So what DID happen to 9-90?

[Rob Evans]

Was having a browse through Leigh Bishop's excellent site and came across this.. Apologies to Mr B for nicking it.

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]Former 990 Staff Win Claim

Former 990 managing editor Ron Mahoney and art director Tony Perrin have been awarded damages against Stenmar Ltd at the Shrewsbury Employment Tribunal on 22nd January 2004. Stenmar and their receivers KPMG did not attend.

The case had been brought after they had been dismissed on the 27th August 2003 by Stenmar managing director Don McGregor for "lack of performance". Both men who had founded 990 Magazine in July of 1998 had a year to run on their contracts and believed that the sacking had been designed to avoid paying any redundancy that would be due as the Stenmar group of companies faced financial difficulties and are now in receivership. The two brought an action for breach of contract and unfair dismissal against Stenmar. In the tribunals unanimous written decision the pair were judged to have been dismissed by reason of redundancy, that they were unfairly dismissed and that they were wrongfully dismissed. The majority of the damages in the case were damages for breach of contract.

Chairman of the Tribunal Mr G H Pritchard noted that both Mahoney and Perrin "realised that they were unlikely to recover the full amount of the sums we are ordering today. The applicants have in this way been deprived of what was to be for them quite an important hearing. In tribunal proceedings there can be more at stake than money and in this case it is particularly so".

The chairman also noted that Mahoney and Perrin had "great personal investment" into the magazine and wished to keep the it going "it appears that Mr McGregor was equally keen that the magazine should not survive. If his company was to go down, it is possible he thought that he might wish to launch his own magazine and could not easily complete with the applicants. We take not of the fact that in no release to the press was the failure of 990 ever cited as a reason for the company's failure. It seems clear that Ocean Frontier was the primary, if not the only, reason for the failure of Stenmar".

After receiving the written verdict Ron Mahoney commented "since Tony and I were sacked from 990 the jungle drums have been beating about what had gone on, with allegations that we'd ripped subscribers off and McGregor and his cronies suggesting miss-management. We said nothing as we knew that when the facts were put before the court their could only be one verdict. The truth was that back in July we were approached by Stenmar management accountants who told us about the groups financial situation and asked us if we wished to buy the magazine back. We told them yes but obviously any negotiations had to begin with our final years salary. The accountant disappeared and the next thing we received was a letter from McGregor terminating our contracts and threatened to sue us if we started another magazine. He acted like a spoilt child - if he couldn't play then he was taking his ball home -he reminded me of David Brent - I'm convinced that if he watched an episode of The Office he'd think it was a training video. I feel sorry for the subscribers and those advertisers who'd paid for their advertising up-front there was no reason why 990 Magazine could not have continued apart from the jealousy of one man".

Since parting with Stenmar, Mahoney has been contacted by numerous people who have issues with both the group and the directors. Last week the former directors of Stenmar were allowed to buy back one of their companies also in receivership Stenmar Sonavision by receivers KPMG.

"There is a growing campaign up in Aberdeen and Fort William for someone to look at the activities of this company. People are furious that some £700,000 of tax payers money seems to have been wasted with the failure of Ocean Frontier. I've received numerous allegations and I have passed these on along with questions regarding how former 990 Publications Ltd shareholders have been treated to the Companies Investigation Branch of the DTI and to Scotland's Deputy First Minister Jim Wallace MSP - Minister For Enterprise

So that's what it was all about.
Ron - congratulations for sticking one up the bastards & if the new mag's even half as good as the old one my subscription'll be along soon.

[Mr T.]

Good post Rob!! And timely. Healthy that the truth came out in an official manner after all the rumour-mungering and he-said-she-said voodoo which was the fall-out of this whole sorry saga.

Some of you may remember, a few months ago, me being in touch with this Don McGregor chap, well after 990 had closed, in order to ascertain what might be the outcome for those subscibers (me included) who had questions extant on their monies-paid and mags undelievered?

Well, Jay and I went through an exercise (across a couple of fora) in order to gauge the size of the issue of unfulfilled subscriptions and to garner those names and contact details of said sub'ers who were in the same boat. I can report, here, that we managed to get responses from about 50 divers.

I'd like to point out to any of them reading this, that we held off from forwarding those details to McGregor - which he'd requested so as to build a new database of sub'ers for "when I release the new 900.....probably expect to see it on the shelves in January 2004......"

It'll come as no surpise, and given the above report of Ron winning his case, under tough circumstances, through official channels, that not only did McGregor Esq NOT reproduce the Mag as stated, he also had all manner of trouble in his other business 'enterprises'. Indeed, with hindsight, that which makes us all geniuses, we were never gonna see 990 resurrected any time soon - if at all - with all that was going on in the 'business diary' of those running the Stenmar operation.

In short, we, me, YD will NOT be sending the collected sub'ers' details to anyone - we will delete them. All those who want to subscribe to Ron's new Magazine, 'Beyond the Blue', I recommend they do it - as it is a world class quarterly publication of 'coffee-table' standards! I jest you not. Ron has already made his peace both here and, I'm guessing other diving fora, regarding the demise of 990 and offered his new magazine as the way forward.

Well done Ron.


Now, can any of you good people tell me how I get my hands on £700,000.00 of tax-payer's money to piss away??

[angleseydiver]

<font color='#000080'>

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]Now, can any of you good people tell me how I get my hands on £700,000.00 of tax-payer's money to piss away??

Get yourself a job with Anglesey Council - big wadges of European &quot;Objective-One&quot; cash to piss away on staff and offices to carry out &quot;Feasability Studies&quot; and such like &nbsp;

[Finless]

Rob,

I was following up on the Beyong the Blue references on this bit of the forum and found this LINK. I didn't read it as I got bored after about two sentences so it MAY or MAY NOT duplicate, add to, detract from your above post or, possibly, have bugger all to do with anything. &nbsp;

HTH

Rgds
Rough tough I went diving and didn't stay at home with a runny nose Finless.