A JUDGE has branded self-proclaimed tycoon Reuben Singh a liar after the businessman masqueraded as a brilliant entrepreneur to persuade a bank to lend him almost £1m.
Singh - the subject of a Manchester Evening News investigation revealing how he cashed in on his false reputation as a wealthy success - has now been ordered to pay his former bankers more than £1.2m.
The Mercantile Court in Manchester heard that Singh, who has met Tony Blair, used newspaper cuttings proclaiming his multi-millionaire status and entrepreneurial prowess to secure an overdraft facility with the Bank of Scotland.
When his Salford-based online personal assistant company, AlldayPA, later went bust, Singh denied his responsibilities as the personal guarantor of a debt totalling almost £1m.
Judge Michael Kershaw QC, who found in favour of the bank, ordered Singh to pay the Bank of Scotland £1,229,966.
Singh must also pay the bank's legal costs.
Judge Kershaw's scathing judgement said: "Mr Singh deliberately and flagrantly deceived the bank about the extent of his personal wealth and ability to honour a guarantee if necessary from cash or realisable securities in the UK.
"He also liked to keep his own staff in awe of him and in ignorance of the truth of his past and present business activities." Referring to the former bank employee who had agreed the overdraft with Singh, the judge said: "(The banker) was, I think, to some extent a victim of Mr Singh's personality as well as Mr Singh's lies."
The court heard that when the banker visited Singh at the offices of AlldayPA near Salford Quays, the walls were lined with celebratory newspaper articles and a photograph of the entrepreneur with Mr Blair.
Cuttings
Singh, 28, who is originally from Poynton, Cheshire, took the banker in a chauffeur- driven Mercedes with a television in the back to the Lowry hotel, where he was treated to the hotel's specially printed "Reuben Singh Menu."
Singh also sent him newspaper cuttings which included the inaccurate claims that he had sold his first business venture, a fashion chain named Miss Attitude, for £22m. Another article, printed by the Financial Times, suggested the new venture for which he required funding, AlldayPA, was worth £100m.
As the M.E.N. later reported, Miss Attitude had in fact been a failing, debt-laden business for which Singh was paid just £1. AlldayPA went on to collapse with debts totalling several million pounds after Singh's parents pulled the plug on a multi-million pound loan. Singh's parents then bought the company from its receivers.
Singh - who does not own any of the shares in the salvaged business - became its chairman.
'Unfair'
A spokesman for the Bank of Scotland, which sued Mr Singh through the Mercantile Court in respect of the debt, said that "discussions were continuing with him about his ability to pay".
Singh, who defended himself in court, suggested that the guarantee was not binding because its terms were "unreasonable, unfair and oppressive".
When asked about his ability to pay the bank, Singh confirmed that he was in discussions with it.
He added: "Bankruptcy is not an option for me. I will make no comment about my personal wealth.
"The resources are available to me but I don't believe the bank rightfully deserve it."
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Well!
It sure beats working for a living.
Can you find out if his parents want to adopt me please?
This is discrace,how someone can lie to get 1million pounds,it would take me 15 years to make that amount of money decking!!!
Well done the MEN for highlighting this case and resisting calls of being racist. Regardless of the colour of and race of a dishonest person, anyone guilty of breaking the law should be punished.
I WISH THIS GUYS FATRHER HAD TAKEN UP MY OFFER WHEN I CALLED HIM UP 8 YEARS AGO & OFFERED HIM A CURE FOR THE DISEASE THAT HIS SON OBVIOUSLY HAS!! HE IS DEFINITELY SUFFERING FROM A VERY OLD DISEASE CALLED "BULL CRAP SYNDROME". IT CAN CONVINCE ANYONE THAT YOU ARE SOMETHING THAT YOU ARE NOT. I WANT TO MAKE REUBEN PATRON OF THE SOCIETY FOR THIS DISEASE! I MUST TAKE MY HAT OFF TO HIM THOUGH FOR CONVINCING T5HE WORLD THAT HE IS SOMETHING THAT HE DEFINITELY IS NOT!! IT HURTS ME TO SEE A FELLOW INDIAN LIVING IN CUCKOO LAND. GET TO THE PRIORY LAD & GET YOUR HEAD SORTED OUT!
How amusing, after all the soft-centred publicity that the MEN and other papers have given him over the years, printing drivel from his PR releases.
At last the duleder Reuben "showmethemoney" Singh has been exposed for all is hogwash and blarney.
Good on you M.E.N for flushing this canard out.
men what a disgrace to you that you have featured him for all these years. Why are you so interested there is plenty of rich people that owe banks millions and dont pay u dont write about them. He is one of the best enterpenuers in manchester. Least he can meet Tony Blair and the Queen.
WHGS-Shurely Shome Mishtake
I think this guy is an incredible Entrepreneur. Why doesnt anyone publish how many people he has given employment to over the years? How many people he has inspired? How much really good charity work he does? Why only his Money.
I worked for GroupTrade a company that Reuben took over and I also trained some of his staff in Salford. I can say from first hand experience what a complete fake this man is. He ran a great company into the ground. He ran up huge bills in the companies name and then handed it over to liquidators. Grouptrade collapsed owing huge amounts of money and all of us out in the cold with no job and leaving all of us out of a job without warning. His only intention with GroupTrade was to bleed it dry. The man is a heartless fake who cares about nothing except his ego. He is not an entrepreneur he's a parasite!
shame...pity ..total disgrace to business ethics... and society ..beg pardon.. and start life fresh as ordinary man ..
I too used to work for Reuben and i can vouch for the conman that he is and yes he did bleed Grouptrade dry and got rid off all the staff which he frequently tended to do with his staff from alldaypa. So many small companies and people have suffered because of his selfish, greedy actions. People dont know the true extent to his distruction and I only hope more people come forward telling of their experiences. Good on you Bank of Scotland, finally he took on someone that was too big for him to handle.
Judge confirms what anyone who knows Reuben has known for years - but it's nice to have it spelt out officially. Amusing and cringeworthy to see him attempt to lie his way out of the lies that got him in trouble in the first place, but also makes you feel sorry for anyone whose ever had faith in or done business with him. Quite a pioneer in a way - understood the power of 'bling' before the phrase 'bling' existed. Now the silver paint is wearing off and we can see the cheap plastic underneath.
Do you all forget the one thing we must remember? You cant make friends in business. From what I have read and seen, he has never said what amount his company sold for. Im sure that a non-disclosure agreement means that he was contractually obligied not to admit that it was sold for B#1. If someone started telling people I was worth XXX million pounds, i would not correct them either!
I have had a few business dealings with Reuben. He is a brilliant businessman and is nothing like the article suggests. I actually found him to be an honest guy, possibly too honest. OK we all try to get the best deal but I can not find 1 article where Reuben has actually LIED. Even the bank of scotlands case is based on the bankers believeing the press.
Are you telling me that you just walk into the bank with a bunch of newspaper articles and the bank gives you millions of pounds? Rubbish.
Ok so you don't like him but you cant believe that the bank just gave him the money. It is impossible. I think this is now a cover up on the banks part by blaming it on Reuben,
all you people seem just jelaous. Do you know that Donald Trump has been in bankruptcy so many times. Its just business and Reuben has done nothing wrong. I would like to know how many of you could employ thousands of people over the years. I have studied reuben's companies and they have made money. Well he still owns alldaypa if you check it out properly. He has had the last laugh. Well done Reuben. Shaft the banks they make billions and so what.
As a lawyer I have a slightly better knowledge of these type of things. The grapevine has it that Reuben defended himself and was commended by Judge. But how could he win against a full legal time that cost the bank nearly B#500,000! Even if he had the truth! Lawyers can do wonders with the facts to make things look different.
Being from Manchester I know that many people have wanted to have a pop at Reuben for years. Pure jealousy.
Who cares how much he has or doesn't have. Business is about risk and (along with others) think he is a brilliant business man. But I think he should just carry on his businesses and not waste time bothering about all this.
I used to work for a company owned by Reuben. I can say from experience that he is a nice honest guy. He doesnt do much chit chat or ideal talk (which makes some think he is arrogant) he works hard. I used to work with his secretary and all these banks were lining up to deal with him. He used to get people waiting for hours in his reception just to get a meeting.
So for these people to start crying when he's been smarted than them is their fault.
I believe the lawyer below. It is impossible that these major banks with so much information just took Reuben's word and gave him the money.
I can't even get B#2000 without showing proof of income and salary and a hundred other documents! I think all this is blown way over the top. Get a life all of you.
What a waste of newpaper to write such a stupid story when thousand of innocent people are dying everyday becos of natural disasters, war, terrorism.
To give him such importance for what? who is he? I give up on newspapers
Malik from Ashton
Reuben please give me some tips.
A starting up businesswoman.
What a huge amount of PR. Most of my clients would give their right hand for this kinda coverage. Especially as there is not really a news worthy story in the 1st place.
No press is bad press. I cant make out what to believe with this ; the bank or him. As a gambler I would gamble that they are both in the wrong but the Bank is to blame.
I hope he either has the money or has spent in on some really good holidays.
you are still the uk's no.1 Entrepreneur Reuben. As a journalist I interviewed you three years ago and last year. After reading this negative article I checked the interview you gave me on tape. You never once said a lie and when I asked you how much are you worth you just laughed and said "money isnt everything". When I asked you how much you sold your old company for you said "not as much as people think".
Ok, you didnt give me facts but you did admit you had signed and non disclosure.
I think you are seriously misunderstood. Partly your fault because you dont react to anything people say and you didnt even react to the hard time I gave you when I tried my best to provoke you.
To all, this is a true picture from a journalist who has spent over 5hrs talking 1 to 1 with Mr Singh.
I will surely be asking Mr Singh to give me an exclusive on his response. But judging by the 2000 or so articles written on him he does not respond to people who talk negative about him possibly quite wise.
GOOD LUCK REUBEN
All I can say is that I dont believe the press. This is the british culture of building some one up (selling newspapers) then cutting them down (again selling newspapers).
Reuben Singh is a victim of this. Also there is the further problem that it seems he has been caught in Political cross fire.
Interesting to see that Reuben's photo is always branded around with the Prime Minister.
We have conducted our own investigations and have found flaws in the argument against him.
We do not say we have in favour of him but we also dont say we are against him.
But it begs the question that if the bank is to be believed then all the bank staff involved should be FIRED.
The bank is using public monies to just throw around to anyone.
This can not be true. There are several earlier articles on the net which show the bank promoting Reuben to show that they are an excellent bank for Businessman.
North West Asian Business Forum Network (NWABFN)
I too worked for Reuben but I only have positive things to say. The good things he does no one even talks about.
I have never heard him say a bad word about anyone. Also he has helped tens of thousands of small businesses. See the www.alldaypa.com website and go to customer comments.
Some one please do more research into the truth
It is very easy to take the financial institutions and goverment bodies for ride. How come the persons like him proclaim themselve to be millionaire - meet prime minister and important dignitories is simple mockery on the system. Where was inland revenueand other bodies when the full page stories were published totally disguisting. The person of these kinds should be criminally charged and taught appropriate lesson so in the future nobody can take the advantage .