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Writing it again because of one ugly word I used in the last one so not having got through. This company used to employ me for 2 months. Already so much have I written on them that I don't feel like repeating myself. To cut the story short, they use "vulnerable" people to make money for themselves (e.g. longterm unemployed or foreigners as me who apparently have lower rights) and not pay them the due wages and bully them.
They run an ongoing recruitment process which is a mockery at the word "recruitment". Then after a few days 90%resign not getting paid. The others cherish hope to earn good money and strive still on. They can use every excuse in order to avoid payment of the wages.
For example their T&C's state that after you had visited the property, you must prepare fully formatted blunder-free Excel version of the inventory in 24 hours, and also send it with the pictures. Which is in most case not physically possible when you are given a couple of estates to visit a day. So you travel round london 9am-9pm and then you are "obliged" to sit and work through the night on your reports (remember - any blunder as even small misspelling can exclude you from paying in 100% and so can also the lack of photos or photos being not ideal - at their discretion). Next day to work remember!
If you have submitted e.g. 79 reports for the month behind you and you still are behind with a single one, or you don't have a set of pics for any one of the 80 lets say jobs, you will not get paid for the whole month. You will never see a payslip whatsoever. They give you small advances (as they call them) for survival - 150 pounds a week or every two weeks.
By the way, "advances" are money that are not yet due to workers (if you were paid for the last month and before the end of another). After money's due (after 1st month) the cash pays cannot be called advances if the 1st month wages wasn't fully paid out, isn't it? They are installments of money that's already been due to you for some time. And I had to beg them for these "installments" because I said I had no money for tickets to get round to properties and for food and rent.
The issue is now investigated by the employment tribunal. They will probably issue a default payment order. This is not it. Andrew (boss) want to sue me and get back of all those "advances" which asa whole amount to 1290 pounds and he somehow figured out himself the sum of 2000!
This is not it. I was multiple times called on my mobile and intimidated including using swearwords.
Also, he has many times blackmailed me that my payslip will not be done unless I finish this report or the other (but eventually he did not keep his promise when i did those reports). Those behaviors when I reported them to Jobcentre lady were described by her simply as harassment and bullying at work. There are proper paragraphs for it in the law!
Of course the excuse that I shouldn't have been paid those advances he came up with now is that i did not submitted my jobs in 24 hours time (above) and several of the jobs lacked pictures (which delay and lack of pictures he didn't mind AT ALL ALTOGETHER WHATSOEVER before my struggle for my due money with him started thru the Empl.Trib.). I urge you not to try start working for him and if you are an estate agency, I leave it to your wisdom and consideration whether you want to place orders with them for inventory makes or not.
I would better not if I were you. I know the inventory clerk of theirs are very good (me for example) but remember - it's a sly-very based company!
Jean Baptiste, are you considering legal action?
wow I can see that the list of the wronged is gradually and continually increasing!
Darren Russell? Yes, it is definiately Andrew Carlton a few years ago on the picture.
Who would suspect they were employed by a crook and criminal.
And good news - Employment Tribunal issued me with a default judgemnt of late, let's see if he doesn't ignore even this one!
I only wanted to say that Mr. Carlton has finally paid Darnell (he wasn't procrastinating very much) but he is still avoiding to pay the ordered money from the Employment Tribunal to me.
As I said at the beginning I was born in Poland and as a non-English person I was and am treated by him in the same way the non-white British people are, ie. worse than all the white-English employees (I don't have anything against them, but I do hate Mr. Carlton as the only English person [if only he IS English as I heard rumours he is of foreign descent, Middle East, I suggest?])
I have called the ### several times. He obviously "went on holiday" to Seychelles. Well, yes, he eventually economised sme money by failure to pay me.
I am sending the enforcement to the Bow County Court tomorrow.
Remember - do not trade with this fraudster, do not start working for him, don't be involved with him in any way if you want to stay on the safe side, steer clear of Mr. Darren Russell (Mr. Andrew Carlton), Mr. Davidson, Property Concepts UK in 10-16 Tiller Road E14 8PX, and Apple Properties and Homes Direct.
I have also made an appeal that the discrimination and bullying case be proceeded with.
I have too strong and irrefutable proofs to let him go.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
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This is so wrong - the boss (andrew) is actually called Darren from old Homes Direct problems - he has bankrupted many innocent people - something must be done to stop this man from trading
Hi,
My name is jean-baptiste Randuineau.
I am a 27 y.o. French man. I worked for property concept in [protected]. I totally agree with what you write and i am very happy that you take andrew carlton to the court.
This man is a crooks. He was abusing permanantly of the situation, as you mentionned, he refused to pay me for any excuses he had, he was asking for people to overwork, etc...
After 4 months of working for him, i had only one pay slip... he was laying all the times, rejecting the mistake on the employee.
I was very upset and fed up. Unfortunately, as a foreigner i refused myself to go to the court, for i thought some diplomatic reason.
Hopefully i see that people take serious actions against him, i am very glad. I support and encourage you, if you required any help i could provide then be in touch.
sincerly.
Jean-baptiste Randuineau
Hi, I used to work for Property Concepts for 6 months in 2007. Andrew owed me 2 months worth of Wages. He told me after I left,' if I send his precious Camera back he would release funds into my Bank Account'. I have all the emails with all the excuses and lies regarding payments and quality of work.I was going to send him to Court and I had all the evidence but I was so drained out due to Stress I couldn't be bothered-plus there was no-one to testify for me.Jean was out of the Country and the other Clerk was too afraid of losing his Job.I found in the Summer of last year, they didn't Register my Tax details to the Tax Office-that means they were pocketing my NI and Tax deductions all along. They are bunch of theiving Crooks (Andrew & Co)!If you are taking them to Court and need documentary evidence, please ask!
Hi there
I worked for property concepts for about 3 months, but not full time. I work full time and I jsut was doing this for some extra cash (!)
I did a few weekends and evenings and although it was never going to be huge amounts of cash, its what I worked bloody hard for. I gave it up as I simply didnt have time for the work.
Anyway about 4 months ago, I started emailing & phoning, Richard had lost my expenses form 3 times, the tickets were gone, etc and no record of what work I was doing. I havent yet been paid for work I did in May last year, so far Ive had nothing.
I threatened that I would take to small claims to get that, I would have no qualms. Liz bleated that it was in process etc, and TBH Im not hugely in need of the moeny and Ive jsut moved and I was thinking about doing my letter before action next week., serving proceedings in the SC court about 4 weeks later.
I'll check back, and Jean, I think we met didnt we ?
I have recently worked for Property Concepts and have also not been paid for my last 2 months work and i am now taking action against them in the employment tribunal so would like to hear from other people who have not been paid. If this is you please contact me on darnell.matheson@googlemail.com.
Hi - unfortunately the company has a £30, 000 CCJ against them currently so do not hold out any hope of any previous staff getting any money out of the company. My advice would be to keep a record of all events and send them all with your employment tribunal. Maybe writing to Companies House might help with advice. Please remember the man (Andrew) running this company has bankrupted MANY innocent people in the past so you need to do everything legally - he will do anything as proven in these emails - to not pay you the money you rightfully are owed.
I really wish you all the best of luck - the management probably have no intention in paying you so it is best to go down the legal route. It is also pointless naming the managment as he does not exist he is hiding his real name so best get a Company report from Companies House and name the Director's in your application as they are responsible for the company and payment of salaries etc
Good luck.
Hi Alex they have paid some of the money owed but i am still taking him to an employment tribunal. Can i ask how you know that Andrew is really called Darren Russell? this is very interesting and if that is true i need confirmation, thanks.
Darnell
Congratulations on getting SOME of your money that is owed to you - you are one of the lucky ones.
As for the confirmation - is the same man in this article the same man you saw?
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-14445435-details/Tycoon%27s+%27rent+scam%27/article.do
Good luck with the tribunal
Yes Alex that is Andrew Carlton, as i know him. Is there any other information you know about him that would be useful for me? How did you find this out, have you worked with/for him?
Thank you for the confirmation - all the information you need to know about him is on the net .
I am not sure if the Directors of Property Concepts UK are aware of the £30K CCJ against the company but it will not be him that will be responsible for it but them - he will be able to walk away from it.
I have not worked for this man, unfortunately I am one of the innocent people trying to rebuild their lives that he was responsible for ruining.
You should carry on with the tribunal and maybe copy everything to other authorities
Again, good luck with your battle
I used to work with him for about 4 months, only got paid twice, I was one of his "top clerks" but never paid up, I got paid twice out of 4 months, When I said i was leaving he begged me to stay and he would pay up.
But there was no way, I had rent and bills to pay and he got me into a bit of debt, I had to use all my savings just to live. Im so angry, Its really ruined my confidence. Im slowly building my savings back up but even now im still struggling. And this was Nov 2007 - Fev 2008.
SO angry
Lc
Yes it is very unfortunate that this man can continue treating the staff that work for his company to go on like this but he has a long history of it so you can't really expect anything else. It is a shame that the Director of the Company just lets this carry on but then again he is probably being lied to aswell.
If you were his 'top clerk' I'm sure there are plenty of legitimate companies in London that do not hide behind false names that would welcome your talents and of course issue an Employment Contract and pay you monthly without any issues.
Good luck
I am sure WATCHDOG would be very interested in everyones experiences with this Company and Mr Russell - it could be a follow up piece from a couple of years ago
Hi All
Out of the 7 recent tribunal claims against him Mr Russell all of sudden wants to pay monies owed (even if the amounts are disputed) but 4 claims remain live and I believe a default judgement has been issued in one of them, so the bailiffs will be coming! I personally have taken these stories to the Evening Standard who had the article back in 2004 and hopefully they will do a follow up and totally finish Property Concepts off altogether.
If you are going to work for other inventory companies it is best not to mention that you have worked for property concepts, as there name is mud, and even though its not your fault it will go against you, believe me i've tried.
FINALLY... somebody else is taking action and hopefully all the lies and deceit can come out into the open - the people I am sorry for are the Directors as they probably don't know anything about all of this and it is them who get the tarnished mark and Mr Russell walks away scott free as always leaving the innocent ones to pick up the pieces.
Regarding working for other companies personally I think it is best to be honest, decent employers will look beyond these types of things as long as you had a good record with them they shouldn't put that against you that you worked for a company that did not pay its staff.
Good luck !
I've just come across this thread - Companies House has Craig Davidson as Director of this company - surely he is responsible for how the company is being run, Russell should have been sacked - it is the director who should be held accountable so any more claims should be addressed to him personally.
I understand that it is the Directors of the company who are solely responsible for its staff and are accountable for its actions.
Also according to Co Hse the shareholder is Property Concepts LLC which I believe is an off shore company so maybe all the staffs money is going into that for a nice little nest egg for Russell and Davidson
As far as I have worked out Mr Russell is the director but is using an associate (MR Davidson) for companies house purpose. However in the employment tribunal he has been cited as Andrew Carlton it is at the tribunal that I intend to reveal he's real name. I am not even that bothered if I do not get the full amount owed just as long as evertything is brought out in the open and the press cover it is the main thing. However Mr Russell continues to blame the post, his staff in fact virtually anything but himself for all the problems he has caused.
Richard
I totally agree but Mr Russell is not the director of the company. Make sure you take the picture from the link further up this thread that will hard evidence or even a print out of this thread where other people has recognised him etc. Mr Russell has defaulted on his IVA a couple of years ago and even I believe escaped bankruptcy because of hiding behind this new name of his Andrew Carlton - he hides behind the staff and I can only say Mr davidson is probably protecting him.
I hope all of this gets out into the public field and stops Mr Russell and Mr Davidson for there short comings.
I wish you luck at your tribunal !
Is there anyone else that we can approach who would be interested in Mr Russell's current antics as I have already been to trading standards and the OFT?
I'm sure the people who were trying to trace Mr Russell regarding his IVA would be interested just ask for the person that is dealing with the case, WATCHDOG did a piece on him a couple of years ago. Newspapers or even TV ?
You could possibly get the Director Craig Davidson's address from Co Hse and send him all this information as he is responsible
Begbies Traynor
1 Winckley Court
Chapel Street
Preston
PR1 8BU
[protected]
Its quite interesting he has ex Homes Direct staff running an estate agency in the same office surely being guided by him
Ok I do not really understand this IVA business, although I have read a little about it. Are you saying that if I contact the IVA that they would be interested in his whereabouts now? If that is the case I will do that. Who is Begbies Traynor? Finally do you know the names of the ex Homes Direct staff that are currently working for him now?
It may be a good idea to contact Begbies this is the company that administered his IVA
I don't think the names matter as they are just following orders Russell/Davidson are responsible for how you have been treated
No worries I will be contacting Begbies first thing tomorrow, thanks for the info.
Apparently Mr Russell was made bankrupt in 2005 and as such some of his properties were seized but his creditors won't see any money from them. So even though the file is still open many of his debts will be written off and he is not even disqualified from being a company director. Will have to go the press route.
AC you sound like you work for Mr Russell, is that correct?
Hi Lisa
No I have not worked for him but I have been almost made bankrupt and lost my wife because of this man. I am simply trying to help people not make the same mistake in trusting this man.
Looks like things are hotting up on this thread - maybe all the money is going towards his membership to the friends of Charlie - hopefully the press etc will take all of our grievances against the company seriously so something can be done.
Charlie what is your connection to mr Russell
No connection again just a person who has been ruined by this man - I have forwarded all my notes to Watchdog and The Evening Standard.
Richard how are you getting on with the press ?
Interesting that Apple Properties an Estate Agent is being run from Mr Russell's office - has Mr Russell returned to his old ways...
richard, how long has apple properties been around do you know?
Looks like he may close pcuk and start afresh as apple properties, if he does he is at a bigger risk of breaching his previous oft warning
According to Companies House - its been around for a couple ofyears - hope Mr Davidson knows about his plans then because it will be him that is responsible for all the debts and CCJ's and NOT Mr Russell and yes he gets away scott free AGAIN - more lives ruined and he enjoys complete freedom to enjoy his entertaining life style.
But we all know a man like this will get away and around running an estate agency behind people and letting them take the flack
Thanks richard, does it say who the directors etc are for apple properties and if not how do I obtain that info from companies house?
Hi
Log onto companieshouse.gov.uk its a subscription service or goto a web search engine and put Directors report and click on one of them.
APPLE PROPERTIES GREENWICH LIMITED - Current but the Director of this company is not the person running it
APPLE PROPERTIES ESTATE AGENTS LIMITED - this company is in dissolution
http://www.appleproperties.net/
Hi Everyone - I've taken the liberty in printing all this thread and sent it to Mr Davidson for his comments
Good idea, but I have a horrible feeling that Mr Davidson is either very good friends with Mr Russell or has a vested interest in ignoring all of this. there is no way he can be totally unaware of Mr Russell's behaviour past and present.
Unfortunately, no reply from Mr Davidson maybe if we send it to his actual work place Virgin Airways we can get a response - it is interesting that he allows his company to be run like this but its always the same the bad ones always gets away with it and the innocent ones are made to pay for their misgivings
Yes - send it to him as many times as is possible until he responds. Trying to find out if this Apple Properties is connected to Mr Russell but so far companies house has not revealed a lot.