Patisserie Share Discussion Threads

[lefrene] 28/9/2021 10:33

Gonzal, that last paragraph "We regret........", you'd think they'd been in business a fortnight and were learning on the job. My guess it won't be too long before they do it again, and very likely someone will have been given a bonus for getting the fine reduced by circa £2 million! They won't be tracking down duped shareholders and making good their losses that's for sure.

[lefrene] 27/9/2021 16:19

PUGUGLY, there are too few auditors businesses of substance, so the whole thing just gets too cozy. The auditors charge a very high price but often leave the real work to the juniors, last years crop from college, while hob-nobbing with the company directors. One gets the impression that blind-eyes are turned when it suits both parties. All this has been known for decades but nothing seems to have changed.

I feel for those who lost money on CAKE, heavens knows I've been taken for large sums by directors being economical with the truth. However with CAKE I noticed that for their turnover figures to stack up, every single outlet would have to average takings of £200 every hour all the working day 6 days a week. A glance in a handful of their outlets in county towns, made it obvious the outlets were probably taking a small fraction of what was claimed. However Luke plainly has friends in the right places, he seems to have walked away unscathed.

[tomboyb] 27/9/2021 16:03

hxxps://www.frc.org.uk/news/september-2021/sanctions-against-grant-thornton-uk-llp-and-david

A Slap on the wrist -

Will embolden more to do similar with these types of fines -

[pugugly] 27/9/2021 11:27

lefrene - Many thanks for that - Well worth everyone reading - Too many auditors fail to probe deeply enough and follow the money - eg:- Enron & Wirecard and the great daddy of them all Maxwell's Mirror Group!!


Also link to BBC report

IMO This mass of poo and management fraud and lack of attention to detail of the major shareholder has much further to run and will probably only enrich the legal beagles!!

[lefrene] 27/9/2021 10:49

Grant Thornton get a slap on the wrist. Look at the last sentence. Wot mate, nah mate, nowt to do with us mate, we woz only driving the van mate. Straight out of the Biden school for taking responsibility for your actions.

[onjohn] 07/9/2021 19:16

did anyone ever start a class action to remove Luke's ill gotten gains

[onjohn] 07/9/2021 19:15

when is this junk taken out of isa

[konradpuss] 03/7/2021 17:46

topvest, I have heard nothing of the fellow they arrested - M.D or F.D. I forget which.

Good old Luke seems to be back 'firing on all cylinders' as an anti lockdown merchant.

I think it is with hindsight that people were taken in by their relative profitability. I must admit I was not a shareholder, it did not cross my mind although I did not do the research.

As to Grant Thornton, I think their P.I. might be unsustainable soon. Just look at what their underwriters paid out in respect of Assetco Plc to name but one.

[topvest] 03/7/2021 17:32

At the end of the day it was the directors that perpetrated the fraud. Why is the MD and FD not serving time ?
The auditors were conned like everyone else. I didn’t see anyone calling out CAKEs ridiculous financials when everything was going “well”. GT will no doubt be reprimanded for being taken in with a false set of books, but shareholders are not due all their money back from GT in my view as they are only liable for a proportionate share of the loss.
Shareholders have themselves to blame for their poor investment decision and the ridiculous assumption that CAKE was more profitable than Starbucks, Costa Coffee and Pret. Even analysts were asleep at the wheel and just as incompetent as everyone else in this very unfortunate situation.
Here speaks a person that believes that shareholders should be accountable for their own mistakes and not expect to get their money back.

[konradpuss] 02/7/2021 20:13

No sure old Luke will be made a Lord after his commentary on COVID.

He does not like toffs in any case - note his accent.

[meijiman] 01/7/2021 09:12

Except teflon Johnson who will be given a Lordship...Lord Johnson of Cake

[gustavfenk] 30/6/2021 21:47

The only cakes that the crooks behind this failure like will be ones with files hidden inside them. You're all going DOWN!

[beeks of arabia] 30/6/2021 20:03

I like cakes

[gustavfenk] 24/5/2021 15:47

The SFO has recently been in touch with registered shareholders of Patisserie Valerie (CAKE). But if, like most shareholders, your shares were held in a nominee account, they probably won’t have been able to contact you.
They are asking for shareholders to complete a questionnaire to assist them with their enquiries into allegations of fraud at that company. You can find full details and the questionnaire here.

hxxps://www.sfo.gov.uk/cases/patisserie-holdings-plc/

[albanyvillas] 11/2/2021 12:44

Lets go get them boys

[jonc] 09/1/2021 12:26

Presumably that was Luke Johnson who down ticked your post or his missus.

[thomasearnshaw] 09/1/2021 06:32

Grant Thornton is being sued for £200m by the liquidators of Patisserie Valerie after the cake shop chain collapsed following suspected fraud.

Liquidators FRP Advisory said Grant Thornton was negligent in the preparation and conduct of 2014 to 2017 financial statements.



Luke has plenty of assets too to take imho

[lefrene] 22/11/2020 20:47

It'll be the little guys as always that take the rap. But all you had to do was look at the numbers and check out a few shops, any fool could see that they were not averaging £200 an hour every working hour of the week across all locations. But then these are beancounters not business people. Meanwhile Teflon Luke seems to live a charmed life, despite owning the bakeries that supplied the cake shops. It's beyond credibility that his bakeries did not know the true level of sales in those shops.

[gustavfenk] 22/11/2020 20:23

I read in the news that the administrators are claiming against the auditors, Grant Thornton, in the courts for negligence in missing the accounts shenanigans that went on at Patisserie Holdings. Let's hope that those responsible are held to account.

[onjohn] 15/11/2020 14:24

BHS's collapse and the subsequent demise of firms such as Carillion and Thomas Cook have had a common thread in that the outside accountants hired to check their finances have been criticised.
BHS store
IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES
image captionBHS fell into administration in 2016
BHS's auditors, PwC, were fined a record £6.5m after signing off accounts the industry watchdog, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), called "incomplete, inaccurate and misleading" in its report into the aftermath of the collapse.
According to the FRC's most recent analysis, a third of UK audits are substandard.



But Luke has gotten away with it

[onjohn] 15/11/2020 14:24

BHS's collapse and the subsequent demise of firms such as Carillion and Thomas Cook have had a common thread in that the outside accountants hired to check their finances have been criticised.
BHS store
IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES
image captionBHS fell into administration in 2016
BHS's auditors, PwC, were fined a record £6.5m after signing off accounts the industry watchdog, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), called "incomplete, inaccurate and misleading" in its report into the aftermath of the collapse.
According to the FRC's most recent analysis, a third of UK audits are substandard.

[phowdo] 11/9/2020 10:35

Quietly swept under the rug.
Almost no one who commits fraud on the LSE goes to jail.
A homeless chap who swiped a cake from one of their stores will do more time.

[gustavfenk] 11/9/2020 10:18

Well over a year since the arrests. Any news on charges or a trial?