Just months after his dismissal he had no alternative but to declare himself bankrupt
A SUCCESSFUL entrepeneur who owned a company worth millions saw his life come crashing down after losing it all.
Former Army bomb disposal expert Andy Ling created Lampeter-based vehicle energy storage company Perpetual V2G Systems back in 2013.
His thriving business grew to count blue-chip companies including BT and Sainsbury’s among its customers.
The Welsh Government-owned Development Bank of Wales – then known as its predecessor Finance Wales – even made a £500,000 debt-to-equity investment and later loaned it £100,000.
Andy’s energy storage company was on track for a £60million valuation and things had never looked better.
But there was to be no happy ending for the married father-of-three as it all came crashing down after allegations of theft.
Andy, now 39, was dismissed in the spring of 2018 following an internal investigation which claimed he had taken £148,000 out of the business without consent.
Six years later he is only now able to start piecing his life together after being acquitted in court of the theft charges which he found himself facing.
Before his dismissal, Mr Ling said he had rejected a £20million takeover approach from BT Ventures which he thought undervalued the business significantly.
But he is now a bankrupt who only has a child’s bank account.
It has been a traumatic six years for the would-be entrepreneur who insists that he only took money that he was legitimately owed for unpaid wages and company expenditure he had financed personally.
A report he had compiled by forensic science consultants, Emmerson Associates, backed up his claim that the money he had taken was owed to him, with one calculation revealing he was still owed £20,000.
Yet back in 2018, an internal investigation report had accused him of extensively and persistently misappropriating company funds.
He was sacked and his shareholding in the company he founded, then valued at nearly £4m, was redistributed to the other shareholders.
The reallocation of 9,000 shares saw the development bank becoming the biggest beneficiary with around a third while Andy Mr received just a measly £89.84p for his equity.
The development bank’s ownership stake in the business rose to just under 40 per cent while other investors included fellow directors of Perpetual V2G.
Just months after his dismissal he had no alternative but to declare himself bankrupt.
Two years later his family home in Lampeter was raided by eight officers from Dyfed Powys Police, and he was charged with company theft.
He then lost two jobs after reports of his criminal case appeared in the media.
Andy said he “100%” contemplated taking his own life, given the extreme pressure he and his family were under, and being treated as virtual outcasts by some in the local community.
Facing a sentence of more than three years in prison, in February this year he was found not guilty at Swansea Crown Court after a four year case.
SOCIAL ‘OUTCASTS’
Despite serving as a bomb disposal and improvised explosive devices expert in some of the world’s most hostile environments, including Iraq and Kosovo, with the 11 Explosive Disposal and Search Regiment of the Royal Logistic Corps, he said it couldn’t prepare him for the “hell” he and his family endured over last six years.
Speaking to NorthWalesLive he recalled: “100% I contemplated taking my own life. It is a horrible thing to have to admit, but the pressure applied to me and my family was intense.
“This was the first company, and I tried to make sure we were bulletproof with external accountants and we were only doing investment deals with established government entities (development bank).
“But then I found myself without the correct level of training and definitely without any weapons to fight this. There have been super difficult times over the last couple of years.”
Regarding the impact on his family, Mr Ling added: “One of my daughters had to move schools because of bullying after the criminal allegations appeared in the press.
“My wife Dawn, who runs a nursery in Lampeter, experienced a number of instances where parents took their children out because of what had been written.
“There were comments on her Facebook saying things like ‘now we know where the money for the nursery came from’ and things like that. It was terrible.”
On his acquittal, he said: “It is a very strange thing, and I remember saying to my family and people that I knew when all this first happened, ‘take me to court and let me explain things to 12 normal people.’
“That is ultimately what happened. There were seven women out of the 12 jurors, and throughout the trial when these guys were getting on the stand, you could see them starting to see what I had gone through.
“My barrister did a fantastic job in summing up, and the jury saw that I took that business from absolutely nothing to a different level and then my naivety and lack of knowledge around certain aspects about how business was my downfall.”
“My barrister told me there wasn’t going to be a suspended sentence. So, it was either three-and-a-half years of my life in jail or the jury had understood what had happened.
“Thankfully, they understood, in what was a unanimous verdict. I walked around in a daze for days afterwards, and it is something I am still trying to shake off now, to be honest, as you are put in that fight or flight mode.
“The frustrating thing is yes, I have been found not guilty, but I still have £40,000 of legal fees to pay.”
‘FIGHT OR FLIGHT’
Andy believes that the development bank, which had appointed its own board observer after its £500,000 investment, should have done more to protect an inexperienced company boss rather than allowing him to be driven out of the business.
Reflecting back on the investment he received from the Development Bank of Wales, he said: “The fact that we had sourced investment from ultimately the Welsh Government was huge for us, especially considering we were based in a small town in West Wales.
“It was great knowing we had ignited something with the backing of the biggest investor in Cardiff, and we were heading in the right direction.”
Following his dismissal his shares were reallocated amongst other shareholders.
Andy said: “They cannot turn around as one of the biggest lending institutions in the country and say ‘we just didn’t really ask’ about my dismissal, which then resulted in them receiving more than 3,000 shares in a start-up business that could have been worth £60m in three years’ time.
“I would have thought they would have checked how that came about. I don’t think it paints a very good picture for them.”
The development bank were asked to explain why it received a third of the redistributed shares and whether it was a condition of the debt to equity investment or the subsequent £100,000 loan made in 2018.
On Mr Ling’s dismissal it said it was the company’s decision to remove him as a director and to refer matters to the police.
After Mr Ling was dismissed, Perpetual V2G Systems relocated to Cardiff with a reduced head count.
According to Companies House, while not actively trading, it last month changed its registered office address from Cardiff to Cross Keys
In a statement Perpetual V2G Systems, the company chaired by serial entrepreneur and investor Ashley Cooper, said: “Mr Ling was dismissed by the company for gross misconduct following a thorough investigation and formal disciplinary process.
“The disciplinary process was carried out in accordance with the company’s policies, which included an appeal process chaired by a director independent of the investigation.”
“Post dismissal Mr Ling had the opportunity to take the matter to an employment tribunal. A tribunal would have scrutinised the dismissal process and the reasons for dismissal in a public forum. It was Mr Ling’s decision not to ask an employment tribunal to review the company’s finding of gross misconduct.
“Due to the severity of the findings, the company considered that it had a fiduciary duty to report the matter to the appropriate authorities.
“Following a police investigation into the circumstances which led to Mr Ling’s dismissal, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) determined that there was sufficient evidence of an offence to warrant a criminal prosecution. The prosecution was instigated by the CPS, not the company.”
In a statement, the Development Bank of Wales said: “Our role is to provide businesses in Wales with the finance they need to start up, strengthen, and grow. We are here to help with commercial loans and equity investment, and as you would expect, these agreements come with terms and conditions that are set out clearly for customers.”
“We recognise the extremely challenging time faced by Mr Ling over the last four years; however, these matters were between Mr Ling and the company’s board.
“The Development Bank of Wales appointed neither advisors nor directors to the board of Perpetual V2G Systems. Our involvement was only ever as a lender and minority shareholder.”
The statement continued: “As such, our rights were limited to those agreed with the company within the investment agreement and articles of association. These rights are standard in the industry and are in place to protect the investment, providing a measure of protection for the public funds we invest.
“It was the company’s decision to remove Mr Ling as a director and to refer matters to the police. The Development Bank was not contacted by the police and was not asked to provide evidence. The issues raised by Mr Ling are therefore a matter of consideration for Perpetual V2G Systems Ltd, not the Development Bank of Wales.”
Mr Ling, whose complaint was rejected by the Development Bank, has six months to refer his rejected complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which he intends to do and is “also looking at other legal avenues”.
He has also called on the Welsh Government, as the 100% shareholder of the development bank, to commission an independent review into what happened to him.
