Is Beresford Still A Director?

[SkellowRover]

If so why after he screwed so many people in our town? if no why is his name still in the program and on the who's who as a director on DROS?

I'm bringing this up because i thought JR said over 12 months ago that Beresford had gone, yet this is from last Friday http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/2907749/They-think-its-all-Rover-Jim.html

Please get this scum off our board JR, if you want people of the town to support the club then get rid of this man who has pocketed millions off the backs of donny folk.

[Rovin Reporter]

I don't think this will bother Beresford too much after all 100+ million buys you a lot of NEW friends . May be he should donate to the SHARP SHOOTER FUND before he go's.  

[SkellowRover]

Rovin Reporter wrote:

I don't think this will bother Beresford too much after all 100+ million buys you a lot of NEW friends . May be he should donate to the SHARP SHOOTER FUND before he go's.  

My family have had dealings with Beresford because my grandad died due to lung disease and illness from working down the pit at Edlo. They kept stringing us along for over 5 years before anything was actually settled compensation wise, everytime my mum or aunty called there was always an excuse and sometimes it was the same excuse they had given months previously.
I'm sure there are other supporters that have been through the mill due to that man and his firm and no matter what money he has put into my club i will always regard it as \"dirty money\" taken from the families of good donny folk to line his own pockets.

[graingrover]

He no longer figures on the list of Directors published on DROS. If indeed he has departed then the Sun's article and headline banner , which is damaging the Rovers' image ,should be challenged by the club.

[SkellowRover]

graingrover wrote:

He no longer figures on the list of Directors published on DROS. If indeed he has departed then the Sun's article and headline banner , which is damaging the Rovers' image ,should be challenged by the club.

Graingrover i promise he was on there earlier when i looked on DROS. Look at the date on there it has been altered today: http://www.doncasterroversfc.co.uk/page/WhosWho/0,,10329,00.html

He was down as an executive director if i remember correctly.

[Rovin Reporter]

SkellowRover wrote:

Rovin Reporter wrote:

I don't think this will bother Beresford too much after all 100+ million buys you a lot of NEW friends . May be he should donate to the SHARP SHOOTER FUND before he go's.  

My family have had dealings with Beresford because my grandad died due to lung disease and illness from working down the pit at Edlo. They kept stringing us along for over 5 years before anything was actually settled compensation wise, everytime my mum or aunty called there was always an excuse and sometimes it was the same excuse they had given months previously.
I'm sure there are other supporters that have been through the mill due to that man and his firm and no matter what money he has put into my club i will always regard it as \"dirty money\" taken from the families of good donny folk to line his own pockets.

I totally understand you, we had a similar failing with the an other company , but it seems that J/R may have taken the view innocent, until proved guilty, so it is about time the Board at Rovers made a statement to distance them self from this cretin who has disgraced his profession and his family, i hope they take it ALL away from him and he is left like many of his former  clients nothing to show for years of hard work and graft. He has NO EXCUSE and should have no where to hide his shame.

[SkellowRover]

SkellowRover wrote:

graingrover wrote:

He no longer figures on the list of Directors published on DROS. If indeed he has departed then the Sun's article and headline banner , which is damaging the Rovers' image ,should be challenged by the club.

Graingrover i promise he was on there earlier when i looked on DROS. Look at the date on there it has been altered today: http://www.doncasterroversfc.co.uk/page/WhosWho/0,,10329,00.html

He was down as an executive director if i remember correctly.

What i dont understand is if he has been removed over 12 months ago like we were told then why was he listed as a director on DROS upto today and why has his name been in every program as a director? (i've just checked the Newcastle program and the 1st directors name is Beresford), because if that is the case then it's been massively overlooked to the extent that a national tabloid has picked up on it. If SOD had gone to Burnley earlier in the year i can guarantee he wouldn't have been listed as manager on DROS or in the program over 12 months later.

I just hope we weren't told he was going and we have taken it for granted he had when all along he has still been on the board because i would feel let down big time in that case.

[wilts rover]

The Sun of course being noted for their accuracy - hence the photo being captioned as that of the ex-footballer John Beresford!

Or you could believe the account of John Ryan as quoted in The Star last week. I can only suppose that the 'malicious persons' who brought this up, via The Sun, at this time, are supporters of other clubs trying to derail our play-off push, dont you think Skellow?

Shamed lawyer had quit RoversPremium Article !
Published Date: 26 March 2010
By Richard Marsden
DONCASTER Rovers' chairman has hit out at individuals who complained to the Football League about disgraced solicitor Jim Beresford being on the club's board - when he left a year ago.

Mr Beresford was struck off by the Solicitors' Disciplinary Panel over profiteering from his work on miners' compensation claims in December 2008.

John Ryan said the club has reassured league bosses that Mr Beresford is no longer a director and cADVERTISEMENTalled the complaints an \"unwelcome\" distraction in Rovers' best-ever season.

Mr Ryan said: \"Jim Beresford has not been at the club for over a year. When the compensation issue blew up he said he did not want to come back.

\"He resigned over a year ago although the paperwork was not completed until the last couple of months.\"

Mr Ryan said Mr Beresford became a director of Rovers three to four years ago and confirmed he had \"put money\" into the club.
He added Mr Beresford had moved to Dorset and no longer had any link with the club.

The complaint made to the football league was regarding whether Mr Beresford was a fit and proper person to be on a football club's board of directors.

A Football League spokesman said: \"The Football League is aware of the situation regarding James Beresford and has raised the matter with Doncaster Rovers.

\"The club is fully aware of the effect of Football League Regulations and has confirmed it intends to comply with them.\"

Mr Beresford, aged 59, at one time Britain's highest-earning solicitor who ran Lakeside-based Beresford's Solicitors, and partner Douglas Smith, 52, were struck off after being found guilty of misconduct relating to taking cuts from money paid to miners' under the Government's coal health compensation scheme.

They allegedly failed to act in the best interests of clients, did not give adequate advice and entered into contingency fee deals against their clients' best interests.

Both men strongly denied the charges.

The compensation related to miners suffering conditions such as respiratory disease and vibration white finger after British Coal's lack of safety standards from the 1970s and onwards.

In the year to September 2006, Mr Beresford earned almost £17 million, making him the UK's highest-earning lawyer.

http://www.thestar.co.uk/doncaster/Shamed-lawyer-had-quit-Rovers.6184894.jp

[SkellowRover]

Well thats a relief Wilts, but it just shows how bad we are in our media/admin dept and how badly this has been overlooked when his name was still down as a director upto today on DROS and he has been named as a director in every home program this season.
We just set ourselves up there to be shot down, championship standard on the pitch and with our board yet and conference standard in the media/admin dept as usual.

[wilts rover]

No problem Skellow, glad to sort it

dont bother asking me to list the failures of our publicity/PR - there are not enough hours in the day! maybe Mr Frost can sort them out....

[wing commander]

\"Moved to Dorset\" mmmmmmm maybe but he allegedley still controls Beresfords or whatever name its now going under,of course i believe his Daughter is now a official  Director now he is banned,but i wonder who really pulls the strings,my relative has just been made redundant there along with a lot of other people as the miners/ mis selled endowment cash cow comes to an end.Sounded a most unpleasant place to work...

[FuzzyDuck]

There was a guy on 606 who was writing to the FL about Mr. Beresford.

With regard to his being a director of a football club, regardless of what he has done, the fact that he has been disbarred from a professional organisation (in his case, the Law Society) means that he fails the requirement of being a fit and proper person. Therefore, he goes.

He has gone and I believe JR in as far as he went long ago.

BUT....it was our own fans who notified the football league, not some conspiracy concerning other clubs and not getting his name off official lists quickly was poor.

Communication and media is something the club needs to improve as here we certainly are not CCC class.

[wilts rover]

That may be true Fuzzy but it still seems strange to me. Why did they approach the Football League & The Sun when a simple phone call/email to JR & Rovers pointing out he was still listed would have suficed? Why do it now in the run-in to the play-offs (in fact it was last week in the build-up to the Barnsley game), it seems he has been listed improperly for the past 12 months, it could have been done any time in that period - or even at the end of the season? Doing it in that way at this time don't seem like the action of a Rovers fan to me - it seems more like the action of someone attempting to embarass the club in the national media.

No doubting that not removing his name earlier was poor...but just because you're paranoid doesnt mean they are not out to get you..

[FuzzyDuck]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A62235425

As this link shows WiltsRover, this is not a particularly new campaign.

This link is from January and is an update (I can't find the original article).
I can't say if Alex or anyone else contacted Ryan before the FL.  I also don't know if they contacted the Sun (though I'd doubt this).

To the best of my understanding, it is only now that it has become clear that JB has left the club.  Maybe if the media department had handled this better, the Sun story could have been avoided.

[i_ateallthepies]

I followed this thread when it was running on 606 and can confirm that 'Alex' and others who expressed similar sentiments in the thread were acting on the basis that Beresford was indeed still a Director, why would they presume anything else when he was still named in the programme and the OS?  In other words, what reason would they have to contact the Club ? They surely would assume that the club was aware of his misdemeanours and had arrived at a decision to retain him.

[TheRev]

\"The club is fully aware of the effect of Football League Regulations and has confirmed it intends to comply with them.\"



If only the Football League had been as quick to point these things out when a certain Mr Richardson was in charge!!

[Muttley]

I've just downloaded a copy of the \"Current Appointments\" report for Patienceform Limited from the Companies House website and that is showing that Beresford is still a director. See attached doc. This information should be kosher, so i don't know what's going on.

[wilts rover]

i_ateallthepies wrote:

I followed this thread when it was running on 606 and can confirm that 'Alex' and others who expressed similar sentiments in the thread were acting on the basis that Beresford was indeed still a Director, why would they presume anything else when he was still named in the programme and the OS?  In other words, what reason would they have to contact the Club ? They surely would assume that the club was aware of his misdemeanours and had arrived at a decision to retain him.

It has already been pointed out on here, on what seems to be nearly every post, how unreliable and inacurrate Rovers are with the information they give out to the public. Which is of course true but irrelevant to your point.

I hope that the one thing that people take from reading my posts is CHECK THE FACTS before putting things in the public domain. I suppose that is easy for me to say as it is a major part of my job but I am always suprised as to the 'inaccuracies' that I see being touted as facts. Now if I were to want to report my football club to the Football League I would ensure that before doing so what I had to say was correct and a quick call to the switchboard to ask, 'Is Mr James Beresford a director of DRFC' would have got them an answer either way that they could have then taken further. How naive could anyone be to assume that by doing that, discussing it on 606 or on here, it wouldn't generate negative publicity for the club?

Motto of the story, where DRFC are concerned never assume anything!

[SkellowRover]

Muttley wrote:

I've just downloaded a copy of the \"Current Appointments\" report for Patienceform Limited from the Companies House website and that is showing that Beresford is still a director. See attached doc. This information should be kosher, so i don't know what's going on.

Well that leaves the question....... \"wtf is going on?\" surely he shouldn't be on a document like this if he isn't a director?    :S

[wilts rover]

Interesting find Muttley, it does say that list of members last ammended 26/6/2009 - although Peter Wetzel is listed and I thought he resigned years ago. It does also say 'This Report excludes resignations' on it? We could always pop round to Beresford's address and ask?

[i_ateallthepies]

wilts rover wrote:

i_ateallthepies wrote:

I followed this thread when it was running on 606 and can confirm that 'Alex' and others who expressed similar sentiments in the thread were acting on the basis that Beresford was indeed still a Director, why would they presume anything else when he was still named in the programme and the OS?  In other words, what reason would they have to contact the Club ? They surely would assume that the club was aware of his misdemeanours and had arrived at a decision to retain him.

It has already been pointed out on here, on what seems to be nearly every post, how unreliable and inacurrate Rovers are with the information they give out to the public. Which is of course true but irrelevant to your point.

I hope that the one thing that people take from reading my posts is CHECK THE FACTS before putting things in the public domain. I suppose that is easy for me to say as it is a major part of my job but I am always suprised as to the 'inaccuracies' that I see being touted as facts. Now if I were to want to report my football club to the Football League I would ensure that before doing so what I had to say was correct and a quick call to the switchboard to ask, 'Is Mr James Beresford a director of DRFC' would have got them an answer either way that they could have then taken further. How naive could anyone be to assume that by doing that, discussing it on 606 or on here, it wouldn't generate negative publicity for the club?

Motto of the story, where DRFC are concerned never assume anything!

Please don't take the point I made to indicate any support on my part for the actions of those who raised the issue with the FL.  But if the club was publishing WRITTEN information indicating that he is a Director, why would you place any credence in a verbal assurance from a switchboard operator stating the opposite?

[FuzzyDuck]

Wise words WiltsRover!

I did not Alex's campaign for reasons that you state.  I'm not a journalist but am sure some newspaper office boys check forums for juicy rumour and then look for a grain of truth in them....or in the Sun's case, skip step 2.  While I can accept JB should not be a DRFC director, I was uncomfortable about discussing it.

I still hold the media dept responsible though.  I was disgusted with them about the recent Hayter/Oster incident.  Do our media people think two Rovers players spending a night in the cells won't get discovered by the press? Now that was naive!

In short, I think many fans do not trust the message coming out of DRFC.  When this happens, people go meddling and the results can be bad.

Alex is on the right side, though I don't think his actions were wise.

[wilts rover]

i_ateallthepies wrote:

Please don't take the point I made to indicate any support on my part for the actions of those who raised the issue with the FL.  But if the club was publishing WRITTEN information indicating that he is a Director, why would you place any credence in a verbal assurance from a switchboard operator stating the opposite?

Good point well made. What I would have is the information given to me by a representative of the club on the day I rang, which I could then quote in further discussions.

If we believe Joh Ryan as quoted in The Star, Beresford resigned months ago - but nobody at the club thought to remove his details from the programme and website, leading us to presume that our media team are useless and different parts of the club dont talk to one another

If we believe everybody else, Beresford was a director until somebody told the FL & The Sun, hence his details only just being removed and JR has lied

and the correct answer is.....

[Muttley]

Wilts - see my previous post, all the evidence points to Beresford still being a director of Pateinceform.

1) He's still showing on the \"Current Appointments\" report,
2) he was listed in the last set of accounts for y/e 31/5/09, but only filed on 28/11/09 and there's no record of any director resignations on the Companies House website after that date.

Whether he's in the programme or on the website is not crucial, whether Companies House have been informed is.

[Wokingviking]

Companies House can be a bit slow in registering submissions, and it sounds like Rovers' company secretary/solicitor/accountant has only just filed the termination document in the last few days.

[Smeg]

Who is Buttonflower Ltd and Bowden Properties and Investments Ltd? Talk about fingers in pies...

[RobTheRover]

Muttley wrote:

I've just downloaded a copy of the \"Current Appointments\" report for Patienceform Limited from the Companies House website and that is showing that Beresford is still a director. See attached doc. This information should be kosher, so i don't know what's going on.

Anyone else noted that the nature of the business includes \"9261 - Operate sports arenas & stadiums\".  Now thats either a throwback to when we were at OBV, or something interersting is being planned for.

[Mike_F]

I noticed that but I put it down tot he fact that we now operate much of the commercial business at the KMS including advertising boards, matchday parking etc. It would give me a semi-on if we put a bid in to take ownership of the stadium though!

[Filo]

Smeg wrote:

Who is Buttonflower Ltd and Bowden Properties and Investments Ltd? Talk about fingers in pies...

Bowden Properties is JR`s property portfolio, if you read the book he mentions it in there

[Snods Shinpad 2]

Looks like Beresford's removal/resignation has been filed at company house.

Link