Judane

[oddtablet]

If (as appears to be implied by mogman) the stories are having to be removed, it seems likely that they do not portray the truth accurately.

Sometimes people, who feel threatened by the truth, try to prevent the truth being revealed in the public domain.

 

indeed

[hoosn]

absolutely, lots of people lost out n for petes sake its xmas, really delighted somebody makin a suggestion about a way ahead , Yep Lidl, pretty bloomin good idea

[mainlander]

quote="oddtablet";p="135270"]

If (as appears to be implied by mogman) the stories are having to be removed, it seems likely that they do not portray the truth accurately.

Sometimes people, who feel threatened by the truth, try to prevent the truth being revealed in the public domain.

 

indeed

 

My point was that surely if the stories were true then there would be no grounds for (or therefore possibility of) them being removed, and that if they were removed then it must mean there was a lack of accuracy somewhere that warranted their removal.

 

All we have been given by Mogman is a couple of ambiguous statements that look designed to stir up gossip without giving any facts.

 

I am probably missing the point of some sort of in-joke. Good luck with it!

 

Anyway, like hoosn says, it's Christmas and not a time for getting at folk. Merry Christmas! Lidl sounds a good idea hoosn...

[JimIvens]

I have noticed over my 58 years that as far as the press is concerned the truth is extremely elastic. As an ex ambulance man, I have been involved in many incidents where the truth of the matter has been bent out of all proportion by the press, sometimes at the instruction of the government. I am not allowed to give any details due to patient confidentiality and the secrecy act, but I have seen stuff with my own eyes that would make your hair curl if the truth ever came out. As a result of this I take with a large pinch of salt anything I read in newspapers or see on televised news. I hope that justice is done in this case and that everyone concerned get what they deserve.

[Shoogler]

I agree wholly with you Jim and have a very poor regard for ALL types of media (and my regard gets worse by the day).

I have seen countless examples on an almost daily basis of the Shetland media creating its own stories and none more so than the Shetland News. Its not so much a case of not telling the truth, it is more a case of making the facts fit a preconceived skeleton to hang the clothes on. There is a whiff of that with this case - however, I also believe that all parties concerned will get what they deserve.

 

The media like nothing better than a bit of scandal and certainly don't like a dulll bit of good news.

 

Merry Christmas everybody!

[hoosn]

3 in a row agreeing here , this seems to be some kinda vendetta stirred up by a few and blown out of proportion , n if theres no good will to anybody at other times of the year ,try some now for a few daysnow eh ?, save your bitterness til January

[trout]

Call for police probe into Judane

Originally posted on Shetland News website

 

A SHETLAND councillor and a former businessman have called on the police to investigate the affairs of island knitwear company Judane, after the local authority voted to write off £400,000 in unpaid loans.

 

Last week councillors agreed in private to settle an unpaid bill of £604,000 by reducing the repayment to just below £200,000, in order to avoid a substantial claim for damages from the company.

 

However Shetland West councillor Gary Robinson has called for an inquiry into what happened to the money loaned to Judane by Shetland Development Trust, an arms length investment company run by the council.

 

Former businessman Chris Hodge has also demanded an investigation, saying that he has been the loser in the whole affair after a council decision in 2005 scuppered his attempt to buy Judane’s knitwear factory, in Lerwick, after he had already spent £500,000 converting it into a budget warehouse.

 

Both men yesterday said a criminal investigation should be carried out after it emerged that Mr Hodge had made monthly rental payments to Judane via Lerwick councillor Caroline Miller, whose husband Frank is a director of Judane.

 

The revelations come one week after the Accounts Commission instructed Scotland’s Controller of Audit to carry out an investigation into the way Shetland Islands Council is being run, after repeated concerns about accounts and more recent problems between councillors and new chief executive Dave Clark.

 

Mr Clark has not been involved in any of the discussions regarding Judane due to his close personal relationship with Mr Miller’s sister Judith, who is also a director of the company.

 

Last night Mr Robinson said: “We can’t write off £400,000 without giving any explanation. There should be an inquiry, but I am not clear at this moment who should be conducting it.

 

“Obviously the Accounts Commission might be one avenue, but if Chris Hodge’s claims are right

and payments were made to another company to avoid making payments to creditors, including the development trust, then I think that’s fraud and that should be a police matter.”

 

Mr Hodge insisted that he had made payments by cheque and cash directly to Mrs Miller, paying them to Caroline Miller trading as Northern Isles Knitwear.

 

Last night Shetland Times editor Paul Riddell confirmed the newspaper had seen receipts for such payments amounting to £21,530 between January and November 2007, the year in which Mrs Miller was elected as a councillor for Lerwick North.

 

After a public inquiry in February 2007, the council was forced to overturn its decision to refuse planning permission for the knitwear factory at Gremista to be converted into retail premises.

 

Mrs Miller lodged the appeal and welcomed the outcome, however Judane then refused to sell the Gremista factory to Mr Hodge, even though he had completely renovated the building, charging him a monthly rent of £5,000 instead.

 

One year ago Mr Hodge closed the warehouse and in July this year he was declared bankrupt after spending an estimated £250,000 on legal bills fighting the council and the Millers.

 

Yesterday the 36 year old said he was outraged at the council’s decision to waive debts of £400,000 for Judane, after refusing his own claim of £800,000 for damages. Now he is bankrupt and entitled to claim legal aid, he said he intends to renew legal action against the SIC.

 

“When I came to Shetland I was a millionaire. Now I am bankrupt, I’m out of work, I’m penniless and my parents are trying to support me and they are on a pension, while I try to help them maintain their home” he said.

 

“Taxpayers money has been wasted here and I don’t see that Judane have taken a loss, while I have taken a loss and I can prove it.

 

“I would like to see an inquiry into how things have got to this stage and I would certainly go along with the police carrying out an inquiry. I would like to see justice being done.”

 

Both the council and Judane have refused to make any comment about the settlement until a mutual statement is finally agreed by both sides.

 

Last night Mrs Miller was unavailable for comment, however an update of the councillor’s diary released yesterday at 12.27pm announced that she was away on personal business as of yesterday until Christmas Day.

Complaint submitted about Caroline Miller

Originally posted on Shetland News website

 

A SHETLAND councillor has been reported to the Standards Commission after it was revealed she received rental payments due to a company owned by her husband, that in turn owed money to the local authority.

 

Last week it emerged that Lerwick North councillor Caroline Miller had been paid rent for the Judane knitwear factory, in Lerwick’s Gremista industrial estate, between January and November 2007, the year she was elected to Shetland Islands Council.

 

The revelation came from the factory’s tenant Chris Hodge, who converted the factory into a budget warehouse in 2005.

 

He had planned to buy the factory, but his plans came to naught when the council’s planning department suddenly told him he needed planning permission to convert it to retail premises. Previously he had been advised no such permission was required.

 

Permission was initially refused when it came to the local planning sub-committee, but this decision was overturned in May 2007 after a public inquiry.

 

However after permission was granted, the directors of Judane, Frank and Judith Miller, refused to sell the factory and instead charged Mr Hodge rent.

 

Mr Hodge said that some of this rent was paid to Mr Miller’s wife Caroline, trading as Northern Isles Knitwear, even though she is not a director of the company. He produced receipts documenting payments of £21,530.

 

These payments came to light after the council voted two weeks ago to write off debts of £400,000 owed to Shetland Development Trust, an arms length investment company controlled by the council.

The news caused disquiet in the local community and led one councillor to call for a full investigation into the matter.

 

Now a Lerwick resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, has written to the Standards Commission complaining that Mrs Miller has breached the councillors’ code of conduct.

 

The complaint says that by diverting income due to Judane into her own account, Mrs Miller had acted as a hindrance to the company resolving its debts to the development trust.

 

It also refers to Mrs Miller being party to “legal threats” against the council when she was a councillor.

 

Mrs Miller is listed as an unpaid consultant to Judane, who were in the process raising an action in the Court of Session against the council for damages prior to the decision to waive £400,000 of the company’s £600,000 debt.

 

Mrs Miller failed to respond to an email request for a comment on the complaint, having taken time off as a councillor from 15 to 25 December.

 

However in a lawyer’s letter the company Judane and Mr and Mrs Miller have denied that they have done anything wrong.

 

Douglas Milne, senior associate with Edinburgh-based lawyers Morton Fraser, wrote: “Our clients utterly refute any allegation that they have engaged in unlawful conduct or, indeed, that they have conducted their affairs in anything other than an entirely proper and lawful way.”

Miller interdict

Originally posted on Shetland Times website

 

Lerwick councillor and Judane adviser Caroline Miller is seeking a gagging order against fellow SIC member Gary Robinson and local news organisation Shetland News.

 

Lawyers acting on behalf of Mrs Miller have written to the two parties indicating that they are intending to seek an interim interdict at the Court of Session in Edinburgh to prevent them from making defamatory statements about Mrs Miller and the knitwear firm.

 

Mrs Miller hung up the phone when contacted by this newspaper for comment yesterday afternoon. She has still not made any public comment about why £21,500 in rent payments from budget salesman Chris Hodge to lease Judane’s fac­tory at Blackhill Industrial Estate were made to her as a sole trader in Northern Isles Knitwear, rather than directly to the company itself, bet­ween January and November 2007.

 

It is understood that one comp­laint has already been submitted to the Standards Commission about Mrs Miller’s involvement in Judane, while Lerwick resident Kathy Greaves has confirmed that she is preparing a submission to the body. The councillor’s declara­tion of interests makes no mention of Northern Isles Knitwear.

 

A fortnight ago public anger was sparked when it emerged that the council has agreed to settle for one third of the £600,000 it was owed by Judane in loan repayments.

[trout]

Just as an aside and for really no other reason as I really couldn't think where one might want to post such a fantastic satirical piece I thought I'd just plop this in here too

 

I've just thought of a jolly good wheeze to save myself some money. Christmas is so expensive, after all, even if you don't fly off to the Canaries. But before I go ahead with my cunning plan perhaps I'd better run it by my constituents first, to see if anyone's likely to object.

 

As you may know, I operate a wildlife tourism boat. There aren't many tourists about in the winter so I rent the boat out by the hour to organisations such as SNH and SOTEAG for survey work. The money they pay me goes to my 'Seabirds-and-Seals' bank account at the dear old Royal Bank of Scotland. I use it to buy fuel, insurance, spares and repairs, etc., and to repay a business loan that the Shetland Development Trust kindly advanced to help me acquire my boat. The trust asks for, and always gets, its monthly instalments in full and on time.

 

On passage home from a survey trip to Unst today it occurred to me, just as Heogan hove into view, that I may be making a mistake. What I'm thinking of doing instead is paying the boat money into my other account, at the Clydesdale Bank, where I keep separate the income from my croft produce sales, my writing work and my councillor's allowance. The next step would be to stop the monthly direct debit to Shetland Development Trust, sit back and see what they do about it. After a few years I could perhaps offer to pay off a third of what I owe them. If there was any nonsense I could get a lawyer chap I know to write them threatening letters from time to time.

 

There's a snag, of course. I'm what's known as a "sole trader", not a limited company. If the trust objected and decided to bankrupt me, I couldn't be a councillor any more. But I could probably get round that by putting the boat business in my son's name, as he lives abroad. He could then retain me as an "unpaid consultant".

 

I'm assured all this could be done perfectly legally. So that's not an issue. What I need to know from my constituents is this: it might be legal but do you think it would be right?

 

Answers on a seasonal postcard please, to:

 

Cllr. Jonathan Wills

Sundside

Bressay

Shetland ZE2 9ER

 

Well, big J .... let me ponder on that question some and I'll get my postcard winging it's way to you as soon as

[oddtablet]

Excellent satirical piece....

 

now dan...where can I buy a seasonal postcard in Lerwick ?

 

 

Merry Chritmas to all

[jz]

Councillor Miller does not appear to know about the Streisand Effect.

[oddtablet]

Councillor Miller does not appear to know about the Streisand Effect.

 

I've learned something new I initially thought it was to do with a big nose as in the 'Pinocchio' effect !!

 

[Para Handy]

Well now some are trying to gag free speech. The said people should proved proof if what is being said about them is not true. So Mrs Miller seems to dislike what everybody is thinking, even if they don’t say it. Well she put her self in the political arena, so she has nobody to blame but her self. Or she should get a 5 day job with some one in charge, who understands how to deal with money and tax

And collect her wages paid at the end of the week, like all the other poor sods whose opinion! she seems to think is beneath her status in life

[Infiltrator]

I'm a bit baffled by Caroline Millers action against Gary Robinson?

 

'Lawyers acting on behalf of Mrs Miller have written to the two parties indicating that they are intending to seek an interim interdict at the Court of Session in Edinburgh to prevent them from making defamatory statements about Mrs Miller and the knitwear firm'

 

Surely if someone is making defamatory statements, that in itself is breaking the law - why go to court to get a court action to tell them not to break the law?

 

Seems a bit pointless - maybe it's a PR tactic to divert attention?

[Gorgonzola Butt-cheese]

Having spoken with various people about this today , the feeling was unanimous that caroline miller should be removed from her position with immediate effect. Along with her everybody I spoke to thought that Sandy (**MOD EDIT**) should also be ordered to stand down and is widely regarded as the most useless and dopiest convener ever!

Hopefully more people will vote at the next council elections as most of the cretins in the town hallb are there by default

[giant]

I think that if Caroline Miller is proved to be guilty of what is basically a fraud against the council, then is not immediately removed from the council and made to repay the entire SDT loan or go bankrupt, then the Shetland public would lose any faith they still have in our council.