In his new role Ward will be responsible for driving sales of Motorola products to O2 global and Ireland.

Ward who started as a Mitsuibishi sales executive in 1988 worked his way through the ranks to become Trium head of operations for the last four years says he is looking forward to a new challenge.

I was approached by Motorola and they made me an offer I couldnt refuse said Ward.

Im looking forward to a new and exciting challenge ahead. When you have been with one company for many years it is a tough decision to leave. But Motorola is a company that is realigning and restructuring itself as it looks to grab a greater market share.

Trium National sales manager Rob Whellams said who has worked alongside Ward for 12 years said the company would be sad to see Ward go.

We are very sad to lose Richard. Everyone in the team wishes him the best of luck. We understand he wanted a new challenge.

Trium says product marketing director Koji Miyashita will become acting head of operations for the UK until it can make a permanent appointment.

When asked why mloop continued to accrue debt knowing it was insolvent to the tune of 1.38 million Rose answered:

If you ever run a company close to the edge you will do whatever it takes to keep the company going. We had been told the 2 million plus from the (planned) flotation would be available and we would be able to pay back the money owed.

Rose made his admission at mloops creditors meeting held on July 25 at a London hotel.

Mloops liquidator Jonathan Sinclair appeared with Rose and financial director Simon Jones and admitted the debt was huge.

We are talking about a lot of money. The business plan was a very clever idea. But the margins were very thin at less than two per cent.

The initial conception of the idea was made at a time when the market was going crazy for telecoms. But a lot of the demand had disappeared by the time the company was up and running.

Among the 80 or so creditors are ex-Orange head of sales Gareth Jones ( 9410.89) PR company Porter Novelli 25000) Reuters ( 44347) BDO Stoy Hayward ( 56037) Ernst & Young ( 14393) and International Supply Chain ( 502524). (Cont P2).

Rose is listed as a creditor owed 132488 for loan repayment.

Not even the hotels used by mloop personnel got paid.

The swish Hotel Martinez in Cannes is owed 1965.88 and The Hemple Hotel in West London is owed 1921.20.

A relaxed Rose and an uncomfortable Jones heard creditors inquiries into the immaturity of their business attitudes and their decision to continue racking up debt while they knew the company was in desperate straits.

Right up until the day that we went into insolvency we were being told that there were ways in which we could keep the company as a going concern.

Up until that time it looked as if we had potential deals going forward to save the companysaid Rose.

The companys flotation had been set for November 2001 but was delayed first for three months and then for a further two months.

The directors tried to find private investors but no-one was found willing to pay off the creditors and pump in a further 2 million necessary to keep the business afloat until it came into profitability.

Mloop generated transactions of 4.4 million but only made a profit of 89000.

Rose said that the proposed flotation would have brought in 3.6 million. This would have been enough to pay off the companys debt and allow it to have enough working capital to see it through to when it became cash generating which was forecast to be February 2003.

Up until the ending of the business and the information we had was that we could be successful by floating the business he said.

Rose was asked why he lied about the companys finances just days before the company ended trading (he was reported in Mobile News on June 2 as saying I can categorically refute the suggestion we are in any sort of difficulty.

His excuse for hiding the true state of mloops affairs was:

We were trying to save the company and we didnt want to have anything printed that could endanger the company or its future.

Creditors were told they would receive a questionnaire as to how they felt mloop had been run.

Once liquidator Jonathan Sinclair has finished his report the matter will be passed to the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI).

The DTI could then decide whether or not Rose or Jones could be made to account for any breaches of company law which forbid directors to knowingly trade while unable to pay debts as they fall due.

Mloop started trading last November. It was heralded as being able to solve the problem of handset imbalances around the world.

However despite the backing of mobile comms heavyweights such as Carphone Warehouse CEO Charles Dunstone ex-Orange head of sales Gareth Jones and GSM Association chairman Jim Pratt the company ran into financial troubles in January when funding ran out. It was wound up at the end of July.

Jones told the creditors he was selling his house as a result of the investment he lost in mloop.

According to mloop documents Jones had invested around 20000.

Rose said he didnt draw a salary throughout his time with the business and that he and his other company Fonexco lost 1.5 million.

Fonexco is listed as an unsecured creditor owed 310228 (see Comment and White Lines).

In addition early adapters could experience some dropped calls becuase the network will launch before handset testing has been completed.

3s head of external relations Edward Brewster said the network will be going ahead with services as planned.

We are not delaying our services or the launch. We will be offering 3G services to 45 per cent of the country in the second half of the year. This is what we have always said and there is no change to that. We are doing something that has never been done. We are more than a year ahead of our competitors in this respect.

There are challenges involved. Technical challenges are a part of that. But the technical challenges are nothing that we havent anticipated. We dont see it as being a huge issue.

Brewster said a 3G launch should not be judged by conventional network standards.

It would be a mistake to see the launch in the second half of the year as a simple launch. It is more complex. We are looking at it as the first step. By Q1 2003. (cont P2)

By the end of the first quarter of 2003 we will be at a more

The fraud was revealed over the last two weeks when it became apparent that a number of X Arts suppliers had not been paid even though the companys books claimed that they had been.

Checks on X Arts main trading account revealed that payments had been made to unknown bank accounts. Police and X Arts accountants are working with the banks and suppliers to establish exactly what has happened.

It is understood an employee who worked close to X Arts accounts department allegedly diverted company funds to their own personal bank account and a number of other accounts by writing out cheques with faked directors signatures.

Directors discovered some unauthorised direct debit transactions on X Arts main bank account and it is believed some funds were channelled out this way.

X Art managing director Simon Templeman said X Art continues to trade but admitted the incident almost pushed the company into liquidation.

The company is solvent. We have had a lot of support from creditors and customers for which we would like to thank them. We are still trading at this time. We are investigating the last six to seven months of accounts. Accountants have spent the last five days going through the accounts.

The fraud has seriously diminished our cashflow. We almost decided to wind the company up. I became suspicious because the company is profitable but we were experiencing cashflow problems. The main bank account has (Cont P2) been frozen. The bank has opened up a second account so that we can continue trading during the investigation. It appears a number of creditors have been lied to and that payments to a number of suppliers went into other bank accounts.

An unauthorised direct debit has also been set up on the company bank account.

We have recovered copies of cheques that contained fake signatures. We will be holding the banks liable for paying any cheques that have false signatures.

We estimate that around 100000 of company funds have been paid to a number of bank accounts without authorisation.

The individual concerned may not have been working alone. Police are continuing to investigate and are hopeful of being able to charge the individual shortly said Templeman.

PNC chief executive Ian Gray told Mobile News:

We have identified 20 to 25 towns within the southwest where we would like to open new stores. A number of exciting new products coming through such as camera phones will bolster sales later in the year. Mobile phone sales are a core part of the business and remain highly profitable.

The refurbishment will mean some stores will be closed for a minimum of two days. This will allow the whole interior of the stores to be upgraded with a new store layout new signage new display (Cont P2) units and a new interior design and colour scheme to make the store more appealing to customers.

KJC marketing director Crispin Thomas told Mobile News:

We trialled the concept in a number of stores. This yielded a noticeable performance increase in the stores. The work will commence in September and we expect to complete this by April next year said Thomas.

The news comes as PNC published its interim full-year results to March 31 2002. PNC says its turnover increased by 12.5 per cent to 57.6 million.

KJC stores reported increased mobile phone connections to an average of 12666 per month compared to 11809 per month in 2001.

PNC says 70 per cent of mobile phone connections were on contract rather than pre-pay.

Within the financial report published at the end of last month PNC chairman Lord Stevens said this had been the toughest year for the telecoms industry but was optimistic that the market conditions would improve. He wrote:

Mobile and fixed telecommunications have had the most difficult year in their history.

The market continues to be highly competitive. However there are signs of a better future.

PNC shut its mobile phone wholesale business English Telecom after its profits for 2002 halved to just 1.2 million. PNC also sold its internet division including the customer base of its Web portal smartone.co.uk to London-based Intelliplus Holdings in order to focus on its mobile phone retail business premium-rate numbering and least-cost call routing operations.

It is currently embroiled in action against former chief executive Darren Ridge over the alleged misuse of company funds a claim Ridge denies.

KJC has also appointed North London service and repair company Intec as a repair centre for its 51 retail stores.

The deal which started last week will see around 1000 handsets a month sent to Intec. KJCs repair service was previously looked after by various companies including Premier and MPRC.

KJC general manager Alan Holman said:

We decided to use Intec because it has more accreditation with handsets. We found that if we sent handsets to Premier they would end up going to Intec anyway so it made more sense to go direct.

The deal adds to Intecs service business which currently includes Vodafones 360 retail outlets as well as a number of independent retailers.

Intec business development director Charlo Carabott says: We are delighted to be working with KJC. We believe our accreditation with 16 handset manufacturers and our good track record helped.

Pegler was appointed by Orange last year to assist in Celltalks restructuring plans and determine whether Orange would accept Celltalks application for further credit facilities after Celltalk went in to administration with debts of 3.2 million.

Orange later installed Pegler as Celltalks interim chief executive when the restructured (Cont P2) company exited its administration in March 2001 after creditors gave it approval to carry on trading. Pegler left Celltalk in September 2001.

Orange purchased a 28 per cent stake in Mainline last year for 2.3 million following a joint three-year development of Mainlines specialist dealer initiative called m-viron.

Mainline opened its first batch of six m-viron stores last summer – a number that has since swelled to 21 – with further openings planned this year.

Boden and Pegler both deny that Mainline is in trouble. They insist that Peglers role at Mainline is purely to help Mainline develop its business strategy for the coming year.

Boden told Mobile News:

Ian Pegler was heavily involved in Oranges acquisition of shares in Mainline back in 1999. Pegler runs a management consultancy and we have employed him because he understands both Orange and Mainlines businesses. He is the ideal person to help us take Mainline forward this year.

Finance director Ian Hodgson left the company by mutual consent. Ian Pegler has been looking after the company while I was away on holiday.

The rumours have arisen because Ian Pegler was implanted by Orange at Celltalk to oversee its coming out of administration. People may have assumed he has come in to do a similar job here. That is not the case. Ian Pegler has been employed by Mainline and is no longer working for Orange said Boden.

Pegler told Mobile News that his role at Mainline had nothing to do with any financial situation.

Mainline is performing well. My role is to advise the company on future strategy.

There are no financial issues at Mainline. My role at Orange in particular Celltalk is the exact opposite of what is happening at Mainline. I joined Orange in 1999 to oversee possible retail acquisitions. I had a hand in Oranges acquiring of shares in both Midland and Mainline Distribution.

Orange asked me to be the interim chief executive of Celltalk in February last year because Celltalk had requested financial help.

I was asked to be Celltalk chief executive on behalf of Orange until I left Celltalk at the end of September 2001. During my time at Celltalk it paid the entire loan back to Orange and remained profitable Pegler adds.

There are two votes. All of the creditors get to vote including the directors who are owed 700000 in unsecured loans and the holding company (not in administration) that is owed 1.2 million.

We only need another seven per cent of the votes but I am confident we will get 100 per cent.

We also expect a similar result for the second vote even though the directors and holding company are not included.

I expect the company to be out of administration on April 1 said Meredith Watts.

Manchester-based Celltalk went into administration in February with debts of 3.2 million.

Insolvency firm Begbies Traynor has reduced Celltalks monthly overheads by half and put together a plan that would see it continue trading as long as the company paid 100000 a month for two years to meet its debts as well as half its profits.

Yerolemos Yerolemou (41) acted for brothers Andrew and Christopher Nicholas who were last November found guilty of a 10 million VAT fraud run through their north

London company Universal Cellular Communications.

Police had raided Yerolemous law firm at 77 Stroud Green Road Finsbury Park North London. He was not charged with any criminal offence but it is alleged he held legal aid money totalling 3237 in his office account failed to properly protect funds of various parties in the client account acted in conflict of interests and compromised his independence and duty to act in his clients best interests.

Andrew Nicholas was bankrupt but used the name of his girlfriend (Anita Kearns) to shift hundreds of thousands of pounds through Yerolemous practice.

A Law Society investigative accountant David Shaw inspected the firms books on March 18 1999.

On November 11 of that year police and VAT investigators searched the offices. Yerolemou was told the following June he would not be prosecuted.

Law Society representative Jon Goodwin told the Disciplinary

Tribunal that Yerolemou allowed significant amounts of money to be deposited in his client account and then paid the money out without any real transaction and without questioning the withdrawals.

On November 13 1997 475000 was paid into the solicitors client account apparently as a deposit on a country club. But the money was then paid out to another company on the same day.

The tribunal heard the Law

Societys investigating accountant found a series of payments to a company called Microtype Kearns and another company. He denied knowing Microtype was controlled by Nicholas.

He did not ask obvious questions because he either knew the funds were under the control of the bankrupt or chose to turn a blind eye Goodwin said.

At the very least he should have sought an explanation about where the funds were coming from and the connection between the companies and Nicholas.

Investigative accountant David Shaw said:

He (Yerolemou) misled me. If there is money coming in from a limited company it is interesting to ask who is in control of that company. He should have inquired whether Andrew Nicholas was bankrupt.

There are many facets to this inquiry that should have aroused more query.

Yerolemou denies the allegations.

He told the Tribunal he was involved in obtaining five shops for mobile dealership Celltalk which was later sold to Talkland for 150000.

But it merged that Celltalk which had been set up by the Nicholas brothers had defrauded Customs & Excise by selling phones with VAT and then disappearing before handing over the tax to the Government.

Yerolemou was asked about that fraud but said he had no idea about it.

He also claimed he did not know about Andrew Nicholas bankruptcy.

I had no idea whatsoever. I was never told by him about anything to do with bankruptcy.

He said he was introduced to the Nicholas brothers by Celltalks accountant.

They were very demanding and wanted things done quickly. I was instructed by them in the acquisition of leases from where they would retail mobile phones. They had five shops.

When asked about the police and VAT investigation he told the

Tribunal:

I naively assumed it was not me who was being investigated.

The hearing continues.

Mitsubishi has announced its intention to axe its former European telecom division and replace it with a new company next year to concentrate on R&D and marketing of new high-end GPRS handsets to be built in China.

Our intention is to fulfil all orders. All the different markets are working to fulfil customers orders for handsets a Mitsubishi Electric spokesperson said.

French law prohibits a company from discussing the situation until an agreement has been reached about employees futures.

Mitsubishi Electric had announced its intention to close the factory in Rennes. But the protracted French legal system has slowed negotiations which are still ongoing.

A final agreement between all parties could be reached by the summer.

When Generation Telecom bought failed Anglo Communications customer base some corporate/SME subscribers had direct contracts with Anglo.

The remainder were connected through dealers who acted as VSPs. The customers relationship for billing and other services was with the dealer rather than the actual service provider or the network.

Generation Telecoms VSP dealers have been given three options: sign up to the Generation Telecom Strategic Partnership for ongoing revenue payments of up to seven per cent of the total bill for the life of the customer have the PAC codes released to them or sell their customer base to Generation Telecom.

Subscribers who have not been opted in to one of the three options by April 1 will be disconnected.

Generation Telecom MD Keith Westcott MD told Mobile News:

Working with the dealers as traditional VSPs doesnt fit with our strategy. Reaction to the letter we sent our VSP dealers has been mixed.

Wed already started to change terms and conditions compared to what the dealers were enjoying from Anglo. We simply couldnt carry on the same way.

You only have to look at what happened to Anglo to see why. Dealers respect that.

Whether the virtual service provider as a concept is dead is in the hands of the few organisations that continue down that route.

We prefer not to have any grey areas when it comes to who owns a subscriber. Thats impossible with virtual service provision. We are happy to continue to work with (Cont P2)some of the VSP dealers through an indirect strategy which will continue to provide them with an ongoing revenue stream said Westcott.

Westcott added that the decision to dump virtual service provision was a strategic decision and not connected with the quality of the companies it partners.

VSP doesnt sit easily in our portfolio. We have not left our dealers in the lurch. Weve given three options and plenty of notice. Weve been in dialogue for a while. This hasnt come out of the blue. No ones being left high and dry said Westcott.

One of the affected dealers John Hepworth of Stoke-based GB Phone Solutions said: I can see both sides of the argument. I dont feel desperately badly done by – Ive found somewhere else I can put the business. However we werent given the three months notice stipulated in our contract with Anglo.

But he added: Its not as if Generation Telecom has cut us off overnight. Weve got six weeks to sort things out.

Generation Telecom did not understand the complexity of the VSP proposition when it acquired the Anglo Communications business. Im not too sure that it understand dealers that well or the way that we work. It sent us a contract to sign. It was a very one-sided document. No dealer that I know of signed it. Generation Telecom decided that it would scrap the VSP package completely.

Hepworth detects the influence of Vodafone in all this.

Vodafone does not like anyone other than itself having ownership of the customer. The network is not a big fan of dealers reselling its services.

Hepworth remains committed to the concept of virtual service provision delivered by dealers.

No matter what kind of problem our customer has we will sort it out personally. Hes not connected to a call centre in India.

Call centres may be OK for the consumer but not for businesses and SME customers.

Our customers are prepared to pay us a little bit extra for the element of service and flexibility we deliver.