Page 9 - STATEMENT OF CASE re-OCR s22_1

it transpired that some of the work was actually being done by Mr Brown-Constable himself and/or by other contractors engaged by him.
When the service charge accounts for the year to 31 December 2014 (see Item 4) were subsequently presented to the leaseholders, there were no details at all of the costs paid to AR Lawrence or any other contractors in respect of the refurbishment activity. There was simply a (wholly inadequate) item called "Reserves utilised" which showed an aggregate figure of £105,877 against the budgeted figure of £105,019.38 for the agreed works. But it was totally unclear from the accounts whether the whole of this sum of £105,877 had been paid to AR Lawrence & Sons Ltd, and (if not) to whom any balance had been paid.
Not only Mrs Hillgarth (on 10 and 15 December 2015), but other leaseholders including Diego Fortunati from Flat 9 (on 17 and 21 December 2015) and Christopher Lee-Pemberton from Flat 8 (since May 2015) all pressed Mr Brown-Constable, without success, to provide relevant details of the refurbishment work carried out and a proper breakdown of the "reserves utilised" figure.
Having failed to obtain any relevant information from MHML, Mrs Hillgarth made contact with Mr Tony White, the Managing Director of AR Lawrence in June 2016. Mr White, who had not in fact been paid all the money that was owed to his firm by MHML, agreed to provide a Witness Statement (attached as Item 5) in relation to his involvement with the refurbishment.
In the course of correspondence between Mr Begg and Mr Brown-Constable between March and July 2016 som.e admissions have been made and some understanding has emerged as to the scale of the fraud perpetrated on the leaseholders. Mr Brown-Constable now admits that some of the work on the re- furbishment was done by himself and/or through unapproved contractors. In response to a letter from Mr Begg da.ted 23 March 2016 Mr Brown-Constable specifically mentions the following items:
.Boxing of meters
.Boxing of interior messy wiring
.The lift interior and exterior (this was never part of the approved specification) .Artifacts grills
.The handrails
.The flooring
The BT wiring
The various interior woodworks
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