Fraudulent debt collector jailed for almost 5 years

Robert Thomas Cree appeared at Newcastle Crown Court where he was jailed for 4 years and 10 months for two counts of fraudulent trading and one count of perverting the course of justice.

The court heard that Robert Cree (41), from Newcastle Upon Tyne, ran a number of debt recovery companies: Monument Management Limited, Falcon Management Limited and Redwood Business Management Limited, trading as Rojen Recovery Services.

In November 2014, Monument Management Ltd was wound up and a criminal investigation was launched by the Insolvency Service.

Investigators found that the business was cold calling organisations, offering debt recovery services following payment of a subscription fee.

Robert Cree received substantial payments but, in most cases, Monument Management never recovered debts and no service was provided. In the company’s liquidation he also impersonated the company’s director to deceive the Official Receiver. He was charged with fraudulent trading and perverting the course of justice in October 2018.

Investigators also discovered that after Monument Management Ltd was wound-up, Robert Cree incorporated Falcon Management Limited. The new company offered similar debt recovery services but was also wound up in April 2018.

The liquidation of Falcon Management triggered an investigation by the Insolvency Service into Robert Cree’s conduct, and he was disqualified as a company director for 11 years from May 2019.

Following his disqualification, in June 2019, Robert Cree pleaded guilty to fraudulent trading in relation to his conduct while director of Monument Management Limited.

Prior to his sentencing, investigators discovered Robert Cree was also acting as director of Redwood Business Management Limited, trading as Rojen Recovery Services. This was a direct breach of his 11-year disqualification order and triggered a further criminal enquiry.

Investigators soon found that Robert Cree operated Redwood in the same way as Monument and Falcon and had fraudulently obtained more than £170,000.

Robert Cree also used various aliases, including Robert Robinson, throughout his dealings with his victims.

On 18 January 2021, Robert Cree appeared at Newcastle Crown Court where he pleaded guilty to fraudulent trading in relation to Redwood Business Management Limited

On 30 April, appearing before HHJ Mallet, Robert Cree was sentenced to 4 years and 10 months in prison and disqualified from acting as a company director for 12 years for two counts of fraudulent trading and a count of perverting the course of justice relating to Monument Management Limited and Redwood Business Management Ltd.

The Judge described Cree as ‘plainly not trustworthy or honest’ and said he knew what he was doing was wrong.

Julie Barnes, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:

Criminality like Robert Cree’s has a huge financial impact on the victim companies involved in his scams and the business community as a whole. We worked hard to fast track our investigation after information about a new company came to light during this defendant’s first sentencing.

Robert Cree refused to co-operate with investigators throughout but despite this, he has now been handed a lengthy sentence for his actions.

Robert Thomas Cree is from Newcastle Upon Tyne and his date of birth is January 1980.

Falcon Management Limited (09198797)

Monument Management Limited (08345200)

Redwood Business Management Limited trading as Rojen Recovery Services (10811888)

The sentence result was announced at Newcastle Crown Court by Her Honour Judge Mallet

Disqualification undertakings are the administrative equivalent of a disqualification order but do not involve court proceedings. Find Robert Cree’s undertaking here

Persons subject to a disqualification order are bound by a range of other restrictions.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct.

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

Statement on AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine following JCVI update

News story

The government’s statement following updated advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

A government spokesperson said:

The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is safe, effective and has already saved thousands of lives in the UK and around the world.

As the MHRA – the UK’s independent regulator – and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation have said, the benefits of the vaccine far outweigh the risks for the vast majority of adults.

The government will follow today’s updated advice, which sets out that, as a precaution, it is preferable for people under the age of 40 with no underlying health conditions to be offered an alternative vaccine where possible once they are eligible, and only if doing so does not cause a substantial delay in accessing a vaccination.

More than 50 million vaccines overall have already been administered, and our current vaccine supply and rate of infection means we are able to take this precautionary step while remaining on track to achieve our target of offering a vaccine to all adults by the end of July.

Everybody who has already had a first dose of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine should receive a second dose of the same jab, irrespective of age, except for the very small number of people who experienced blood clots with low platelet counts following their first vaccination.

When people are called forward, they should get their jab. Vaccines are the best way out of this pandemic and provide strong protection against COVID-19.

Public Health England (PHE) analysis indicates that the COVID-19 vaccination programme prevented more than 10,000 deaths in England up to the end of March.

All safety reports are rigorously investigated and anyone with unexpected symptoms should speak with a healthcare professional.

All medicines have a risk of side effects, even common medicines like paracetamol.

Published 7 May 2021

Important Information for applicants of marketing authorisations: New Applications

News story

Submission opportunities that are now available to applicants of marketing authorisations.

Five months have passed since the end of the transition period and our Exit from the European Union and we are embedding the submission opportunities that are now available to applicants.

It is important, however, for the VMD to be able to plan its resources to ensure that we can continue to provide you with the predictability of the authorisation process; and to ensure we have assessor availability during the traditional busy periods. This will include the Summer months and the Christmas period, especially as the pandemic lockdown procedures ease and life begins to return to something resembling normality.

The VMD will therefore be introducing the following measures:

As a temporary measure until the end of the year, submission slots will be introduced for biological and bio-pharm products. Submissions will need to be agreed in advance with the Regulatory Affairs Team who will liaise with the Biologicals Team.
Applicants should arrange to meet with us at least three months in advance to discuss your applications. This would be in respect of GB and NI national only procedures and those being submitted to NI under the mutual recognition and decentralised procedures. This is in line with the CMDv Best Practice Guide on Decentralised procedures (CMDv BPG-002) and would help to facilitate submission under parallel procedures in GB. This would not be a Scientific Advice meeting, but one in which you outline your product, cover the regulatory aspects, outline the data you plan to submit and to also discuss the timing of the submission.
Likewise, we would like to meet with you to discuss applications you plan to submit in parallel with the Centralised Procedure around the same time as you meet with the EMA which would be about seven months in advance of the planned submission.

One of the new ways of working arising from the pandemic lockdown measures, is use of virtual meetings. These open up attendance more widely and more easily facilitates meetings between the VMD and companies. Virtual meetings may be as short as 10 minutes or as long as two hours.

Please contact Chris Abbott c.abbott@vmd.gov.uk to arrange a meeting. You would need to provide a meeting agenda to ensure we can invite the appropriate VMD personnel.

Should you wish to discuss these measures in more detail, then please contact Gavin Hall g.hall@vmd.gov.uk or telephone 01932 338431.

Published 7 May 2021

Transparency data: Defra: workforce management information March 2021

Reports on departmental staff numbers and costs.

Essex man jailed for longer following personal intervention by the Attorney General

John Berry has had his sentence increased following intervention by the Attorney General, Rt Hon Michael Ellis QC MP, who personally presented the case at the Court of Appeal.