The long awaited Office of Fair Trading investigation into the Peverel / Cirrus price-fixing scandal concludes on Friday at 11am. Click on image to read OFT website or here
But there will be a delay in publishing the Infringement Decision – if there is one.
“If the final outcome in this investigation is an Infringement Decision, we will not be able to make that available on our website on the day of the announcement,” says the OFT.
“This is because we are obliged to ensure that the public version of any Decision does not contain any confidential information before it is published on the website. This would mean a delay before any Decision is actually published.”
It is perhaps unremarkable given the protracted nature of this inquiry that there is to be yet further delay.
The scandal concerns Peverel’s subsidiary Cirrus winning contracts at retirement leasehold sites across the country following a bogus tendering process. Three stooge companies always placed higher bids for the work making Cirrus seem a bargain.
The scam operated between 2006 and 2009, and the OFT accepted the fiction that Peverel turned itself in in December 2009 and therefore should be treated leniently following the investigation.
In fact, Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation activists had alerted the OFT and the Serious Fraud Office before this date; held a meeting at the House of Commons and had the issues aired in the Times.
All this occurred before Peverel supposedly decided to report itself to the OFT.
It was also galling for the pensioners that the OFT inquiry only began in April 2011, and this leisurely pace has characterized its activities ever since.
Both Sir Peter Bottomley, MP, and Ed Davey, the Energy Secretary who hosted the Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation meeting in the Commons in November 2009, have dismissed the notion that the OFT only became aware of this scandal after Peverel confessed.
Campaign against retirement leasehold exploitation estimates that each retirement site affected by the price-fixing scam would have been conned out of at least £20,000.
The OFT has confirmed that if an Infringement Decision is issued the affected retirement sites will be named.
Related posts:
Campaign against Residential Leasehold Exploitation meets lawyers over Peverel price-fixing scandal
Private Eye reports Peverel price-fixing scandal
The Oldie reports Peverel / Cirrus price-fixing scandal
Fury as OFT may give Peverel immunity over Cirrus price-fixing scandal
Guardian examines the Peverel / Cirrus price-fixing scandal tomorrow
Surly the OFT needs to be the next investigation as this has taken since the 04/12/09 when The Peverel Group (Consensus) put their hands up and admitted Price Fixing along with Cirrus Communications and three other companies.
We had our Warden Call System updated in 2008/09 by Cirrus? Glyn Jackson one of the contractors mentioned in the Price Fixing was the only other Tenderer???
Who were the Area and Regional Managers at the time and what part, if any had they played in the Rigging of Tenders, leaving Cirrus to charge what they felt they could charge.
Who were the Directors who handed themselves in and who were the people who instigated the Price Fixing and Tender Rigging and then who was the contracts manager who accepted the Tenders.
We at ABC paid out over £750.00 each for the Warden Call System which allowed other costs for phone lines on top of the Tender Costs which should have been included in the original tender???
licked been involved in.
Michael, Mike and other commenters,
I would like to say a big thanks to Sebastian and Martin for their support and guidance over the past 2 years. I think that Sir Peter Bottomley and Ed Davey have shown that some politicians show true metal and should be thanked accordingly. My own MP, Philip Dunne has been looking into the Leasehold conundrums and I know he was going to speak to Sir Peter last week, so again a politician who has shown his metal, so thanks Philip Dunne.
I have taken the questions from the OFT Website and will post them when I make time to compose.
Who was in charge when the Price Fixing was going on from 2005/2009 and where did it start with whom and who agreed for this to occur.
Peverel Group that went into administration on 14/03/2011 was run I believe by Mr Nigel Banister and aptly named as part of a staircase, as he walked over us and stepped on our toes, I believe he newel what he was doing and treaded all over us, maybe he pitched the original idea and risers in the profits made by Peverel at our expense can now be retrieved and the money will be going back to us. rose