online training company: Why the compulsory strike-off?

[Deleted member 302052]

Can anyone enlighten me as to what the game is here?

First post, so I cannot post links, but could you look up both on Companies House:
'Vision Learning Academy' which seems to have phoenixed into 'The Learning College'

We've paid £800 for staff training to the Learning College recently. After logging in to their Moodle portal, we discovered the material resources are very poor, they are probably not even paying for a tutor to oversee the students' work, and the embedded files are just pulled from the old Vision Learning Academy server. ie. very, very low effort made to be a new, successful business.

They've also dissolved nine other training companies since 2012. Each time they do that, many hundreds of current students are losing their money. There are accusations dating back to 2012 about this couple committing recruitment fraud with their training websites.

What I'd like most is thoughts and feelings (or even better, facts) about the reason for the compulsory strike-off action on The Learning College, and subsequent discontinuation of it. Is that them trying to dissolve the company (whilst all the while still taking on customers/students)? If we start this course in earnest, are they going to, or likely to, shaft us by dissolving the company half way through?

Thanks.

 

[Mr D]

The company is in Stone?

 

[Deleted member 302052]

Yes. They are Staffordshire based.

Here's a more specific search: 08158369 & 08575984
And here's another piece of the puzzle: 10753300

Here's two lists of their companies:
officers/vvXGjYvliRe3Av9f9ldtTQQ7P4U/appointments
officers/-4TDEytSOZb_kofr7rofIAwVZZY/appointments

With the teacher training side of things, I suspect their modus operandi seems to be to get as many customers signed-up and paid-up for a course which takes the best part of a year to complete. They have no intention of supporting the students properly (you only find that out on the inside of their portal, once you've paid) and they keep signing people up until it starts getting too hot. They filter all this income off somewhere (a minimum of 200 or 300k), and then intentionally dissolve the company and phoenix it.

I'm not a businessman though. By looking at their records, and perhaps doing a quick search for their names on the Net, can anyone confirm that there is something abnormal about the way they're running their businesses? Can you tell if they are actually in the process of trying to dissolve TLC?

Thanks.

 

[Lisa Thomas]

VLA was incorporated in July 2012, liquidated in 2014 and dissolved Feb 2017.

I can't see how it was phoenixed over after the CVL to the Learning College as this was already incorporated in June 2013 and was already trading prior to VLAs Lqn.

As regards dissolution of TLC if you are a creditor and they are doing it themselves you should have received noted of the intended dissolution.

It could be that C House has attempted to dissolve due to non filing of returns etc and perhaps they have then filed them to avoid it:

https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/document-api-images-prod/docs/tti4-6oT8TICKLEoqWOapNeSVLOsEYgwJQsBrLjNySI/application-pdf?AWSAccessKeyId=ASIAJ7FLY4BYJMZ4RYFQ&Expires=1512120287&Signature=ombeVr4rR7SnadEG/rCIhBNMMkE=&x-amz-security-token=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

 

[TODonnell]

"I suspect their modus operandi seems to be to get as many customers signed-up and paid-up for a course which takes the best part of a year to complete. They have no intention of supporting the students properly (you only find that out on the inside of their portal, once you've paid) and they keep signing people up until it starts getting too hot. They filter all this income off somewhere (a minimum of 200 or 300k), and then intentionally dissolve the company and phoenix it."

That sounds about right, given the general tone of how they operate, based on what you've said.

If you can make money without delivering the goods, then, some people do. Great profits, low overheads, just gotta keep one step ahead of the angel of vengeance!

 

[Lisa Thomas]

https://www.gov.uk/complain-about-a-limited-company

 

[Deleted member 302052]

> I can't see how it was phoenixed over after the CVL to the
> Learning College as this was already incorporated in June 2013
> and was already trading prior to VLAs Lqn

I don't know what the exact definition of phoenixed is, so maybe I'm using the wrong vernacular.

What I mean to say is that nothing from the old company died - it was just transferred to the new company (yes, there was even an overlap) and they carried on operating (ie. collecting money from customers without fully delivering the advertised service). The content the current students are accessing is from the old, dissolved company and is still hosted on the server that the old company used (you wouldn't know this without looking at the page source). By the way, the old 'tutor' in the podcasts is in fact a failed actor, who studied drama at Birmingham uni, and the new 'tutor' doesn't even seem to work there at all.

I'm really angry at CACHE for allowing this to happen. The record shows that Vision Academy even dissolved owing NFCE/CACHE £9000, and yet CACHE allowed this couple to start another company and become 'approved' whilst the other company was being dissolved. So negligent and complicit! I've emailed them about this and they don't want to know. They don't care about anyone who loses money when these training companies suddenly disappear.

> As regards dissolution of TLC if you are a creditor and they are doing it themselves
> you should have received noted of the intended dissolution

They have thousands of 'creditors' - all the people who have bought courses, who are going to be left with nothing after dissolution. But these customers are completely ignored by the system and never notified of the intended closure. A lot of them are long-term unemployed or living in developing countries, which makes it sadder. I'm only on minimum wage myself, but I can still take a £300 swindle on the chin. A lot of those people can't.

> complain-about-a-limited-company

And Action Fraud. And Trading Standards. But first I really wanted confirmation that, yes, they seem to be doing what I suspect,and that their Company House records reek of it.

Thanks.

 

[Mr D]

Those customers can object to the dissolution. May not help them much but as creditors they can object and take whatever legal action they feel is right.
Whether the company has any money to claim from..... is another issue.

 

[scstock]

Found this with a quick search:

https://thelondonmove.wordpress.com/tag/beware-of-kerri-farrington/

 

[Deleted member 302052]

That's the page which led me down the rabbit hole. There's other pages too (Eg. Who's calling me').

But what I'm most interested in, is finding out whether they are in the process of dissolving the company right now? For instance, if that Feb 2017 compulsory strike-off was triggered on purpose, and whether the subsequent discontinuation was due to a creditor stepping in? And if so, what's the next likely step if they still want to dissolve?

 

[Mr D]

That's the page which led me down the rabbit hole. There's other pages too (Eg. Who's calling me').

But what I'm most interested in, is finding out whether they are in the process of dissolving the company right now? For instance, if that Feb 2017 compulsory strike-off was triggered on purpose, and whether the subsequent discontinuation was due to a creditor stepping in? And if so, what's the next likely step if they still want to dissolve?

If they want to dissolve they start the process. You can keep an eye on the companies house page but you can only see what they have done after they have started it.
You can object and delay the matter with companies house if you are going to take other action. Simply delaying for the sake of delaying appears not to work.