Pegg found inspiration close to home.
A solicitor who warned that small charities were vulnerable to insider fraud has been convicted of embezzling £2,000 from the community swimming pool charity where he served as treasurer.
Appearing at Lerwick Sheriff Court on the Shetland Islands earlier this month, Regan Peggs pleaded guilty to pilfering £1,996.01 from the Walls Swimming Pool Association over two years between 2022 and 2024.
Peggs seemed like a sound choice for the post. Not only was he a solicitor with his own law firm, he previously worked as a Senior Legal Adviser at Coventry and then Birmingham Magistrates’ Court, and as a Solicitor Advocate at Cartwright King.
He was also pillar of the voluntary sector, previously serving as vice chair of the Ronald McDonald House charity in Birmingham, council member of Birmingham Law Society and Chair of its Criminal Law Committee, and as a part-time firefighter and member of the coastguard.
If only the Walls Swimming Pool Association had paid attention to an article marking Charity Fraud Awareness Week which warned that “Small charities must not rely on trust to avoid insider fraud”.
Its author noted that “lack of scrutiny can be a particular problem in small charities, where boards are more likely to rely on the goodwill of senior managers".
Peggs, for it was he, continued that “it is these smaller charities for which the consequences of insider fraud, in terms of both finances and reputation, can be most devastating”.
It certainly didn’t help Walls Swimming Pool, which permanently closed its doors after 50 years citing rising energy costs.
Regan Peggs Solicitors has also been liquidated after the Solicitors Regulatory Authority found “reason to suspect dishonesty” by Peggs leading to an intervention in March.
Peggs did not respond to a request for comment.
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Comments
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Lack of water in the pool may also have contributed to its downfall.
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"Appearing at Lerwick Sheriff Court on the Shetland Islands"
Can there be any sadder fate for man?
When they talk about falling into irrelevance it's hard to think of a more literal way than this.
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"Walls Swimming Pool, which permanently closed its doors after 50 years due to rising energy costs"
Thanks Ed!
Don't forget everyone, futuristic Green Energy is much cheaper than the abundant oil and gas just a few miles offshore. It makes great sense to Keep It In The Ground and buy the exact same stuff off the Saudis and the USA instead.
Your energy bills are three times higher than an American's. But green energy is keeping prices down!
We want more manufacturing and jobs for working people. But the factory's energy bills just keep going up up up. But it's worth it for net zero (while China builds another coal plant)!
Welcome to the future.
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I guarantee, pound to a penny, that he's both a commited Brexter and ladder house dweller.
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The price of wholesale electricity in the UK is set by the highest production cost in the market, which is almost always gas (at least since Russia invaded Ukraine). That's mostly to ensure that the base load energy cost is predictable, but also to ensure that the balancing load (the extra capacity that Grid has to buy in order to balance supply and demand) is predictable and also not extortionately high at crunch periods. It smooths prices overall, but for most times of the year over the last 4-5 years, that has meant that renewables are being paid a far higher rate per MWhr than the cost of production.
So no - net zero and renewables are not increasing the price of electricity most of the time in the UK - it is the fact that we're still reliant on gas and gas sets the wholesale electricity price that means that we're paying more for renewable electricity than we should be (the wholesale price mostly being far higher than the strike price - ie the minimum price - agreed with renewables and nuclear).
The cost of electricity in this country could be substantially lower if the wholesale rate was set either by the average rate, or if it was an open market.
Electricity costs in the US tend to be far lower because they're not relying on gas from world markets - most of their gas is produced domestically, so it's a false analogy.
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Seems a really stupid thing to do - ruin a career over £2k
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"Electricity costs in the US tend to be far lower because they're not relying on gas from world markets"
A great point!
Because the UK has no natural gas reserves, and no history of extracting gas to provide abundant cheap energy that was costed far lower than our neighbours, we could never hope to replicate this state of affairs. Americans can get cheap gas from home, but that will never do for Britain. Let's buy it in.
Far better that we prohibit any further gas extraction at home, hike up the prices of legacy extraction with taxes and regulatory burden, and then tell ourselves that those artificially inflated gas prices mean that the renewables are cheap.
American prices are low because domestic gas extraction is cheap. British prices are high because domestic gas extraction is expensive. It makes perfect sense.
With some of the highest energy costs in the world, the benefits of this wise policy are clear
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Anonymous 23 May 25 10:01 - Agree we are reliant on gas here in the UK .... however, unlike many other jurisdictions, we have not pursued a mix / strategic approach to energy supply ...
Contrary to my greenie friends' views, this mix should include as many sources as we can, including all the renewables (wind, thermo, solar etc) but ALSO nuclear, clean coal, fracking etc ....
Germany has shut down all of its nuclear power over the last decade and finds itself reliant on Russia ... hope UK still has time to avoid being dependant on foreign energy supply/markets ...