I was contacted in April by Colin Irwin, then sole director of Spex Internet Ltd, to work on several design projects for Sony Europe.
I completed the three projects totaling 3, 300 on time, and to the satisfaction of Spex and the end client (Sony), and promptly invoiced for my services, allowing 30 days for payment to be received.
After a few weeks I had still received no acknowledgment from Spex that the invoices had been received or were being processed. I emailed requesting confirmation, but again received nothing by return from them. This continued with me sending several reminder emails which were ignored by Colin Irwin and Spex Internet.
I sent another email to Spex requesting confirmation, this time copying in the head designer of Spex who I'd worked with on the projects. Once again I did not receive a response from Colin Irwin, but the designer did respond saying he'd forwarded my invoices to the finance department and that I should receive payment within the week. Great! Unfortunately not...
After two weeks more still no payment from Spex.
I got in contact with the designer and requested the contact details for the finance department so I could chase them up about it. I re-sent my invoices again to them, and reminded them that all jobs were now quite some time over due. At this stage payment for the first job was 3 months late, that's 4 months since the work was completed. I requested a response of when I could expect to receive the funds from Spex.
The next day I finally received a response from Colin Irwin, but the email was addressed to the wrong name. It stated that he had just got back from holiday and was working through the finances. He said "If you havent had an update from me by Monday please give me a prod and Ill get back to you."
Predictably, come monday there was nothing from Colin. I sent another email this time expressing my real concern at how long payments were taking, and asking him to get in contact as soon as possible to resolve the situation. I followed this up with phone calls to Spex, but each time I was told that Colin Irwin was either ill or out of the office.
At this stage alarm bells really started ringing for me. I realised I had been far too trusting and that they really had no intention of paying me.
I contacted a law firm specialising in contract and payment disputes. They were very helpful and went through all the contact I'd had with Colin Irwin and Spex Internet. They agreed it was a strong case and that Colin and Spex really didn't have a leg to stand on if they tried to refuse payment.
Unfortunately the next day I received news that Spex had gone into liquidation and that all staff had been made redundant. Receiving payment would be a lot more complicated now as I realised I must be among a lot of other debtors awaiting payment.
Since then I have received some interesting information from ex-employees of Spex Internet Ltd that has led me to suspect fowl play.
They told me that Colin Irwin had been directing incoming payments from clients to his personal account in the months leading up to Spex's liquidation.
Additionally it was revealed that he had also taken advantage of other contractors, in one case mentioned to me a contractor was owed in the region of 20, 000 and another agency was owed 30, 000, and the staff of Spex who had been made redundant did not receive wages owed to them. The same delaying tactics and excuses had been used on them too.
Clearly a lot of people were hit hard by the fall of Spex Internet Ltd. Except for one person that is; Colin Irwin. Colin has managed to hide behind his Ltd company, and avoid being held accountable for his negligence and deceit.
Colin Irwin is also, I hear, continuing to offer his services as a contractor himself, working with his Spex clients directly.
In hindsight I believe that Colin never intended to pay me for the services rendered, and that it was all part of his exit plan.
I hope that the other contractors affected by this read this and write up their accounts of what happened.
You can see Colin Irwins LinkedIn profile here: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/2/BBB/A62
B_smith
London
United Kingdom
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