Responding to my 16 December post re Russell Ambrose and Optimax’'s insolvency, I was contacted by disgruntled employees (ex & current) who provided me with some interesting (and highly amusing) information
On 5 October his employees received a letter from Russell, expressing crocodile tears (no MGD for him!), telling them that he was restructuring the company and had to let people go, but that it’s been, ‘
great fun over the years’, signing off with, ‘
Love to you all’!
He told them that, unless they’d not heard otherwise by 16 October, their jobs were safe…
Then on 5/6 November, closing the Newcastle, Peterborough and Reading premises, he deceitfully made at least 22 employees redundant - some who’d been loyal to their weasel boss for than twenty years!
Pay slips were sent out to these employees advising they would receive their holiday pay with their wages on 30 November, their last payday, but at 7pm on 29 November, Russell sent an email telling them this wasn’t going to happen, and redundant staff received only one week’s pay!
And then we have the entertaining story of David Moulsdale - playing the male equivalent of Maleficent at Sleeping Beauty’s christening...
An uninvited guest at the Optimax CVA Virtual Meeting on 27 November, in typical gangster style he’d bought one of the creditor's debts (from a cleaning supplies company), his actions described by the administrators as '
underhand', but not illegal.
Moulsdale apparently did his best to disrupt the proceedings, the following transcript as told to me by one of Russell’s creditors who was present (happy to edit if any other attendees disagree with wording)...
DM: ‘
Let me buy the company!’
RA: '
Get out of this meeting, I’ve never done business with you!'
DM: '
I’ll give you £14 million!'
RA: ‘
What are you talking about, you owe £60 million!’
ROTFLMAO - oh to have been there!
Yesterday I spoke with the boss of the firm handling the CVA, who kindly answered all my questions, explaining the situation in terms I could better understand.
*
• RussellAmbrose had been advised to put Optimax into administration, but was adamant he won’t do this, claiming that he wanted to keep it going, because he’d invested so many millions of his own money into the company. (Odd therefore that he once criticised his arch rival for this, telling me that he believed DavidMoulsdale had stupidly invested much of his own money into Optical Express)
• Unsecured creditors will be paid only 39.8p for each £1 they are owed, whilst Optimax
will continue to trade.
**
• Suppliers will be paid ‘on delivery' or via Pro Forma invoices.
• After 4 years the pre CVA debt will be written off.
At odds with his published ‘insolvency’, Russell invested more than £600,000 refurbishing his Leeds premises earlier this year, and very recently purchased new OCT machines (min £30k each), and upgraded his aged computers!
I'm told that he also plans to refurbish the Brighton premises very soon (with the huge costs allegedly being paid from his own pocket), intending to focus on lens surgery.
Do I smell NHS contracts being chased?
And it should be considered that Optimax and Ultralase both operate out of the same premises, with same surgeons, yet only Optimax in CVA!
(Specs wearing Optimax/Ultralase Medical Director Malcolm 'Pour your heart out to me' Samuel leaving end of January.)
There’s more I know that I can't yet discuss, but I have no doubt Russell has a sneaky something up his sleeve, as time (and I) will tell in due course.
*www.gov.uk/company-voluntary-arrangements
**Free to ruin more eyes and lives, while turning a profit, but the chance of going into liquidation always on the horizon.
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