few months 

Hello !!!! What about The Ince Group PLC ??? The SRA let them off Scott Free and skulk away over only what could be accounted for of £44 million which was more like £80 plus. And nobody has done any due diligence to trace the missing gargantuan millions???!!! Axiom is easy. Now do your duty and work for those that you are supposed to protect dear SRA

Thou shall never vanquish the Dark Lord - I have dozens of Horcruxes still up my sleeve!! 

Looking at this without knowledge other than reports such as these, and from a distance, I find it inconceivable that one man could have taken £64m from client account, seemingly over an extended period of time, without anyone else in a responsible position such as director, noticing that at least some questions needed to be asked as part of their duties. I'm not even going to imagine how it had its annual accountant's certificate to the SRA.

If the rest of us turn out having to cough up dearly for this fiasco then we'll need to see a number of people struck off, bankrupted or in the dock.

Fish man should be fried 06 October 23 09:28

It baffles me that any of these directors are employable. They are going to spend the foreseeable dealing with regulators, administrators and the courts all at the same time as trying to not be declared personally bankrupt. They will have ex employees after them by the dozen and some of them must be implicated by the fraud. Has any new employer thought about any of this????
 

This is a good point, but it may not be lost on these firms. They want the work, not the people. Some of these partners/directors are gatekeepers to decent books of insurance work. Provided they stay at their new firms long enough for those firms to formalise arrangements with the insurers, said firms will probably quite happily push them under the bus in 12-18 months when all of this catches up with them. 

@Jebbush.  Ermm non lawyers running law firms ah like the ones from private equity who drove Plexus into administration… twice! 😂 

From someone who was on the Plexus side, I have a lot of gratitude and respect for people have worked their n*ts off to get things sorted before this belated intervention. As other people have pointed out the SRA had to intervene, but delayed it for as long as possible to minimise the cost and hassle to itself. Disgraceful, and a derlicition of duty, with the SRA working off the backs of hardworking and loyal people. Respect to people like Elaine B and Tracey S and all of the admin staff who have worked under terrible circumstances for months. Hopefully in years to come we can forget this car crash and look back on the years we worked together with some fondness. Good Luck to everyone previously at Plexus 

Does anyone know if the firm will have 6 years run off PII cover as required by the SRA Rules? It’s a mandatory requirement in cover even after the cessation of a firm and requires no additional premium to be paid - because it’s included in the cover which has now lapsed. No new business can be conducted, but things done in last 6 years should be covered by this. 

All this spite directed at people looking for jobs, or having found jobs, with other firms is an absolute disgrace.  Have some compassion.  

The SRA opened the door to this rat.  It will cost the profession millions.  Will there ever be transparency into what the SRA knew about him and when it first suspected that client account monies were missing?

I doubt it.  

"All this spite directed at people looking for jobs"

Look, if it's spiteful to tell people that they could make tens of thousands of pounds a month, every month, legally, for just the small act of exposing themselves to strangers on OnlyFans, and that there's a broad market for men / women / misc-others of all ages and BMI's out there so don't think it's just for Hot Rachel in the Road Traffic DD Paralegals Team who everyone lingers at the coffee machine trying to strike up conversation with because it's not, you've got your own niche waiting for you out there and you just need to own it, then sure. If that kind of constructive and helpful advice is spiteful. Then call me spiteful.

The law is supposed to be our protection against barbarism and yet we have a regulator totally washing its hands of former employees and not accepting its responsibility. The SRA is bringing the profession into disrepute and needs investigating urgently. 

Did he pay off everyone in the food chain ? 

Anon 11.26

yes in Las Vegas, April 2023. Just get the guest list for that trip and watch the videos

This year’s Golden Turd field has been massively depleted with three of the favourites being shot between the eyes well in advance of the start of the race.  
Those firms who have recruited from the three former favourites should see a golden turd bounce translating into an outpouring of love for their new firms.  I love my new firm because it’s not insolvent, I get paid on time, nobody steals my pension and I don’t have to go to titty bars to be one of the in crowd.  
We will soon be under starters orders……

@Anonymous 09 October 23 14:12

Pragnesh screws over Ince and Plexus again.  We didn’t even get invited to that one.

If anyone knows who the administrators of Axiom Ince are please let us know. There are former staff out of work with no income waiting for redundancy payments left in limbo. 

There are reasons why companies are supposed to go into administration before employees are made redundant. It helps to ensure that they are not suddenly left without money as the process to pay them what is owed can then be started. Why has Axiom not yet gone into administration ? What are the employees supposed to do about paying mortgages etc? 

"I don’t have to go to titty bars to be one of the in crowd"

See, I knew there had to be a downside.

Why would it go into administration?  What purpose would be achieved?  There’s feck all left to trade and even less to sell. 
The bottom has fallen out of the steaming turd market.  It just isn’t a good time to sell a steaming turd right now.  

Now 8 days since being laid off and still no redundancy code. Absolute joke.

Turd Administrator

Your user name is one word too long

Now the rivals have been diminished it doesn’t look good for Keoghs. Missed by a whisker last year.  

Hallowe’en soon:

Who is going to be facing a haunting spectacle and why. Woooooooooo-hooooooo.  

In 2019, a real estate firm called Countrywide transferred 10 Million from a trust account to their business account and which was later deemed illegal. 

https://www.estateagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2019/10/100-000-fine-for-countrywide-rics-over-funds-controversy

They were fined for what amounted to theft, and no criminal charges issued, and I wonder whether this sets some form of precedent. So if Prags returned the missing money, he may just get a fine !!!!!