Working for Peter Marshall, editor in chief and publisher of Chef Magazine UK, and never getting paid
This is the story of how we came to work for Peter Marshall and Chef Magazine in the UK and what came out of it. We were commissioned by Peter Marshall to write two articles and to do two photo shoots for Chef Magazine. The articles were published in January 2012. We have still not been paid. Not a penny have we received.
In November 2011 (yes, 2011) we were contacted by Peter Marshall who asked us if we would be willing to do two (or rather four) commissions for him. It was two articles that were to be written, with two accompanying photo shoots, for Chef Magazine, an up-market glossy UK trade magazine for the restaurant trade. Both articles were to be done in Paris where we live. Both articles were planned as “feature” articles for the January 2012 issue of Chef Magazine. Both articles were indeed published in Peter Marshall’s Chef Magazine in January 2012. What seems now a long time ago.
The first article was on Alain Senderens and was for a feature series called “Living Legends” on famous chefs. Alain Senderens is one of the most respected chefs in France and have for many, many years had three stars in the Michelin Red Guide. He runs a top-class restaurant carrying his name. He is indeed a legend in French gastronomy.
The second article was on the chef at the British Ambassador’s residence, James Viaene. James Viaene was just about to retire at the end of 2011 after forty years’ service at the Ambassador’s residence. The article would also feature photography from a photo session with both the chef and His Excellency the ambassador of the United Kingdom, Sir Peter Westmacott and his wife the Ambassadress.
Thus, both commissions were double: writing the feature article text as well as providing the photography for the two articles. So, in essence, four commissions.
The fee that was offered to us was far below the normal journalistic and photographic rates. However, we thought that it was two (four) quite interesting projects and it was also the occasion to work with a magazine that we had never worked with before. It looked (at the time) like a very ambitious and professional magazine.
In the end we agreed on a fee, below normal rates for such work, of 949.50 euro for all four deliveries, two article texts and two photo assignments. Not much considering the amount of work put into it but it sounded fun and interesting, and perhaps it could lead to other things in the future.
Little did we suspect that the 949.50 euro would transform into zero, zilch, nothing. Little did we suspect what “other things” it would lead to. Not very fun things. Like chasing people who never pay their debts.
We have struggled now ever since early 2012 to get paid for these projects but have been paid nothing.
Excuses, excuses, excuses
As is normal, we sent Peter Marshall an invoice when the work was delivered and expected to be paid as agreed. As is normal. When that did not happen we started chasing. And that has now been going on for a long time. Chasing and chasing.
So how does it work? How can someone not pay the journalist / writer and photographer from whom he commissions work for more than one year? (Well, two by the time this is published.)
This is the way it goes, this is the kind of responses we get when we talk to Peter Marshall and ask to be paid. We have made innumerable phone calls. It is usually impossible to get hold of Peter Marshall on the phone. He rarely, if ever, answers his phone during the week. Weekends and evenings seem to be the only option. We have sent email after email. Mostly without responses.
But sometimes we do manage to get a response…
“What? Have you not been paid yet? It must be a mistake”, says Peter Marshall.
“Oh, I am sorry! It must be something in the administration. I am travelling right now but will be back in the office next week. I will make sure that you are paid promptly”, says Peter Marshall.
“What? I thought that had been sorted a long time ago! I’ll see to that you are paid right after the week-end”, says Peter Marshall.
“I will ensure payment will be made tomorrow”, says Peter Marshall (email of 22 May 2012).
“I expect to have funds available shortly, within a few days. I will probably be able to pay you on December 24”, says Peter Marshall.
“Well, we are a bit short of funds right now. I am expecting some payments from people next week. I will pay you as soon as that money arrives”, says Peter Marshall.
“Oh, I can’t pay you just now; I have someone else that I need to pay first. But I will make sure you are paid next week”, says Peter Marshall.
“We are expecting cleared funds in the next few days and will arrange immediate payment as soon as possible. Please accept my apologies for the severe delay in resolving this, I will confirm to you by email once the payment has been processed.” This last was in an email from Olivia White, OliviaW@networklifestyle.com, PA (personal assistant?) to Peter Marshall in an email of January 10, 2013. As you can guess “as soon as possible” has not yet happened.
Continuing operating a business on what grounds?
These latest motivations for not paying are in a way interesting.
It is really irrelevant to us if the debtor has trouble getting paid “on the other side”, by the people that owe him money. Peter Marshall (Chef Magazine etc, see below) has an outstanding debt to us and is responsible for paying it. It is not our concern if his clients do not pay him. Peter Marshall’s payment obligations to us are independent of any claims he may have on others.
Secondly, an operation that contracts with others and incurs expenses but does not have any funds to pay for the expenses would in most cases be considered to be operating on an unsustainable or fraudulent basis. Deliberately contracting with suppliers in the knowledge that there are no funds to pay them is not part of good business practices. If one incurs expenses and is unable to pay, then in most jurisdictions one should technically be in liquidation (or bankruptcy if one prefers that word).
Now, there is of course the possibility that Peter Marshall is trying to delay payment to us, and possibly to others, long enough to be able to close down Chef Magazine in the hope that the outstanding debts will thereby disappear. However, since we have contracted with Peter Marshall, always communication with Peter Marshall through his personal email pjmiom@aol.com and not with any corporate contact, our outstanding debt, it can be argued, is actually with Peter Marshall and Chef Magazine (or any other structure that Marshall uses) as joint and severally liable.
We have also sent a number of registered mails, both to Chef Magazine / Network Contract Publishing Ltd / Buckingham Book Publishing (Network House, 28 Ball Moor, Celtic Court, Buckingham, MK18 1RQ, https://goo.gl/maps/VhS1S), and to what we have been informed is (was?) Peter Marshall’s private address (1 Goats Head Cottages, Lillingstone Dayrell, Buckingham, MK18 5AF, United Kingdom, +44 7540 78 9191, https://goo.gl/maps/yCQ2g).
We have received no reply on those.
It is interesting to note that since January 2012, when we should have been paid, Peter Marshall has continued to operate Chef Magazine. He has published several new issues. He has hired a new editor. He has contracted with writers and photographers for material in Chef Magazine. I do not know if any of those suppliers have actually been paid of course, but I find it hard to believe that for example a printer would print several issues of a paper without being paid. So from all appearances there is money somewhere.
But from what I have heard said, editorial and journalistic assignments have not been paid.
Peter Marshall is also continuing to travel the world. Last time I managed to get hold of him on the phone he was in Thailand.
So, again, evidently there is money somewhere. But none of it has come our way. Peter Marshall / Chef Magazine has not paid us a penny for the work that he commissioned us to do in November and December 2011.
The unfortunate and sad background, re. my friend John Radford
We originally came into contact with Peter Marshall and Chef Magazine on the recommendation of a friend, John Radford, fellow member of the Circle of Wine Writers in the UK (the British association of wine journalists) and a great wine and food writer and broadcaster. He recommended us to Peter Marshall.
When I spoke to John about our troubles we had with getting paid for our assignment with Chef Magazine he said that unfortunately his experience was the same with Peter Marshall. John only occasionally succeeded in getting paid after repeated nagging and reminders, telephone calls, pleas, emails… with great effort.
John Radford unfortunately and sadly passed away in the autumn of 2012.
The last time I was in contact with John he told me that Chef Magazine / Peter Marshall owed him several thousand pounds for journalistic, editorial, and consulting work.
I have no certain information if he eventually was paid that outstanding money but I have my doubts. In fact, Peter Marshall has indicated to me that he has not paid to John Radford (or to his widow) the money that Marshall owed him. In fact, Marshall once said challenged me with a question “do you prefer that I pay you, or that I pay the estate of the late John Radford?” What can one answer such a question?
What to do to get paid by Peter Marshall?
So, what is there to do about a situation like this? In some ways all is very clear. Peter Marshall and Chef Magazine owe us money, so it should be a clear case to bring to legal procedures to get paid.
The problem is of, course, that less than one thousand pounds is small enough to make it difficult to involve a lawyer. Not unlikely, that is something that Peter Marshall is well aware of. If there are many creditors (have ANY other writers or photographers been paid?) but each one has a claim of a relatively small amount of money, then no one will have enough funds or clout our motivation to make it worthwhile to hire a lawyer. Most likely, other writers may have smaller claims on Peter Marshall and Chef Magazine. We did four projects in one go. Others do perhaps just a single one. Perhaps this is the calculation? That none of the suppliers (journalists, photographers, editorial staff) will individually have enough budget (or motivation) to pay for a lawyer? Is that the cool calculation? Then perhaps it would be time for all those (how many are there?) that have not been paid by Peter Marshall and Chef Magazine to join together in a joint action?
And there are other options. One can still decide to hire a lawyer, even if the full payment will go totally to paying the legal fees. That may not necessarily be a bad idea. There is also the possibility of the UK small claims court procedure. That brings with it substantially lesser legal costs. There is even a new option in the UK legal system with a specific route through the British small claims court for infringement on intellectual property (copyright). Considering that we have not been paid for the text and the photography Chef Magazine had no right to publish the articles. They were given the right to publish provided we were paid. Since they have not paid Peter Marshall and Chef Magazine are indeed infringing on our intellectual property. Copyright theft.
Another option might even be to involve a debt collection agency.
Is this just the tip of the iceberg?
It is possible that we (and John Radford) are the only ones who have not been paid by Peter Marshall and Chef Magazine. If that is the case I guess it is both good and bad news. Good because it means that other people, other suppliers to Chef Magazine and Peter Marshall, have been treated honestly. Bad because I can only wonder why, in that case, we were unfortunate enough not to get paid.
But somehow I have my doubts that we are alone. I would not be surprised if what we experience is the same as what many others have experienced who have worked for Peter Marshall or Chef Magazine. My guess is that we are not alone in not having been paid.
This could be an interesting story to follow up on. It will not be very difficult to find out which other journalists and photographers have been hired by Peter Marshall and have contributed to Chef Magazine.
It would be interesting to hear what they have to say when I speak to them.
So, who is Peter Marshall? What is Chef Magazine?
Chef Magazine is a UK publication that is run by Peter Marshall, the editor in chief and publisher. And owner. Peter Marshall operates, in addition to Chef Magazine Ltd two other operations that seem to be related and in the publishing business, and that have the same address: Network Contract Publishing Ltd and Buckingham Book Publishing.
However, I should also underline that all contacts that we have had with Peter Marshall have been with him personally, on his private phone, through his private email, pjmiom@aol.com, so it is perhaps more correct to say that we had contracted with Peter Marshall rather than with Chef Magazine. Whatever the case, they should be considered as joint and severally liable.
Chef Magazine has a website, https://www.chefmagazine.co.uk/, and an address, Chef Magazine, 28 Ballmoor, Celtic Court, Buckingham, MK18 1RQ, +44 (0)1280 829300. On that website one can read a profile on Peter Marshall: “Peter Marshall founded the Network Group and has built a reputation for quality publishing in the most demanding sectors, including in-house publishing for some of Europe’s greatest hotels and restaurants. Chef Magazine is a new venture building on the strengths of that experience, backed by internationally-respected chefs and created by a team with nearly a century of experience between them.”
The “quality” of that publishing does apparently not extend to the quality of prompt payment, or any payment at all, to journalists and photographers. At least not to us.
That website also specifies a “World Board” for Chef Magazine that in addition to Peter Marshall includes the starred British chef Michel Roux OBE (Waterside Inn at Bray).
There is a “Chef Board” that includes Chris Galvin, Michelin starred restaurateur (Conran restaurants, Mezzo and Bluebird, Almeida, Orrery, Galvin Bistrot de Luxe, Galvin La Chappelle), Claude Bosi, Michelin starred French chef working in England (Hibiscus restaurant), and Sat Bains (Restaurant Sat Bains), also a Michelin starred chef.
There is also a “UK Board” including Shirley Marshall as “managing editor”, John Radford as editorial consultant (see above), Brian Turner CBE, chef (Ready Steady Cook, Saturday Kitchen, Saturday Cooks, This Morning, Capital Hotel in London, President of the Academy of Culinary Arts), and Alain Roux (The Waterside Inn at Bray).
(All these references were on the site at the time of writing this article. It may have changed.)
I wonder if the World Board, Chef Board, and UK Board that include some very high profile names are aware of Peter Marshall’s business practices vis-à-vis his suppliers?
Peter Marshall is apparently also associated with other operations:
“Buckingham Book Publishing Ltd” appears in email signatures from Peter Marshall or his associated that we have been in touch with. It is unclear what kind of existence that has today. On the internet that redirects to “Midpoint Book Sales & Distribution” (https://www.midpointtrade.com), a US operation whose president and CEO is Eric M Kampmann. It might be that it is coincidental and that this is a US company that just happens to have the same name, without any link whatsoever with Peter Marshall. Or it might be that Peter Marhsall has perhaps sold (?) the US operation of the company.
In the UK, Buckingham Book Publishing Limited seems to have a more uncertain existence. Company-check has this to say: “The latest Annual Accounts submitted to Companies House for the year up to 30/04/2011 reported ‘cash at bank’ of £8,984, ‘liabilities’ worth £278,345, ‘net worth’ of £1,246 and ‘assets’ worth £276,531.” It also notes that accounts have been filed up to 30/04/2011 and that next accounts are due 30/09/2012. Not very encouraging. Peter John Marshall is noted as one of two company directors, together with Robert Frank Haysom.
“Network Contract Publishing Ltd” is another company that Peter Marshall seems to be associated with. It also appears in email footers from Chef Magazine. Indeed, it has the same postal address as Chef Magazine Ltd. According to Companycheck the company is dissolved and it is noted that “Network Contract Publishing Limited has not filed accounts”. Its website, https://www.networkpublishingltd.com, is not functional.
In fact, on Company-Director-check it is noted that Peter John Marshall has “20 current or previous company director or secretary appointments” (https://company-director-check.co.uk/director/913148569). 12 of those companies are “dissolved”. Two are “in liquidation”. And six are active. Chef Magazine is noted as “active”.
So, there you have it. Our experience of working with Peter Marshall and Chef Magazine. I look forward to hearing the stories that others will tell me when I continue investigating and talk to other people who have worked for Chef Magazine and Peter Marshall.
If you are a food and wine journalist this is the kind of mishaps you can get into. I hope that you never will because it is not fun. It is wise to make sure that you will get paid before you deliver anything to someone that you are not familiar with. That is of course easier said than done. Your client might be a mirage. Your client might be a fraudster. Or it might be a brilliant new start on a long term business relationship. You never know.
322 Responses
You should definitely pursue a claim through the UK Small Claims procedure. Details are here: https://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/law_e/law_legal_system_e/law_taking_legal_action_e/small_claims.htm
The key thing is that most organisations will settle as soon as a claim is registered; because it is more expensive for them to defend the claim than it is for you to bring it; and because should they lose the case, they have a County Court Judgment (CCJ) registered against them, which goes on to their public record, and which makes it extremely difficult for them to obtain credit.
Do pursue this; it is cheap, easy and requires no legal representation.
I am also owed money by Peter Marshall. I will you email you with the details.
More info here…looks like things may be catching up with him
https://www.insolvencydirect.bis.gov.uk/iesdatabase/viewdisqualdetail.asp?courtnumber=04153843
…and more
https://insolvency.presscentre.com/Press-Releases/Walter-Mitty-esque-publishing-company-director-gets-8-year-ban-for-allowing-company-to-trade-to-the-69491.aspx
Interesting and sad. Thanks for the comments.
Well done with this blog post!! If more journalists/writers/designers/photographers were prepared to ‘out’ bad clients, there might be fewer of them.
Thank you Annabelle.
It’s not always easy. You risk at the same time to put yourself out as someone who complains, which might not be good for future projects…
On the other hand, in this case I have hear about so many others that have been subject to the same thing so I thought it was worthwhile. One of the issues is of course that each one’s claim is so small so that it is not possible to take legal action. (Although I have also hear of much larger claims and people who have taken legal action. But with not much success in this case.)
I simply hope that this can help others avoid falling in the same trap or other types of scams.
PS: to those who have sent me emails. I will get back to you in the next few days. Have just been too busy.
https://twitter.com/AdvertiserGrpEd/status/396315243766231041
“Eight year ban for company director” in the Buckingham paper. If you can read his excuses, I think a pinch of salt is required…
https://www.buckinghamtoday.co.uk/news/local/eight-year-ban-for-company-director-1-5638929
A more readable version of the above
we are a printer and we haven’t been paid too from Peter Marshall
same stories same excuse and we are still waiting to be paid since April
I really hope that he will disappear from this business
please do not print anything for Peter Marshall and don’t trust him
So hope that printers will now be prepared not to work with him
I have just recently written articles and provided photos to Chef Mag (Peter Marshall) never got paid. Perhaps we can collectively take legal action.
Elizabeth – Sorry to hear about that. Yes, perhaps so. I am, as I think I have mentioned, planning a follow-up to this article. many people have contacted me with info and comments so I think that it would be worthwhile to do an update. I you would like to share some of your experiences I would be glad if you sent me an email with some info on your experience. My email: per.karlsson@ our domain in the url..
I also am owed a lot of money by this awful man!!! I have also just been informed that my name is still being used in the current issue of Chef Magazine as Magazine Manager – what a joke!!! When will this man be stopped from publishing a magazine???
It is a mystery to me how that magazine can still be published. Peter Marshall has claimed it has been put in liquidation and therefore cannot pay bills. So how can it still exist?
I know from experience this mans devious ways, he published on behalf of my friend, a well known 2003 world cup winner a book Cooking with Balls which was to be published to support my friends 3 Testimonial charities, Peter Marshall said he would pay for the book to be published, and then take back his investment from sales, some two months into our agreement he asked me to support the the cost as his cash flow with all of his other publishing commitments left him some what short of funds, he said that publishing costs were to be £45,000 and if we could raise £20,000 he would cover the rest.
We signed a contract with him in the name of his company Network Publishing Ltd, (NPL)which we found out sometime later following passing to him the agreed sum had been subject to a winding up procedure on behalf of HMRC some two months prior to us signing the contract, we then learned that the asset’s ( our book being one of many)of NPL had been transferred to the very like sounding Network “Book” Publishing Co Ltd (NBPL)and that our book was no longer ours, unfortunately this information was not forthcoming until huge amounts of testimonial supporters players and Chefs had given generouslyof their time effort and money (we believe in excess of £110,000.00.
After further investigation we also found having spoken to those involved with the publication, including the Chinese printers (who also went unpaid) that the total cost was a little over £19,000, so in fact we had paid the total amount ourselves and our charities received no benefit, as by this time NBPL had also gone bust and transferred its assets to the Buckingham book company ltd.
I along with other creditors managed to persuade the Secretary of state to re-open the Network Publishing Ltd case which was successful in bring him before the Luton County Court where insolvency Service brought supposedly to task see below in brackets.
(Peter John Marshall, the director of Network Publishing Ltd (‘Network’), was disqualified for eight years by Luton County Court, for the company’s failure to remit over £265,000 collected on behalf of the States of Jersey and allowing it to incur debts of nearly £200,000 to suppliers whilst insolvent.
The ban, which started on 30 September 2013 follows an investigation by the Insolvency Service and means Mr Marshall cannot promote, manage or be a director of a limited company until October 2021 without leave of the court.
The court heard that at a time when Network was insolvent, it failed to pass over advertising revenues of £265,000 to the States of Jersey its principal customer, and incurred debts of nearly £200,000 to three print suppliers upon whom it relied to continue trading.
These creditors were identified as receiving detrimental treatment because in the same period, Network made payments from its bank account of £1.3million, including payments to some other trade creditors of £658,000. The court also heard that in this same period, the company’s bank statements showed Mr Marshall personally benefitted from payments of at least £80,459.
According to Network’s own records, a ‘director’s loan account’ for the same period, which showed an opening balance at 1 January 2010 of £110,338 due from Mr Marshall, was subsequently “adjusted” in January 2010 by a credit of £172,967 which was explained as a “bonus” of £130,000 and reclassification of expenditure.
Mr Marshall was not present at his disqualification, having previously applied for an adjournment stating he was going to be out the country. However, this application was dismissed because of previous adjournments and because the court believed he had been given sufficient notice to rearrange his affairs to ensure his availability on the day of sentencing..
Mr Marshall did not submit a formal defence but, amongst other matters, attributed the company’s failure to his inability to fully attend to its affairs, having been diagnosed with cancer in August 2010. Mr Marshall’s illness was accepted as mitigation by both the Official Receiver and the court and was taken into account when fixing the period of disqualification.
At the hearing, the court was satisfied that the Official Receiver’s evidence showed Mr Marshall was responsible for the following:
Contrary to a contractual obligation with the States of Jersey, Network Publishing failed to pay over advertising revenues totalling £265,000 for its 2009/10 holiday brochures, despite collecting the money on behalf of States of Jersey between October 2009 and March 2010. The company had then used the funds in the ordinary course of business. One payment for £84,380 was made to the States of Jersey customer but the cheque bounced; and
On 1 October 2009, Network changed from the original company that supplied its printing services, and to which it owed £184,101, to another print supplier who provided Network Publishing with a £100,000 credit facility. This facility was used towards reducing the original print supplier’s liability to £84,000 without the knowledge or consent of the management of the new supplier. Network then incurred additional liabilities to the new supplier of approximately £35,000 resulting in a total debt to this supplier of nearly £135,000, still remaining at the date of the liquidation.
With over £200,000 owing to the two print suppliers, Network opened a third print account with another supplier in May 2010. Only one invoice was paid from this account, with 10 invoices totalling £27,214 remaining unpaid.
Additionally, Network owed a further £29,504 to this print supplier for work completed on behalf of another of Mr Marshall’s companies, resulting in a total liability of £58,718 to this new supplier at the date of the liquidation.
It was also proven to the court’s satisfaction that Mr Marshall had inflated the company’s balance sheet by creating an unrealistic “goodwill” figure which stood at £391,000 in the December 2009 year-end accounts and which the court agreed did not follow acceptable accounting procedures.
Further, when the bank called in Mr Marshall’s personal guarantee of £150,000 after the winding up order, he sought to use this as mitigation, describing it as a “loan” he had made to the company.
Mr Marshall also suggested that the States of Jersey and the Official Receiver were somehow complicit in conspiring against him to seek to have him disqualified. The judge at the disqualification hearing described these claims as being ‘Walter Mitty-esque’ in their absurdity.
Commenting on this case John Reilly, Deputy Official Receiver at St Albans, part of the Insolvency Service, said:
“Throughout the proceedings Mr Marshall failed to take any responsibility for the company’s failure and blamed it all on factors outside his control. Despite being an experienced company director, having held no less than 20 directorships, he was at best naive in his understanding of his responsibilities as a director as well as basic company accounting.”
Notes to Editors
Peter John Marshall’s date of birth is 12 July 1960 and he lives in Buckinghamshire.
Network Publishing Ltd was incorporated on 5 February 2001 and traded from 28 Ballmoor, Celtic Court, Buckingham MK18 1RQ
The winding up order was made on 12 January 2011 upon a petition presented on 12 November 2010 by HM Revenue for £300,000
Mr Marshall has been a director of at least 20 companies of which 7 have been subject to compulsory winding up orders.
On 9 September 2013 an eight-year Disqualification Order was made against Mr Marshall at the Luton County Court sitting at Bedford.
A disqualification has the effect that without the specific permission of the court, a person with a disqualification cannot:
Act as a director
Take part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of an company or limited liability partnership
Act as an insolvency practitioner; or
Be a receiver of a company’s property
In addition many other restrictions are placed on disqualified directors by other regulations. Further information on director disqualifications and restrictions can be found at:https://www.bis.gov.uk/insolvency/Companies/insolvent-companies
7. The Insolvency Service administers the insolvency regime, investigating all compulsory liquidations and individual insolvencies (bankruptcies) through the Official Receiver to establish why they became insolvent. It may also use powers under the Companies Act 1985 to conduct confidential fact-finding investigations into the activities of live limited companies in the UK. In addition, the agency authorises and regulates the insolvency profession, deals with disqualification of directors in corporate failures, assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay employees, provides banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds and advises ministers and other government departments on insolvency law and practice.
8. Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available from: https://www.bis.gov.uk/insolvency.
9. All public enquiries concerning the affairs of the company should be made to: The Official Receiver, 1st Floor, Trident House, 42-48 Victoria Street, St Albans AL1 3HR Email:StAlbans.OR@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk
10. Media enquiries only should be directed to: Kathryn Montague, Media Relations Manager on 0207 674 6910 or Ade Daramy, Press Officer on 0207 596 6187.
11. You can now subscribe to get e-mail alerts from The Insolvency Service. To subscribe, go to our website http://www.bis.gov.uk/insolvency and you will see a button to “sign up for email alerts and newsletters”, or click on the following link:https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKBIS/subscriber/new.
12. The Insolvency Service is now on twitter, you can follow us at @insolvencygovuk.
Contact Information
Name
Ade Daramy
Job Title
Mr
Division
Insolvency Service
Phone
020 7596 6187
Email
ade.daramy@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk
Name
Kathryn Montague
Phone
0207 674 6910
Email
kathryn.montague@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk)
Even after all of this Peter John Marshall continues to go about his business it seems with impunity, flying off first class to world wide destinations whilst his current Liabilities as of the last official count were £1,176,698.00.
My opinion is that Peter Marshall has absolutely no thought or moral thoughts to anyone but himself, and I hope that the authorities will eventually put a stop to his antics!!!
He just moves the magazine to yet another company. So Network Publishing went buist, as did Chef Magazine Ltd, as did many others. And now it is published by Chef Media Ltd.
But of course, Peter is banned from acting as a company director, so Chef Media Ltd has one director – Mr Harry Midgley, accountant – and Peter isn’t in charge at all….
If anyone has proof that he IS either acting as a director, or has been involved in forming, marketing, or running Chef Media Ltd, then he can be reported to The Insolvency Service.
I was working for him from March to May this year. After I was employed by Peter at Chef Media and left a well paid job to pursue what I loved doing (publishing and food) he then asked me to go self employed, something I wasn’t expecting at all. The first month I worked for him I was on gardening leave from a job in another industry and he wanted me to start asap, so I did and I worked from 8am till midnight most days trying to sort out all the emails that hadn’t been dealt with and get some sort of order in his company. As I started to call the so called ‘regular advertisers’ I soon discovered that no one wanted to talk to me and when I did get through to people I had a hostile response, leading to a lack of Ad sales and worry on my part. He asked me if he could pay me for the first month in instalments of which I only ever received £500 and he still owes me £2500. As the months went on our relationship went from bad to worse because he never answered calls or emails and there was no structure to the company and the running of it. My following payments were restful the get but I did get paid. By time May was upon us I really needed the money from the first month so I wrote him an email expressing I would require him to pay in full the outstanding balance by friday 9th of May, he responded by saying ‘we have stale mate then’ and ‘I think we should part company. He ended my working with him on my birthday and left me without a job for the first time in my life. I haven’t been able to get back on my feet since and have lost all my confidence. I can’t take him to court because I don’t have a spare £200 to do so. I want this man named and shamed and stopped from working in publishing all together, can anyone help me?
Hi Vikki – who actually owes you the money, Peter or Chef Media Ltd? I know he is fond of trying to switch debts from one to the other, to make the business of taking him to court harder. Did you meet or hear anything from Harry Midgley while you were there? Who else worked there? In fact I’ve just had an idea – if Harry Midgley is the only director, have you tried contacting him for the money? I have his address if you need it.
Hi There, well all my dealings were with Peter Marshall but I was invoicing Chef Media as he requested. I never met Harry and he never mentioned him but I did do some research and found out that he is the director of Chef Media. If you have his address that would be very helpful. The only other people working for Peter were his wife, Phil Donnelly, and my friend that came onboard as self employed to look after the Chef book side of things, nothing to do with the magazine as such. Would it be possible to speak to you about this? There are things I don’t want to put on the blog. Thank you
Hi Vicki – I will DM you on twitter in a moment
This is awful, Vikki – I really feel for you – Please see my long comment below…
To all who are owed and scammed by Peter Marshall, I have had enough of the bs from this shamed figure of the publishing industry. About a month ago, I instructed a debt collection (legal firm) in London to take actions on my behalf. I have also forwarded this website to them. Maybe there are ways to collect the debts owed either individually or collectively.
Hi Terence – I would like to compare notes on this. I am already in touch with Vikki above. Is there a way I can contact you?
Per Karlsson has my email, other than that I do not know how to get us connected.
I have asked Per to send you my email address.
Done.
Please let me know of any developments.
Hi Per, I thought I should let you know that I have warned a couple of people today about the additional comments on this blog and stupidly one of them has emailed Peter in anger (because he also doesn’t like the way PM does business) and told him about the link!!! I am so annoyed that PM will now know the latest details. Is there anyway of changing the link?
I wouldn’t worry Vikki. It is better that this info is out there in the public domain, even if that means PM sees it. If Per changes the link, or removes it, everyone loses it.
Vikki
No i can’t do that. And I’d say that it is just good if this info is seen by all involved. The more people who see it the better.
Per
Message sent to your email inbox.
Dear Victims of Peter Marshall, CEO, Chef magazine…
I am deeply distressed to read of all your trials and tribulations in your dealings with this individual – I must declare a personal interest here in disclosing to you that Peter Marshall, Fraudster In Chief of Chef Magazine, is, I am ashamed to say, my younger brother…
In this respect, knowing him as I do, I have to say without equivocation that this person has absolutely NO moral scruples whatsoever, and will not hesitate to descend to the basest levels of lying, cheating, scamming and frauding, if he believes that he can get away with it –
Unfortunately for far too long he has, and in spite of the fact that he has been disqualified as a director, he still appears to be functioning and running his businesses in spite of this – It is worth pointing out, that under the requirements of his disqualification, he is forbidden to have ANY role in the running of ANY other company or partnership – And yet this is what he appears to be doing…
Some months ago (in May I think) I sent a great deal of material off to the Insolvency Service with the aim of alerting them to what appeared (and still appears) to be his contemptuous flouting of the requirements of his disqualification – Apart from an acknowledgement of receipt, I’ve heard nothing more from them – But that is normal, as the Insolvency Service works very discretely with the aim that anyone they might be investigating doesn’t get tipped off, however inadvertently – So I’ve no way of knowing whether they are investigating him again or not –
I would suggest that all of you who have contributed to this thread get in touch with the IS to denounce PM’s nefarious activities –
I would like to add my own knowledge here as to how PM works and scams – “also owed” has pointed out that he moves his activity from one company to another after allowing it to go bust – According to what I’ve discovered at Companies House and other company “health check” sites, this is exactly what he does and he has done this 20 times now – 20 companies he’s created and not ONE of them is still solvent…
Vikki, I am particularly distressed to read how you have been treated by him – The fact that he has left you without a job for the first time in your life and that he has totally destroyed your self-confidence is particularly disgusting – For your information I can tell you that PM does not even hesitate to cheat, defraud and steal from his OWN family –
In 2000-2001, my sister and her husband were trying to run a modest courrier business in which Brian would do deliveries around the country, mainly for printing firms – My sister was looking after the books and taking orders – But PM said to her that he would take care of the books for her as she wasn’t very confident in doing this kind of work – She and Brian agreed and they’ve regretted it ever since – The first thing he did was to register their little company for VAT – This was totally unneccessary, as any accountant will tell you that if your turnover is very modest, like Sally’s and Brian’s was, it isn’t worth the hassle of registering for VAT – The first inkling they had that something was wrong was when Brian went to fill up the van with diesel and the garage wouldn’t let him, as they’s not been paid for weeks for other tankfuls – Then the roof really caved in as the VAT came after them for unpaid VAT on all kinds of expenditure that had NOTHING to do with their business – Yes you’ve guessed it !! – PM had laundered bills on which VAT was due from his other companies and put them through their company – Tens of thousands of pounds !! – And as it was their names listed as directors of the company, it was Sally and Brian who were liable – And PM just walked away from it and let them stew !! – Since then they have NEVER, even after all these years, been able to get their heads above water and came close last year to losing their home – Finally my mother stepped in so that they wouldn’t – That cost her over £35 000 to bail them out – all because of Peter Marshall, the bon vivant and Swindler In Chief of Chef Magazine –
PM has not even resisted from stooping so low as to steal from his own mother !! – Our mother is now nearly 92 and obviously very vulnerable – This year PM told her that he would look after her tax returns and that she shouldn’t pay an accountant – But he would need to have access to her account – Well he would, wouldn’t he !! – So she gave him a credit card – He got through over £5000 in three months !! – He would have cleaned her out if my sister had not looked at Mum’s bank statements and discovered what went missing – It is also astonishing that her bank didn’t query any of these withdrawals as many of them were made at airports like Heathrow and Luton – As if a 92 year old lady, who lives in the Isle of Man, would be making withdrawals from places like that !! – My sister got in touch with our Mum’s accountant and together they went to the bank to get his access stopped and it was only the threat of criminal charges being taken out against him that “motivated” PM to repay what he stole from our Mother…
So maybe all of you who have contributed to this thread should get together to see what you could do (via a class action ??) to put this vile person out of action and behind bars – I for one would be glad to see him there after all the hurt and shame he has brought on our family…
You have my heartfelt commisserations – David
David,
Thanks for sharing this with us – it can’t have been easy. I thought I had a good idea about PM and his ways of working, but your stories have left me speechless.
David – one thing which might help us is a current address for PM, other than his business address. If you (or anyone else) knows it, maybe post it here or send it to Per and ask him to forward it on.
Thanks
Hi – Yes, I can give you his last known home address and I’ll give it here so all of you can know it – it is 18 Elm Street, BUCKINGHAM, MK18 1EX – I think this is still valid, as it is a fairly recent one – He has not lived at the Lillingstone Dayrell address for some years now – His house there was put on the market for around £495 000 (I think) and has now been sold, presumably to meet the debts that he was condemned to pay by Luton County Court, the same hearing when he also got disqualified for eight years as a director – Hope this helps and all grease to your elbow for nailing him like he deserves to be…
Thanks for that, David. The last I heard, the house at Lillingstone Dayrell was on the market for 390K, but he had loans of nearly half a million secured against it. I suspect it was repossessed…
ADDRESS UPDATE – ADDRESS UPDATE
Hi again All –
I have an update on PM’s home address as the one I gave above is no longer current –
He now lives at 23 Robin Hill, Maidenhead, Berks SL6 2GZ –
Just recieved this info from my sister – David
Glenn October 15, 2014 at 14:49 #
I know from experience this mans devious ways, he published on behalf of my friend, a well known 2003 world cup winner a book Cooking with Balls which was to be published to support my friends 3 Testimonial charities, Peter Marshall said he would pay for the book to be published, and then take back his investment from sales, some two months into our agreement he asked me to support the the cost as his cash flow with all of his other publishing commitments left him some what short of funds, he said that publishing costs were to be £45,000 and if we could raise £20,000 he would cover the rest.
We signed a contract with him in the name of his company Network Publishing Ltd, (NPL)which we found out sometime later following passing to him the agreed sum had been subject to a winding up procedure on behalf of HMRC some two months prior to us signing the contract, we then learned that the asset’s ( our book being one of many)of NPL had been transferred to the very like sounding Network “Book” Publishing Co Ltd (NBPL)and that our book was no longer ours, unfortunately this information was not forthcoming until huge amounts of testimonial supporters players and Chefs had given generouslyof their time effort and money (we believe in excess of £110,000.00.
After further investigation we also found having spoken to those involved with the publication, including the Chinese printers (who also went unpaid) that the total cost was a little over £19,000, so in fact we had paid the total amount ourselves and our charities received no benefit, as by this time NBPL had also gone bust and transferred its assets to the Buckingham book company ltd.
I along with other creditors managed to persuade the Secretary of state to re-open the Network Publishing Ltd case which was successful in bring him before the Luton County Court where insolvency Service brought supposedly to task see below in brackets.
(Peter John Marshall, the director of Network Publishing Ltd (‘Network’), was disqualified for eight years by Luton County Court, for the company’s failure to remit over £265,000 collected on behalf of the States of Jersey and allowing it to incur debts of nearly £200,000 to suppliers whilst insolvent.
The ban, which started on 30 September 2013 follows an investigation by the Insolvency Service and means Mr Marshall cannot promote, manage or be a director of a limited company until October 2021 without leave of the court.
The court heard that at a time when Network was insolvent, it failed to pass over advertising revenues of £265,000 to the States of Jersey its principal customer, and incurred debts of nearly £200,000 to three print suppliers upon whom it relied to continue trading.
These creditors were identified as receiving detrimental treatment because in the same period, Network made payments from its bank account of £1.3million, including payments to some other trade creditors of £658,000. The court also heard that in this same period, the company’s bank statements showed Mr Marshall personally benefitted from payments of at least £80,459.
According to Network’s own records, a ‘director’s loan account’ for the same period, which showed an opening balance at 1 January 2010 of £110,338 due from Mr Marshall, was subsequently “adjusted” in January 2010 by a credit of £172,967 which was explained as a “bonus” of £130,000 and reclassification of expenditure.
Mr Marshall was not present at his disqualification, having previously applied for an adjournment stating he was going to be out the country. However, this application was dismissed because of previous adjournments and because the court believed he had been given sufficient notice to rearrange his affairs to ensure his availability on the day of sentencing..
Mr Marshall did not submit a formal defence but, amongst other matters, attributed the company’s failure to his inability to fully attend to its affairs, having been diagnosed with cancer in August 2010. Mr Marshall’s illness was accepted as mitigation by both the Official Receiver and the court and was taken into account when fixing the period of disqualification.
At the hearing, the court was satisfied that the Official Receiver’s evidence showed Mr Marshall was responsible for the following:
Contrary to a contractual obligation with the States of Jersey, Network Publishing failed to pay over advertising revenues totalling £265,000 for its 2009/10 holiday brochures, despite collecting the money on behalf of States of Jersey between October 2009 and March 2010. The company had then used the funds in the ordinary course of business. One payment for £84,380 was made to the States of Jersey customer but the cheque bounced; and
On 1 October 2009, Network changed from the original company that supplied its printing services, and to which it owed £184,101, to another print supplier who provided Network Publishing with a £100,000 credit facility. This facility was used towards reducing the original print supplier’s liability to £84,000 without the knowledge or consent of the management of the new supplier. Network then incurred additional liabilities to the new supplier of approximately £35,000 resulting in a total debt to this supplier of nearly £135,000, still remaining at the date of the liquidation.
With over £200,000 owing to the two print suppliers, Network opened a third print account with another supplier in May 2010. Only one invoice was paid from this account, with 10 invoices totalling £27,214 remaining unpaid.
Additionally, Network owed a further £29,504 to this print supplier for work completed on behalf of another of Mr Marshall’s companies, resulting in a total liability of £58,718 to this new supplier at the date of the liquidation.
It was also proven to the court’s satisfaction that Mr Marshall had inflated the company’s balance sheet by creating an unrealistic “goodwill” figure which stood at £391,000 in the December 2009 year-end accounts and which the court agreed did not follow acceptable accounting procedures.
Further, when the bank called in Mr Marshall’s personal guarantee of £150,000 after the winding up order, he sought to use this as mitigation, describing it as a “loan” he had made to the company.
Mr Marshall also suggested that the States of Jersey and the Official Receiver were somehow complicit in conspiring against him to seek to have him disqualified. The judge at the disqualification hearing described these claims as being ‘Walter Mitty-esque’ in their absurdity.
Commenting on this case John Reilly, Deputy Official Receiver at St Albans, part of the Insolvency Service, said:
“Throughout the proceedings Mr Marshall failed to take any responsibility for the company’s failure and blamed it all on factors outside his control. Despite being an experienced company director, having held no less than 20 directorships, he was at best naive in his understanding of his responsibilities as a director as well as basic company accounting.”
Notes to Editors
Peter John Marshall’s date of birth is 12 July 1960 and he lives in Buckinghamshire.
Network Publishing Ltd was incorporated on 5 February 2001 and traded from 28 Ballmoor, Celtic Court, Buckingham MK18 1RQ
The winding up order was made on 12 January 2011 upon a petition presented on 12 November 2010 by HM Revenue for £300,000
Mr Marshall has been a director of at least 20 companies of which 7 have been subject to compulsory winding up orders.
On 9 September 2013 an eight-year Disqualification Order was made against Mr Marshall at the Luton County Court sitting at Bedford.
A disqualification has the effect that without the specific permission of the court, a person with a disqualification cannot:
Act as a director
Take part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of an company or limited liability partnership
Act as an insolvency practitioner; or
Be a receiver of a company’s property
In addition many other restrictions are placed on disqualified directors by other regulations. Further information on director disqualifications and restrictions can be found at:https://www.bis.gov.uk/insolvency/Companies/insolvent-companies
7. The Insolvency Service administers the insolvency regime, investigating all compulsory liquidations and individual insolvencies (bankruptcies) through the Official Receiver to establish why they became insolvent. It may also use powers under the Companies Act 1985 to conduct confidential fact-finding investigations into the activities of live limited companies in the UK. In addition, the agency authorises and regulates the insolvency profession, deals with disqualification of directors in corporate failures, assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay employees, provides banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds and advises ministers and other government departments on insolvency law and practice.
8. Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available from: https://www.bis.gov.uk/insolvency.
9. All public enquiries concerning the affairs of the company should be made to: The Official Receiver, 1st Floor, Trident House, 42-48 Victoria Street, St Albans AL1 3HR Email:StAlbans.OR@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk
10. Media enquiries only should be directed to: Kathryn Montague, Media Relations Manager on 0207 674 6910 or Ade Daramy, Press Officer on 0207 596 6187.
11. You can now subscribe to get e-mail alerts from The Insolvency Service. To subscribe, go to our website https://www.bis.gov.uk/insolvency and you will see a button to “sign up for email alerts and newsletters”, or click on the following link:https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKBIS/subscriber/new.
12. The Insolvency Service is now on twitter, you can follow us at @insolvencygovuk.
Contact Information
Name
Ade Daramy
Job Title
Mr
Division
Insolvency Service
Phone
020 7596 6187
Email
ade.daramy@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk
Name
Kathryn Montague
Phone
0207 674 6910
Email
kathryn.montague@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk)
Even after all of this Peter John Marshall continues to go about his business it seems with impunity, flying off first class to world wide destinations whilst his current Liabilities as of the last official count were £1,176,698.00.
My opinion is that Peter Marshall has absolutely no thought or moral obligations to anyone but himself, and I hope that the authorities will eventually put a stop to his antics!!!
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
REPLY
Hi David, Do you know anything about Harry Midgley? He is the Director of Chef Media apparently. I am going to write to him and ask for my money, but wondered whether you knew anything about him or the relationship him and Peter have? I know he is a Chartered Accountant, and find it hard to believe he doesn’t know what Peter is up to. Any info you have could be a great help. Thank you
Hi Vikki –
No I’m afraid I don’t – I have no knowldge of anyone who works with him at all apart from a brief exchange of e-mails I had with Olivia White who’s described as his PA – Is she still or has she now jumped ship ?? – When he was turning over my sister I came across accountants who had great difficulty in getting their hands on my sister’s books and many accountants who refused to have any dealings with him – And this was way back in 2001 !!! – Might I refer you to my reply to Glenn in which I offer to share what info I have on him (lots) via e-mail – If you would like me to share this with you I’d be happy to – So ask Per to let you have my e-mail address, referring to this reply by way of authorisation –
Looking forward to hearing from you – best – David
David we would I am sure all be happy to give support to supporting you and your family to pursue him on criminal charges, as chasing him through the civil courts is pointless, I have in fact in the past asked the Thames valley police to investigate him for knowingly issuing worthless cheques, knowing that there is no money in the account of which they are drawn to meet payment, THIS Is FRAUD, unfortunately the CPS decided not to go ahead much to the Policeman looking after the case’s disappointment, I believe that with the testimony of both you and you sister that we may jointly bring him to task and pay the consequences of his misdeeds.
I appreciate that it’s family but ask yourself where you think he got the money from to repay your mum, because I guarantee it wasn’t his money he used ! I took him to court as the money he owed to me was lent to him fortunately as a personal loan, however after 7 court appearances I only got a fraction of my £10k as when the High court sheriff attended to relieve him of his goods and chattels he had conveniently transferred them to Shirley and one other of his shelf companies. With your help we can get him and bring some satisfaction to the hundreds of people that your brother has conned over the years, I look forward to your thoughts.
Dear Glenn –
It is said that “blood is thicker than water”, but when one has a brother like PM, who is so utterly and so cynically beyond the pale, that kind of sentiment doesn’t hold with ME any more – It certainly doesn’t with him, as can be seen from the way he turned my sister over and the way he stole from our Mum – He has utterly betrayed us and brought shame on our family…
After reading the moving testimonies from some of the contributors to this thread (Vikki’s and Liz’s especially), I have no no scruples at all in doing whatever I can to help bring him to account – I have much in my possession that I would be willing to share with you via e-mail and would be more than happy to do so – So do ask Per to let you have my e-mail address by referring him to this comment as authorisation…
This goes, too, for any other contributors to this thread who’d like me to share what I have in my possession regarding Peter Marshall, Con-Artist in Chief, Chef Magazine –
Look forward to hearing from you – best David
Will put the two of you in contact. (Later tonight when done travelling for the day.)
I am happy to be a gobetween between any others who may want to get in contact too. And do please keep me in the loop. I too have outstanding claims on Peter Marshall.
David, Thank you for your concern about my situation, and I am so so sorry to hear that PM could do this to his own family, but I also can’t say I’m surprised. I would also like to thank you for sharing your comments with us as I know it is hard to write about and bring all the anger and frustration to the surface again.
I am still in search for a job and times have been difficult since I met this horrid man, but I hope to get back on track and move on. I really think we should all do something before he does it again to someone else. I am going to look into naming and shaming him publicly and nationally. If anyone wants to help please get in touch.
Vikki, I read your story and like others really distressed to see how PM treated you. Recently, I shared my success in getting paid by PM. This was done through a debt collection legal firm. I shared that with Per and Also owed. It does not cost you anything if it is not successful. You might consider giving it a shot. Please get in touch with me via Per if you would want to know more.
Hi Terence, when I have looked into this it clearly states I will have to pay to go through the courts, so how did you do it for free?
Hi Vikki,
It may be best you get in touch with me via email. Please get that thru Per. Thanks.
Hi Vikki,
Here is a link to the Ts and Cs of the debt collector I assigned the work to. They helped me to recover debt from PM. Probably the amount was only small compared to other victims and they may not be the best either. There are many debt collectors operating in London. But I hope this will give you an idea. There is no cost unless it is successful to recover the debt.
https://www.harleylegal.co.uk/links.php
Hi Terence,
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Thank you so much for this link, I will look into it.
I did send Harry Midgely (Actual Director of Chef Media) a special delivery letter explaining the situation and asking him to contact me within 7 days, otherwise I will be taking him to court for my monies owed by Chef Media. I haven’t heard back from him yet so will start the process. I will let you know what happens.
Vikki – Yes I was very concerned to read about how you’d been treated by my vile brother – Interesting, too, that he had you go self employed – Apparently he does this with everyone he employs, so that he can avoid employers’ responsibilities and obligations like paying his employees their NI contributions, their holiday entitlements, and Income tax etc etc – It is also easier for him to avoid “the inconvenience” of paying them at all as you have very painfully found out – When he employed my nephew (Sally’s son and as kind a man as you could wish to meet) he was also taken on as “self employed” and was teated very badly by him, though not as badly as you have been – I’ll take a look at the Beeb’s Rogue Trader link you’ve posted – In the meantime I hope that it won’t be too long, now, before your self-confidence returns and that you’re able to get back on your feet – I wish you all the best in this – David
Hi David,
Thank you for your message, I have emailed you as well.
Hello All,
Following Davids last comment on PM I am still awake at 2am and think it is time we took this to the next level, therefore I have just submitted an appeal to the BBC Rogue Traders Watch Dog about this man and I have included the link to this Blog. If anyone else wants to back me up and send an appeal in the same format, please do so at this website https://ssl.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mg74/contact go to the ‘send your story’ and fill out the details. here is the description I have left in the comments box just before I pressed submit….. FYI Below. Please take the time to do this and we can end this and all move on without anyone else having to go through what we’ve been through!!!! Thank you in advance for your support x
HUNDREDS of PEOPLE, COMPANIES and EVEN a TOURIST BOARD OWED MONEY BY – Peter Marshall CEO of CHEF MAGAZINE has had a string of businesses that he off sets debts to and then dissolves them so he doesn’t have to pay the people that gave him money for advertising, photography or in my case sales and marketing full time work. He has even ripped off his own family and owes hundreds of people money (please see link to blog about him online) He has been band from being a Director but is still running a company. This man has to be stopped before he ruins another persons life and financial situation, PLEASE PLEASE contact me and help all of those concerned in this blog link https://www.bkwine.com/opinion/financial-dangers-wine-food-journalist-photographer-peter-marshall-chef-magazine/#comment-11055 Kind Regards Vikki Hyder
Hi All
I worked for Peter Marshall and have suffered financially as a result and it is taking me time to get back on track.
I was never paid in full, nor on-time and I too had to listen to the dishonest string of lies knowing that what he was saying to me was untrue.
I have two small kids and was almost unable to feed them one weekend as a result of this man so I am happy to also get in-touch with rouge traders.
If I can play my part in stopping him rip off anymore people I will be happy.
Unfortunately as well as my own situation, I know from working for Peter that all of you that have posted your story above are just the tip of the iceberg! There are many others that have not been paid, have been duped or ripped of in some way by Pater. This man does need to be stopped now, it just can not continue.
David, of all the above accounts, I am so sorry to read what has happened to you and your family and the dishonest way that your own brother and son has treated you. It must be so hard for you all to come to terms with, and you it must have taken some courage to share this.
However, I always had a little doubt in my mind about Peter. I often wondered if he was just a desperate man who was not very good at managing a business. After reading the above I realise that he has no morals whatsoever, he is calculating and his actions are intentional.
I thought I would draw a line under what has happened to me and just move on, but I do now feel a moral obligation to stop him extracting money from anyone else in a dishonest manner.
Liz
Hello Liz –
Sorry to read that you are yet another of this disgusting character’s victims, of whom there must be thousands now !! – The key word in what you write is in the last para of your comment : “calculating” – For that is exactly what he is and what’s more he calculates LONG TERM – Nothing is spur-of-the-moment, desperation stakes with him – It is ALL planned well in advance –
BEWARE THE SMILING SCORPION !!
For like ALL swindlers, cheats and con-men, PM has a great deal of personal charm which he deploys to destructive effect before stinging you – Seducing and disarmling with “gift of the gab” seemingly plausible propositions, then endless excuses when things don’t turn out as they are presented are all part and parcel of his nefarious modus operandi –
He is usually shrewd enough to sting his victims for relatively small amounts, calculating that most of his victims won’t waste lots of time chasing a “bad payer” like him when they have plenty of other reliable clients – He really came unstuck when he tried to scam for the hundreds of thousands that led him to being disqualified as a director – In its judgement, Luton County Court described him as a “Walter Mittyesque” character – But they were being far, far, far too kind, as testimonies like yours and Vikki’s in this thread clearly demonstrate – When it comes to a young professional totally losing confidence in herself (Vikki) and a parent unable to put food on the table for her kids one weekend (you), all because of PM, then we are truly into the realm of the obscene – How many thousands of other personal tragedies like yours and Vikki’s has he caused…??
You are probably aware that he has often used “illness” as a pretext for some of his payment avoidance tactics – sob stories about his cancer, which doesn’t stop him jet-setting 1st class all round the world – and heart tremors, this latter being particularly hard to believe, as the tremors would have a very hard job finding his “heart”…..!!
QED – David
We too have been scammed by Peter Marshall and have been very interested to read your comments. We met Peter at a sugar craft show in 2012 (funnily enough we had just bought a copy of Cooking With Balls!!), where we were doing a book signing for a cake decorating book we had just released and he approached us wanting to be our new publisher. To cut a long story short, we ended up writing a book for him to publish (Caketails – intoxicating cupcakes for grown-ups). When we were drawing up the contract, we obviously wanted to iron out exactly how we would know how many books were being sold and how we would be paid and he was always very vague about this, telling us “that there had to be an element of trust!!
From the day it was published he completely ceased all communication with us and despite our 50/50 deal on the sale of the books, we have received NOT ONE PENNY – despite the fact we know that it has sold well and he continues to sell it on his own website, Amazon, book fairs etc. He studiously ignored every single phone call, email, text or letter from us as well as from our solicitor and the county court. We do know that we have his current address because as soon as our bailiff posted paperwork through his letterbox he sent us an abusive email, calling US evil and vindictive!! What a joke!!!
We currently have a high court judgement against him for an estimate of outstanding monies owed and the sheriff is banging on his door. We are then going to go after him for our remaining books once this is resolved.
To any of you other ‘victims’, we are more than happy to join in on any class action, Rogue Trader programmes or anything else which would help bring him to justice!!
Sorry to hear that you too have been victims. I would be interested to know which debt chasers you are using, and whether they are chasing him personally or one of his companies.
Hello Natalie – Hello Jill
Just in case you don’t have it he has recently changed his home address –
yet again !! –
He now lives at 23 Robin Hill, Maidenhead, Berks SL6 2GZ –
If you already have this address, well and good – if not, well there it is –
Wishing you all the best in your endeavours to bring this disgusting low-life conman and crook to account…
David
Hi Ladies,
I’m so sorry to hear that you have had to deal with this man, I know how he can charm you to trust him.
Can you let me know if you have appealed to the Rouge Traders yet? I am trying to gather numbers of who has completed the online form.
I also wish you luck in getting your money and books back, its about time PM was stopped, named and shamed.
Hi Vikki
We haven’t got round to filling in the Rogue Trader form yet I’m afraid, but will definitely complete the online form. We’ll try to do it by the end of next week
Jill
Hi Natalie – Hi Jill…
I don’t know whether you know this, but Peter Marshall is now promoting YOUR book, “Caketails – intoxicating cupcakes for grown-ups” on the Amazon UK website as HIS book – ie he claims authorship of your book thus –
Caketails – Intoxicating Cupcakes for Grownups (Hardcover)
Peter Marshall (Author)
NO mention of you two. Here’s the link :
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1908202165/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?qid=1418866301&sr=1-3
You should sue – and tell Amazon to take this page down –
Best wishes in your endeavours to get what you’re owed from this horrid person
David
Hi ladies
I have been chasing him and challenging him at every oportunity I have recently been liaising with both HMRC and the insolvency service to see if it was possible to get him on criminal charges he owe my friend and I £20k +
I see that at last on the 1st May he was made bankrupt which is a start but we need to get him criminally so if I can urge everyone of his victims make a complaint to the Insolvency service as he is in breach of both his directorship ban and numerous cases of fraud
Is there any further news of Pete as Harry Midgely is no longer a director and has been replaced by MR MAURICE ROWLAND SNOWDON, see https://www.aihitdata.com/company/01244B5C/CHEF-MEDIA-LTD/history#main
Pete seems to be the main promoter of the publishing and him and wife Shirley own most of the company.
One interesting fact is Phil Donnelly is/was very religious, I always wondered how he could come to terms working for Pete.
Matt in response to your comment towards Phil, being religious or not has no baring on why and how Phil can work for PM at the end of the day when you have bills a mortgage and a family to feed ethics and morals have to be set aside, I’m sure you would do anything for your family if placed in a similar situation.
By the way I’m in no way an advocate of PM I was also conned by this vile excuse of a human being.
It looks as if Maurice Snowden has been involved with various printing/publishing companies over the years, all now dissolved. Ideal qualifications for working with Peter Marshall!
Meanwhile Peter continues to promote & sell his magazine, and therefore Chef Media Ltd, despite being disqulalified from doing so.
The other thing to notice is whether Shirley, his wife takes on the helm. I think that pre the court case there was a lot of publishing going on and Pete was associate author/assistant with the publishing. It would be interesting to find out if anyone has been paid for their contribution
Also did Pete ever pay the LOC for the all profits to be paid for his ‘Recipes for Life: Inspired Cooking Beyond Cancer’ that was promoted through the media or was it a case that this would only happen when the total cost was paid for?
I liked Shirley, but I now think that she is rhyming slang for a James the F1 driver.
It’s a shame that the courts can not retrospectively see that his terminal illness was the same as Ernest Saunders with his Alzheimer’s disease.
Plus he leaves this message on twitter:
Peter Marshall @peterchefmag · 30 Mar 2014
‘@granthawthorn hi. It would be better if you followed chefmagazine. I am the publisher’
Which leaves a lot to be desired
Anyone else spotted this? https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/2333442
Bankruptcy Orders
MARSHALL, PETER
23 ROBIN HILL CLOSE, MAIDENHEAD, BERKSHIRE, Berkshire, SL6 2GZ
Peter Marshall, of 28 Ballmoor, Celtic Court, Buckingham MK18 1RQ and lately residing at 23 Robin Hill, Shoppenhanger Road, Maidenhead, Berkshire SL6 2GZ. Occupation Unknown.
In the County Court at Slough
No 143 of 2014
Date of Filing Petition: 19 May 2014
Bankruptcy order date: 1 May 2015
Time of Bankruptcy Order: 10:00
Whether Debtor’s or Creditor’s Petition—Creditor’s
Name and address of petitioner: AYLESBURY VALE DISTRICT COUNCILTHE GATESWAY, GATESHOUSE ROAD, AYLESBURY, HP19 8FF
G Rogers3D Apex Plaza, Forbury Road, READING, RG1 1AX, telephone: 0118 958 1931, email: Reading.OR@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk
Capacity of office holder(s): Official Receiver
1 May 2015
PM ADDRESS – UPDATE
Dear victims of Peter (chef media) Marshall –
You will be interested to know that PM has now done a bunk to Ukraine – He’s holed up in Kiev – It seems he has managed to ingratiate himself into the life of a young 34 yo Ukrainian woman with an 8 yo daughter – Where he met her I don’t know but it seems he is now using her to escape his many creditors in the UK and elsewhere…
Here is his address as far as I know it :
04114 KYIV (Kiev) – UKRAINE
UYSHGOROD SKA (Street)
45 1 APPARTMENT – Flat 1-152
I have attempted to find this address using Mappy but haven’t yet managed to – The postcode is valid enough, but I haven’t yet managed to locate that street name – UYSHGOROD is the name of Kiev’s airport, so it may well be that there is a name of a street or boulevard called UYSHGOROD, which goes out to the airport – I don’t know, only guessing – Anyway I hope this is of some use to you all…
Best wishes – David
Thank you for the information, David.
It could be that it is a transcription issue from Cyrillic. Perhaps the street name refers to a street named after the city of Uzhhorod (previously also written Uzhgorod). There is such a street in Kiev, also written Uzhhorods’kyi Ln, Kyiv, Ukraine, but it seems to be more of an industrial or office street that seems not to reach nr 45.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Uzhhorods%27kyi+Ln,+Kyiv,+Ukraine/@50.3967396,30.5060607,17z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x40d4c8cbd5af094f:0xe793eadb9a98e501
Perhaps someone knows Kiev or Ukranian well enough…?
It is also interesting to note that apparently a new issue of Chef Magazine was published in May, according to the @ChefMag twitter feed (including an email to Peter Marshall for those who want a copy…):
https://twitter.com/ChefMag
and
https://www.chefmedia.co.uk/products/chef-magazine-annual-print-subscription
https://www.chefmedia.co.uk/pages/contact-us
Hi again Per…
I now have a number for my vile brother – +44 207 097 1396 – It’s a Wavecrest UK Telecom number – It seems that they have fingers in Europe as well as UK, which would explain why he has got it so he can hop from Ukraine to England and still use his phone – The number I’ve given you there is a mobile one – Hope this is of some use…
Best wishes – David
Thanks.
The address where PM is living now (from Spring 2016) is Ukraine, Kiew, Kosenko street 43, (zip code 04123)
His longstanding partner Shirley is now up to what? I will do a little digging to see if I can find anything further. Maurice Snowden might be a help.
Hi David, it’s been many years but could you contact me privately ?
Hello Girly
If you get in touch with Per, he will let you have my email address and you can then write to me there…
Best – David
Girly, contact me privately and I’ll put you in contact with David. My contacts here:
https://www.bkwinephotography.com/contact/
FYI Matt, I understand Shirley can be found working in Buckingham Town Waitrose behind deli counter and often walking her dog around town.
Hello everyone
I have taken an interest in reading these posts on and off for the last 12 months.
I have noted Matt’s comments about me but I am not here to defend myself, and certainly not to defend Peter Marshall who needs to take responsibility for himself and his actions.
I want however to defend Shirley Marshall. She has had a torrid time of it these last couple of years, she is struggling to survive like the rest of us and she has no control over Peter’s business or personal dealings. I don’t think it is appropriate, kindly or fair to pursue her or abuse her, either on line or in person. It is certainly not appropriate to post aspects of her personal business on a web forum. I think it has been hard enough for her to adapt, and it is a little bit creepy and unpleasant for her to feel she has been spied on or reported on in this way.
Phillip you are a delusional fool if you believe that Shirley is a victim in all of this she is as bad if not worse than the dreaded PM I recall you head down in the back office in Buckingham head in the sand whilst I was the one being ripped off to the time of £20k that was in 2010
That same year I confronted shirley to ask her if she could intervene with Peter to sort out the debt owed to me she stood in front of me and said that she had absolutely no involvement in the business any more that she and Peter were separated.
Well it’s funny that since then not only has she been involved as executive editor she has also written articles in subsequent issues and on occasion been listed as a director of the various other companies that have emerged since 2010.
She and he are from the same pod, corruption is both of their middle names, Phillip I know you have family commitments and need to provide, but come on how long can you justify taking the salary of the devil, I am sure you know that whatever salary you are being paid is the money that has been Duped away from unsuspecting individuals and companies that have been succoured into to the web and world of deceit that is Peter & Shirley Marshall
You know what I have said is the absolute truth, grow a pair your a talented designer you u am sure could easily find gainful employment elsewhere and sleep soundly at night as I am sure the stress of the last -10 years or so have taken their toll.
Hi Glenn
You have your facts wrong. I was made redundant in the summer of 2014. I have freelanced since and I work for a variety of clients. Work is not so easy to come by as you suggest and I still do freelance work for Chef Media, but I deserve to be paid for my work as a freelancer, and I chase my own invoices. As for my salary when I worked for Peter, every penny was learnt through blood, sweat and tears, and the good work I did was on behalf of Peter’s clients, some of whom I still work for now and then. I know you hate Peter and I am not the ostrich you paint me out to be, I have endured financial instability for the last 2 years. Personally I think you need to move on as it will neither do you or Peter any good to pursue him to his grave. Will his demise help you sleep at night?
Philip,
I can’t speak for Glenn, but from my own point of view, I was (and theoretically still am) owed many thousands of pounds by Peter. Should I forget about it and move on, as you suggest? No. If I can do anything to stop other people falling for his lies and con tricks, I will. It annoys me that a man who has been banned from running a company is blatantly still doing so. It annoys me that so many people in the world of restaurants seem unaware of what he really is – a crook. And frankly, it annoys me that somebody who still works for him is suggesting that we just walk away and leave him to it.
Also Owed, I think you misunderstand me. I am not defending Peter’s actions, nor his business practises, I understand from personal experience the frustration and difficulty in pursuing old debts.
But I also want to preserve my own sanity and there is balance between pursuing an individual legally and through available channels and being consumed by bitterness and anger. I am exerting much of my energy in trying to find new clients and new opportunities to make a living.
Dear Philip…
I’m afraid that I find it rather hard to share your concerns and sympathy for Shirley Marshall – You say you have been following this thread for the past 12 months and I gather you may have had some dealings with PM before that – I, on the other hand, have observed with utter disgust the way my “brother”, PM, has been conducting his business activities for OVER 30 YEARS !! (see my post here on October 15 2014)…
You say that, Shirley “has no control over Peter’s business or personal dealings” – By this I assume you mean that she has had no input or control over the way that PM has run his 20 odd companies (all of which have gone to the wall) – However, for many of these companies, according to records at Companies House, Shirley was listed as a director – This being the case, you must know, Philip, that NO director of a Limited Liability Company can plead ignorance as to how the company for which he or she is a director has been run – A director of a LLC has not only a DUTY to know what is going on and how the company is run, but also to make it his or her business TO KNOW what has gone on – So Shirley cannot escape her share of the liability for the way in which PM has cheated, ruined, and in some cases, destroyed people’s lives and careers…
Shirley enjoyed living the millionaire lifestyle just as much as PM did and frequently accompanied him on his 1st class jet-set jaunts around the world when the going was good – So if she has has now come crashing down to earth with a great thump, thus becoming the latest in the long line of PM’s victims, there would appear to be some elements of classic Greek tragedy in the fate that has befallen her…
In any case, she needs to explain why she agreed to PM transferring his goods and chattels to her name when the bailffs came after him on various occasions (the classic con-man’s trick) – She should also explain what has become of these goods and chattels and any other valuable “assets” that may have come into her possession in this way….
The kind of questions and testimonies posted on this forum seem to me to be perfectly legitimate, Philip, and while I agree that it’s not constructive or even justified to heap personal abuse on Shirley, nevertheless, she did play a key role at the heart of PM’s business activities from the very beginning – It is therefore understandable that the many contributors (and victims) who’ve posted on this forum should wish to seek some redress, so it’s not surprising that they might wish to go knocking on her door in search of it…
Yours – David
RE Mr Maurice Rowland Snowdon
He has resigned as the Director of Chef Media 25/10/2015. A Miss Lesia Grebenyuk (34 years old) has replaced him as from the 23/10/2015.
As for Shirley, I’m sure that she has come down to earth with a bump, but if Pete had got away with it, Shirley would still be there diligently working away as if she didn’t know what he up to. She was his business partner so would have had the access.
Phil Donnelly was still working with Shirley fairly recently as the last book they published came out in the Summer 2015. Less of the ‘torrid’ two years and I accept that you would be biased towards Shirley after working for her for such a long time.
I will continue digging occasionally, but not on the too personal side, unless there is some hypocrisy there.
According to the contents page of Chef magazine issue 43.January 2016 Shirley Marshall continues to be acting as Managing Editor so I am afraid that her protesting that she is not involved seems to be at best misleading at worst a darn right lie.
Well said David, I’m afraid Mr Donnelly you must have fallen under the ‘spell’
Hi Matt
RE your post above on Mr Maurice Rowland Snowdon – You say that a Miss Lesia Grebenyuk (34 years old) has replaced him as from the 23/10/2015 – That name appears to have a whiff of the Ukraine about it – You may have seen my post here (4 August 2015) about PM having found a bolt hole in Kiev – He’s ingratiated himself into the life of a 34 yo Ukrainian woman who has an 8 yo daughter….
The update I can give you on the Kiev address is as follows :
Vyshhorods’Ka Vulytsya 45 Kyïv (Kiev) 04114 Ukraine –
Other elements to the address might be 45 (street number), 1 Apartment Flat 1-152 –
Here’s a reminder of his ‘phone number : +44 207 097 1396, which is a Wavecrest UK Telecom number, allowing him to be in contact in the UK and Ukraine….
Anyway I hope this may be of some use…
Best – David
SousVide – The Chef’s Choice July 2015 Edited by Shirley Marshall
https://www.amazon.co.uk/SousVide-The-Chefs-Choice-2015/dp/0992763819
On Chef Media
https://www.chefmedia.co.uk/collections/books/products/sousvide-the-chefs-choice-recipe-book
Pete Marshall is still listed as a contact on chef media website, for subscriptions
Perhaps Phil Donnelly can shed some light on how Shirley is still in contact with Pete’s business when she has had such troubling years because of him? This was only 3 months ago
It is so sad to see there are still endless problems being caused by this revolting man. PM left me without a job and £2500 down in May 2014 and it left me in a bad financial state and no income. I was working there (but from home) when Shirley and Philip were still there, and when I rang Shirley to question why certain things were the way they were she became annoyed and then wouldn’t speak to me. So I have no doubt that she is just as bad as him and deserves no better treatment than PM. I also did warn Philip about what PM had done to me and suggested he should be careful, so I hope he hasn’t done the same to him.
My name was still the main contact on the website for a long time after I left and I had to ask PM to remove me as I didn’t want any professional association with Chef Media or PM. Surprisingly he replied and removed my name.
I never got my money back and spent far too long wasting my time and effort worrying about it. The man is a waste of space with nothing left in his life thats honest or worth working for, so I pity him.
I think the lady he is with now was around ages ago when I worked at a show and she came to help and her child was there too. She will probably be the next victim to suffer his disgusting ways. While at that show PM even left his poor Dog in a Mini Cooper for hours on end in the multi story car park, I really wanted to call the RSPCA, and now wish I did.
I really hope PM doesn’t continue to take over the lives of more innocent people that are trying to earn a living, and we can all find a way to cut him and the damage he has caused out of our lives and move on.
Lesia Grebenyuk, or Леся Гребенюк, for it is she:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006596141098
@ Lesia Grebenyuk – With whom do you sympathise ?
Have no sympathy for this evil man.
His card is marked just be a little patient for a little while longer.
His day is coming his card is marked patience and this evil man will get his well overdue desserts
Sympathy for all the victims. I’m not one in this case, but I’ve been in similar situations more than once. The worry and frustration that comes from one’s apparent helplessness – whether one’s owed a little or a lot – can be overwhelming. If Ms Grebenyuk knows what she’s getting into, no sympathy for her at all. If she doesn’t know, someone ought to tell her. There’s enough to worry about in Ukraine already.
@ Lesia Grebenyuk (Sympathiser ??)
You are listed on various search sites as a Director for Chef Media. As such you have NO excuse at all for not knowing how PM conducts his business, and how he has cheated, lied and swindled his way through most of his adult life…
This being the case, you have a DUTY to resign from your directorship of this tacky outfit that masquerades as a specialist in Haute Cuisine. If you do not resign, you will therefore become complicit in all PM’s evil ways and therefore liable for any further debts he will continue to let pile up in many parts of the world (eg unpaid printers in China, Italy, etc, etc)…
You ask that if Ms Grebenyuk doesn’t know what she’s getting into, then “someone ought to tell her”, to use your own words…
Well now, as a new contributor to this thread about the disgusting “business” practices of PM, you should spend some time reading ALL the contributions to it. But even if you do that, you will have only touched the tip of the iceberg, so numerous have PM’s victims been over the past 30 years…
On a more personal level you might ask him about Giovanna – a young Brazilian woman who has a daughter who was eight years old when he met her – Sounds familiar ?? – You might also ask him the name of the “hi-class” night club where he met her and where she ended up with PM for “services rendered”…
It is patently clear to me (and to everyone else on here, I’m sure) that you are being used by PM so that he can have a bolt hole where the long arm of the British Law will have some difficulty reaching him. This being the case, you will no doubt get treated like a Princess as long as you remain useful to him. But then what ??
I hope you have some big brothers or well-built cousins whose professions won’t be a million miles away from working in the “personal security details” of one or other of the powerful oligarchs who seem to hold such “persuasive” sway in your country. If so, when (and it WILL be when !!) PM has no further use for you and ditches you, you will be able to have him dealt with the “Ukrainian Way”…
If indeed you do have to have recourse to these methods, please don’t bother to send him back to us in a box. Rather have your extended family find a suitably deep lake where, weighed down by his burdens (and some suitable rocks), PM can spend the rest of eternity “sleeping with the fishes”…
Hang on -I think we have some confusion here. A) I’m in sympathy with PM’s victims, not PM. B) Your entry reads as if you think I may be Ms Grebenyuk, which Is certainly not the case. Curiosity led me to her Facebook page which, as it’s in the public domain, I thought you’d find interesting . The tenor of the dialogue here is getting a bit emotional, so I’ll butt-out. I’ll continue to follow, and wish you all the best of luck. And I wish I could help.
Dear Sympathiser….
Thank you for this post, which makes clear that you are NOT Lesia Grebenyuk.
Yes, your initial comment had led me to think that you were, and I am pleased to accept your assurances and to offer my apologies for misunderstanding your situation…
So please don’t feel that you should “butt-out” – You have a right to your views and to freely express them…
As Voltaire famously put it, “I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the end of my days your right to express it”….
As someone who defends with the utmost vigour and tenacity the great writers and thinkers of the “Enlightenment” years, especially in the face of the unprecedented barbaric perversity with which our liberal societies are now faced, allow me to apologise once more for my misunderstanding and to hope that you will continue to contribute to this thread…
best wishes – D
From Peter Marshalls Facebook account it has him living in London. He has been quite active on it recently publishing a new edition. He is calling himself a publisher and he has links with Sousvidetools.com
‘Sousvidetools.com are a specialist supplier of sous vide and vacuum packing equipment for the professional chef and home foodie. We are the sole UK importer of sous vide and vacuum packing equipment from Swiss manufacturer Vac-Star and Italian manufacturer Foodtek. We’re also an authorised distributor of a great range of domestic sous vide equipment by SousVide Supreme..
https://www.sousvidetools.com/about-us‘
Maybe he can pay some debts if he is back in Blighty.
Ha! I might friend request him. Let’s see if he accepts my request!!!
Peter is hiring – https://www.thesalesfloor.co.uk/job/6-5/ – maybe we should all apply?
…but then it was gone. Shame, I was still making up my CV…
Just as well – This means that no-one else will be put on a “self-employed” status by this evil creature – Peter Marshall – A ruse he usually employs to get out of paying holiday pay, sickness benefits and all the other responsibilities that an employer “above board” assumes naturally, including paying a salary for work entailed !! – Yet another “inconvenience” that Peter Marshall avoids when allocating funds for his “millionaire” lifestyle !!
The ad mentioned Buckingham, yet Chefmedia is still based down in Chichester, well a phone is ringing down there.
I’ve spoken with the website and will be showing them this site so they can remove the job post
Well done !!! –
It seems that it was taken down pretty quickly after you spoke to them about Peter Marshall’s habits of fraud, theft, lies, deceit, unpaid debts, and his promotion of “fictitious” companies like Chef Media, Chef Magazine (NOT the US version of this !!), Network Publishing, Network Magazines, Buckingham Book Publishing, etc etc – all this in spite of his disqualification by the Insolvency Service (through proceedings at Luton County Court) as a Director of a LLC, which has led to him being banned for eight years (ie until 2022) from his promotion of any product or service emanating therefrom….
FOR EVERY COMMENTER’S INFORMATION:
To my great surprise I had a call a few days back from Peter Marshall. I could not take it immediately so he was asked to call back later which in fact he did. Which surprised me again.
He told me that he was very concerned over the information that was posted in this thread of comments. He did not dispute any of the facts or any of the information regarding himself. And he was not particularly concerned about the information regarding himself, from what he said.
Instead he said that he was concerned and worried about the safety of his “ex-wife” and his “girlfriend”.
He said that information posted in these comments regarding telephone numbers and addresses to his ex-wife (and girlfriend) has led to that people are stalking her – or that she believes that people are stalking her. That she no longer dared to walk her dog in the park.
I would like to point out that the information in my original article is accurate and true and is fully my responsibility. But I also want to underline that any information POSTED BY COMMENTERS is the RESPONSIBILITY OF THE COMMENTERS, and that I have no means to verify it. (Not that I doubt the veracity of any of it. I just want to point out who’s responsible for what.)
I told Peter Marshall that I would review the full comment thread and discuss any such personal details regarding third parties with the commenter who has posted it and ask if they would like to remove it.
I have reviewed all the information in the comments and can find no information whatsoever regarding any address or telephone number regarding Peter Marshall’s “ex-wife”, nor regarding his “girlfriend” (apart from an address in Ukraine that is mentioned as Peter Marshall’s own possible address but that seems not to exist).
Thus, I cannot see how any information in this thread may have led to, or could possibly lead to, any harassment of his ex-wife (or girlfriend).
And even if that were the case, the logical course of action would be for the person feeling threatened to go to the police and report it. This is also what I recommended Peter Marshall to say to his ex-wife.
He made a valiant effort of trying to convince me to remove the post and/or the comments: he has been (is?) suffering of cancer, his business went bankrupt (implying that it did so due to my efforts to get paid), had I no compassion for people being threatened etc etc. He also asked when I would be “satisfied”? If that would be when he killed himself and that when that happened he would make sure to deliver his coffin to my door “if that is really what you want”?
All that was very much the same arguments that he used a few years back when I tried (and failed) to get him to pay the money that he owed us, so not really any surprise there.
I imagine that many of the commenters here have heard the same things.
I also noted that the number that he called me from was the phone number that is mentioned above.
Please keep the above in mind when commenting.
I should think his problem is that most people he is trying to do business with are googling his company/name and this is popping up at the top of the list. They can see he is a shyster who did a Ernest Saunders claiming illness in court and remarkably recovering very quickly after.
As for Shirley, I’m sure she is not afraid of these comments, more perhaps the bailiffs if they are still chasing them.
His offer to have his coffin sent round to your door reminds me of a song by Elvis Costello, which he wrote about Maggie Thatcher. In particular, the chorus –
Well I hope I don’t die too soon
I pray the lord my soul to save
Oh I’ll be a good boy, I’m trying so hard to behave
Because there’s one thing I know,
I’d like to live long enough to savor
That’s when they finally put you in the ground
I’ll stand on your grave and tramp the dirt down
(I take full responsibility for the above comment…)
Thanks so much, Per, for this update on your experiences of dealing with the lying cheat and fraudster, Peter Marshall, and his debts to you that have still remained unpaid….
It’s good that you make clear who is responsible for what when posting on this thread – I therefore take FULL RESPONSIBILITY for everything that I have posted here and will continue to do so in the light of further contributions….
The fact that this disgusting banned director, Peter Marshall, attempted to manipulate you, using contemptible emotional blackmail hardly surprises me – We as a family have seen this kind of behaviour on his part many, many times over the last 30 years or so….
But the positive that has come out of all this is that you have had the opportunity to review ALL the comments posted on this tread and that you have found NOTHING which can give credence or credibility to his insinuations that his “ex -wife”, Shirley, and his girlfriend, la Grebenyuk Ukrainienne, are being harassed and stalked – So yet more lies and “Walter Mittyesque” fantasies (as Luton Crown Court described the lunatic ravings) from this abject individual….
The fact that he went on to harangue you about his “Cancer” and whether you would want his coffin delivered to your doorstep is as pathetic as it is deranged and perverse – In fact Peter Marshall has been dying from the SAME heart attack for the past 15 years !!! – Only the putative stroke (from which he claims to be at risk) appears to be having difficulty finding a heart within him to attack !!…
Interesting, also, that in your third comment you evoke many other victims of Peter Marshall who have preferred to relate their experiences to you confidentially rather than “go public” as it were – Whatever reasons there may be for their discretion does not remove the fact that Peter Marshall’s victims must be in their hundreds if not thousands by now….
So yes, it is a total mystery to me as well, as to why this repulsive individual, Peter Marshall, still appears to be trading and doing business via Chef Media, acting in such a way that flagrantly flaunts ALL the conditions that were imposed on him when he was banned from being a Director of a LLC or partnership by Luton County Court, a ban that forbids him to handle or promote ANY goods or services of ANY LLC or the kind of Partnership that Chef Media now appears to be…
My suggestion (for what it’s worth) is that everyone who has contributed to this thread should write to the Insolvency Service and bombard them with complaints and demands to know WHY no action appears to have been taken against this crook, cheat, fraudster, thief and embezzler, who goes about his business under the name of peter@chefmedia, but who we all know to be Peter Marshall, born 12 July 1960, in Nottingham, England, UK currently residing at no fixed abode somewhere between Kiev, Ukraine and London, England….!!!
And two other things:
I find it hard to understand how a person who has been barred from running a business still manages to do so under the nose of authorities in the UK.
Equally, and in relation to my previous comment:
When Peter Marshall refused to pay us he motivated that with that Chef Media (Chef Magazine / Network Contract Publishing Ltd / Buckingham Book Publishing or whichever what the entity at the time) had gone bankrupt (been liquidated) and that it was that entity that was responsible for paying us.
Obviously, the magazine, Chef Magazine, the brand and all the intellectual property that came with it, must then have been the property of the bankrupt entity.
How is it then possible that the Magazine is now – again! – in the hands of Peter Marshall? And continues to be published?
Did Marshall buy the name, the brand and the intellectual property from the liquidator? Then there must be some trace of that acquisition in the liquidation procedure. What did he then pay for it and what happened with that money in the liquidation? Or did Marshall “just take it with him” (it was not his, it belonged to the company that went bust, according to what he said)? If that is the case is that not then misappropriation of company property?
I don’t know but it is certainly a mystery to me.
The network publishing ltd has gone to HASLERS ESSEX IG10 4PL a firm of accountants that deal in liquidation as well as other things
https://www.checkcompany.co.uk/company/04153843/NETWORK-PUBLISHING-LIMITED
The Chef magazine was a related magazine and there is no mention of chef media, so perhaps Pete bought the mag back or he was allowed to keep it to raise money to pay for his debts. It was worthless as an asset.
It is a mystery how he gets away with it, but to be correct, Chef Media Ltd is still trading, with one director, Miss Lesia Grebenyuk. So technically, PM is not running a company. However, the rules around his ban also prohibit him from promoting a company, which he clearly does, at trade fairs, on Facebook, everywhere.
His other companies which have come and gone – Network Publishing, Network Book Publishing, and many others – have (I think) either been wound up voluntarily, or liquidated with no remaining assets, because he just transfers everything to the next handy company first.
Seems this blog is doing a great job of making people aware of this charlatan online and his devious business practices.
Upon searching Peter Marshall Chef Media this blog is first in the list.
The more times this blog is posted to the better. Remember when posting to use key words such as…
Peter Marshall, Chef Media, Publisher, Yes Chef Magazine, Buckingham Book Publishing, Network Publishing, Disqualified, Director, Inland Revenue, Unpaid, Debts, Banned, Prmoting, Businesses.
The more often this is posted to the longer it will remain as the first piece of content to be found when searching Peter Marshall publisher.
Maybe a follow up article could be written and contributed to.
“One of many”,
I had the intention of writing a follow-up article.
That would primarily have been based around all the people that contacted me after the first publication and told me stories about how they had been fooled.
Editors-in-cheif for PM’s magazines who had worked for long times but never been paid, suppliers in the UK and in other countries who had never been paid, etcetera.
Several of them had said that (for one reason or another) they did not want the details of their stories published, but would be OK with more anonymised info in an article. Perhaps because they were already in court proceedings or other negotiations that made their publication sensitive. Or perhaps because they were afraid of retaliation. I don’t know.
Much of that was concerning amounts that were far more substantial than ours. Months and months of salaries due, tens of thousands of pounds of supplies or services unpaid and other stories that I was told.
But a follow-up article has not yet happened. Busy times and all that.
And in many ways I think the stories told by contributors in this thread of comments is just as effective, or even more so to tell the story.
I guess the only way now to stop the flow of stories about this is to make sure all old debts are paid. And no new unpaid bills created….
Hi Per
Could you Call me + 44(0) 791 864 3405
I would like to apologise profusely for the individuals that have been hurt by my financial failure
Would any individuals that are owed money by me please make a claim and send this to my liquidators graham.Edwards@Haslers.com so that you can recover your money from my estate
I have decided not respond to all the personal attacks on me and people close to me as I expect this will result in a barrage of more attacks and insults, but I respectfully ask that you now resist from such attacks.
How many pence in the pound is anyone likely to get?
Hahahah…what estate?
I have been aware of this link for some time, but I have kept quiet until now…
I am the Nephew of Peter unfortunately and it saddens me that so many people have been impacted because of his actions.
I found the heartfelt sincerity of his apology very touching and moving!
Ultimately we all know he is doing this to stop people expressing themselves, sharing their stories and being able to offload their frustrations.
I am fairly confident that there are more victims and hope that one day they too will stumble across this website…
I have many stories that I could share, but I guess Peter will probably want to know why I have decided write this post now.
Peter:
The family have been impacted by your actions. I know you will disagree and not even bother to try and defend the allegations or your actions.
1980’s – My parents divorced, although this can’t be entirely your fault, you did play a part by financially defrauding the business you ran with them. You were found guilty and served time for this.
2000’s – My Mum and Stepfather went into business with you by setting up a courier company. Again, the accounts weren’t managed correctly and you left them with a sizable bill for the taxman.
They had to re-mortgage their house and they are still paying the price a decade later. Well into their retirement.
2013 – You persistently called me after my daughter was born, not to congratulate me or to see how we were doing as new parents. No, it was to somehow for me to persuade my mother to sign her house over to you! Due to some technicality you thought you could take ownership and throw them out on the street!
These phone calls were unpleasant, stressful and unnecessary! You drove a wedge between me and my mum by playing on her naivety and bombarding me with emotional stress!
You would say things like “Do you want to see your mother living on the streets?… Your Mother doesn’t have a clue, as her son I need you to drive to her house right now and tell her the only way to save her house is to sign it over to me!…” etc, etc…
As the years have passed I am still upset that they have never recovered from the financial ruin you left them in. You kicked them, and then you kicked them again…
You claim all this is due to business failure or ill health.
It isn’t the economy or people not paying you either! (Usually the second tier of excuses!)
You and everybody else know that it is down to greed, mismanagement and selfishness.
‘You were found guilty and served time for this.’
Pete served time in Chokey? How long, when and where? He has kept that very quiet. Which I suppose anyone would. What were the details?
@ Matt
Peter Marshall did time as a “guest of her Majesty” for four months in HMP Douglas IOM in early 1982 – He was 21 years old at the time…
The business to which Richard refers was a corner shop with a Post Office between Port St Mary and Port Erin IOM – But of course this wasn’t good enough for PM – He was already getting carried away with megalomania even at that age – He finally acquired three shops of which one was In Castletown and the other in Douglas in addition to the Corner shop – All of these he ran into the ground as he has with the 20 companies he has created since to lie and cheat and defraud his way through most of his adult life….
A considerable amount of money went missing from the Post Office which was discovered when the PO came to audit their books – He was given a couple of months (I think) to put the money back or face dire consequences, a serious warning that he foolishly ignored – He was prosecuted and sent down for four months….
There is also some dispute over whether or not he still owed debts when he was released, notably to a firm called Darnells, which our Mother supposedly paid off – But it has been hard to establish the veracity of this, as it was so long ago and our Mum, who is very elderly, no longer has any recollection of this – In any case as his name was now mud on the IOM, he came across to England to sign on and get himself on his feet….
So here we are 35 years later and you can see how he got himself back on his feet – The rest, as the saying goes, is “history”…
If only it was…!!
Oh dear. I paid £50 in December for a two year subscription but haven’t received a single issue. I couldn’t understand why after repeated emails it was not being sent. I was sent ridiculous emails saying ‘I’ll look into it and get back to you in a few days’. Er, no, just send the magazine please.
Just about to contact credit card company for fee reversal.
Very tedious. Hope people find this thread and it helps them not to waste their money
Maybe you, and anyone else owed money, could go along to stand 1256 at the Hotelympia trade fair, London Excel, next week. I am sure Peter would be delighted to see you.
What trade fair is that paula?
Oh, sorry, it’s called Hotelympia!:
https://www.hotelympia.com/
And with Chef Mag as exhibitor:
https://www.hotelympia.com/visiting/exhibitor-profile/chef-magazine
Curious.
Ha Ha the link to chef magazine on the hotelympia points to the US chef magazine not Pete’s version.
No it was definitely the PM we have pics to prove it
Hi Doris. The latest issue was sent to you at the end of Jauary please email your address details and I will send you the tracking details
This is very funny as my name isn’t really Doris, I just used that for this sake. Nice to know there’s a Doris out there somewhere who may have got a magazine sent!
When I chased mine, I was told it was sent on 3 February (not end of January).
Of course it wasn’t received. But he’s refusing to put another copy in the post.
Does it actually exist?! Has anyone had a copy?
How can we stop people writing for and subscribing to this scam?
My brother in law works for the CPS so I will see what advice he has.
Why not just send another copy???
I think that might no be true Mr M because as you know you have been guilty previously of the odd porky “cheque in the post” I will definitely pay you tomorrow
Make sure you get six magazines a year as it’s bi-monthly.
It would be very interesting to know whether Chef magazine has a print circulation that covers all the people that have subscribed!
I’m sure Pete doesn’t take people money and not send them the magazine, that’s fraud, Oh hang on!
2014 advertising info
Circulation: 5296
Readership: 15888
Interestingly in 2014 the publication of Chef Magazine was nine issues up to issue 41 in November 2014. The most recent issue Jan/Feb 2016 is issue 43, So only two magazines were published in the last 14 months.
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0621/7933/files/Chef_Media_Pack.pdf
The Chef Media website is currently down
Ooh err…looks like he owes his web hosts some money…
Domain name:
chefmedia.co.uk
Registrant:
Peter Marshall
Registrar:
123-Reg Limited t/a 123-reg [Tag = 123-REG]
URL: https://www.123-reg.co.uk
Relevant dates:
Registered on: 21-Feb-2013
Expiry date: 21-Feb-2016
Last updated: 26-Feb-2016
Registration status:
Renewal required.
Name servers:
ns1.domainhasexpired.com
ns2.domainhasexpired.com
I am sure it was “Jauary” as this clearly shows you are living on another planet!
What do you have to say about the rest of Doris’s complaint?
Again you are disagreeing with innocent customers and inferring that they are liars!
However I am impressed you took the time to defend a £50 complaint!
Any response to what I said on 5th Feb?
Maybe I am not worth anything financially to you, so it is easier to ignore?
(*I know I owe you about £200 which you emailed me for a couple of months ago – I did reply by saying that I will pay it once you covered the tax bill you left my parents with)
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
PETER JOHN MARSHALL – IN BANKRUPTCY
SLOUGH COUNTY COURT 143 OF 2014
Please note that my colleague Richard Hooper was appointed Joint Trustee of the above by the Secretary of State on 30 June 2015.
Anyone believing to be a creditor of the bankruptcy estate or anyone with any information regarding the affairs of Mr Peter Marshall should please contact me directly at stratford.hamilton@haslers.com
Stratford Hamilton
Haslers
Old Station Road
Loughton
Essex
IG10 4PL
Still the both of them Peter and Shirley Marshall publishers of Chef magazine continue to act fraudulently now I see exhibiting at Hotelympia in Londons Excel, listed as stand 1256. The details of the exhibitors are the old address in Buckingham which he no longer has and the telephone number for the same which is disconnected, I hope the exhibition company is not expecting to get paid and they won’t be able to contact him as its a false address…but that would be fraud!!! Once again!
Philip Donnelly is listed as well even though he was made redundant 2014, guess freelancing now. It could just be a old reprographic, cut and pasted from a previous edition.
I googled Street view the Buckingham place 28 It looks dead in Nov 2015, though this is just a photograph
Phone number is dead, suppose everything is done on the net.
At least when anyone lists Cheg Mag, the US version pops up or this article is the top one. Keep up the good work.
Phil Donnelly should at least inform Shirley she is being misrepresented. If she is of course.
Very interesting. I had a lucky escape, it seems. I met Peter at The Restaurant Show where I bought the magazine; he engaged me in a discussion, saying he needed someone to write the editorial for him and would I be interested. All my attempts to contact him failed; as with your experience, he does not return calls. He also, it turned out, had given me an out of date business card with the wrong email address on it. I’m glad I didn’t pursue his suggestion further.
On what you can do about it, I have taken a client to the small claims court for non-payment of my invoice. The process started with friendly but professional attempts from me by email and phone. I then turned to a debt collector and cannot say that that added any value other than to spur me on to keep on trying. I took it to the small claims court, won and the former client now has a County Court Judgement (CCJ) against her and is obliged to pay. Except that … she has moved and disappeared. I can’t even trace her via her Facebook page – she’s become almost silent. She is still a director of her husband’s business but that lists the old address, from which they have moved. The cost to taking her to the small claims court was almost as much as the outstanding amount owed – a £650 invoice is now a £1,200 CCJ. The system favours the guilty. The bailiffs were useless, going to the wrong address at the wrong time of day. Use private bailiffs if you can, not those associated with the court. The court process is terrible – inefficient, slow, ill-informed – and the last magistrate I came across was extremely rude, barked jargon at me, asked questions but didn’t wait for a reply. I can’t say it was a pleasant experience – but I did manage to get a CCJ awarded against this awful client and, with five years (I think) during which to track her down she’s still on my to-do list and I will continue to pursue her.
In your case, I’d send your story above to Michel Roux and all the other chefs and notables and unknowns on the various boards. They need to know what he’s like. No doubt he’ll come up with an explanation – goodness, has that still not been paid; it’s because …; I’ll pay immediately. If he doesn’t, write to them all again. It’s painful but worth it. And keep up a public commentary, too. He should be worried, not complacent, about his reputation.
An update on my previous comment about the Small Claims Court and County Court Judgements (CCJs). I discovered this week that my former client, with a CCJ against her, had moved; I found her new address. And then discovered that … a CCJ is applied to an address, not a person. So, that explains why people who owe money keep moving – the CCJs don’t move with them. And it explains why people checking your creditworthiness ask for previous addresses – a search would reveal CCJs awarded when they were living somewhere else. My former client must either have bought herself a flat or have a landlord who doesn’t bother about creditworthiness. I now have a choice: to apply to the court (paying a fee, of course) to transfer the CCJ to her new address before sending the bailiffs round – this would alert her to the fact that I’m on to her and no doubt she’d move again and this time make herself untraceable. Or do nothing. The law is on the side of the law breaker, it seems.
It is interesting to note that the business is still, at least on the surface, thriving with Peter Marshall at the helm.
For example:
The issue 43 published in February 2016, with Marshall proudly presented as publisher:
https://issuu.com/chefmagazine/docs/small_pdf
(Which, by the way, contains an article headlined “Method in the madness”. No, it is not Marshall’s autobiography.)
It seems no longer to have a paid editor. It would be interesting to hear from the current contributing writers and photographers if they have been paid:
Writers / journalists: Namai Bishop, Simon Jenkins, Nico Ladenis, Andy Lynes, Josh Sims, Jean Smullen…
Photographers: Geoff Dann, Kuma Masahi, Steve Lee, Francesco Tonelli.
It is also curious that reputable chefs actually want to be associated with the magazine:
Simon Boyle, The Brigade and The Beyond Food Foundation, Jeremy Ford, executive chef at Restaurant Associates, Sarah Barber, had of pastry at ME Hotel Longon, Regis Crepy, chef and owner of The Great House, Phil Howard of The Square, Marcus Wareing of Marcus Wareing Restaurants, Mark Hix of Hix Restaurants. As well as those featured in articles: Massimo Bottura, Osteria Francescana, Ken Dalton and Julie Lewis of The Adamson, Shaun Hill of The Walnut Tree, Billy Stock and Sam Bellamy of Billy and the Chicks, William ‘Billy’ Drabble of Seven Parks Place, Lahiru ‘Larry’ Jayasekara of Gordon Ramsay’s Petrus and National Chef of the Year 2015, Simon Jenkins, pastry consultant, Rowen Darlow, winner of the South African culinary competition 2014 and many others.
The media pack 2016 to solicit advertising:
https://issuu.com/chefmagazine/docs/media_pack_2
Which includes the publishing schedule for 2016 with 6 new issues. As well as advertising tariffs at, for example, £950 for a one page ad.
Postings on Facebook about his “full range of publishing services”
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1568347423493189&id=100009538383557
Which includes not only the magazine but also book publishing.
And Chef Magazine is apparently also available as an iPhone (from iTunes) as well as Android smartphone app.
Quite an impressive business for someone who, as it appears from other comments here, has been banned by UK courts to run a business.
Seeing this it is hard to understand Peter Marshall’s (Chef Magazine, Chef Media, Chefmedia.co.uk, Network Publishing etc) argument to me saying that he cannot pay us since Chef Magazine has gone bankrupt and has gone out of business.
How can he just go on he is an undischarged bankrupt and banned from being a director of any Ltd company and not allowed to be involved in any way in any publishing organisation this is a complete joke wake up the legal authorities
Good question and I have no idea what the answer is.
Perhaps this is not a question for a public prosecutor, if there is such a think in the UK? Perhaps a private party has to take it to court for something to happen?
I really don’t know but I think it very strange too.
I have denounced him on several occasions to the Insolvency Service and other agencies who are supposed to investigate fraudsters like him – The fact that he has transferred his assets elsewhere and filed for bankruptcy does NOT exonerate him from the conditions of his ban as a director of ANY LLC or LLP handed down by Luton County Court in 2014 – Namely banning him from handling and promoting the goods and services of ANY LLC or LLP – In so doing, as we have all seen that he continues to do, he is cocking a snook at the law and could be and SHOULD be jailed for his criminal activities, for that is what they are…..
I have suggested this before – why don’t ALL of you who he has turned over bombard the IS with your complaints and DEMAND action – Maybe a petition could be launched at change.org with links to your FB pages and Twitter accounts and get your friends to sign it – With the potential for FB exposure that will surely get some pressure applied to the legal authorities who should have put this execrable Marshall character in jail long ago and his pathetic pretentious products in the dustbin where they belong !!!
He’ll have arranged for someone else to be director, as listed at Companies House, so that it appears he’s not associated with it. I was an employee at a consultancy that had a client who turned out to be an undischarged bankrupt – he commissioned work which he then didn’t pay for. It is rare to check clients before taking them on though I sensed something wrong from my first meeting with him; the consultancy owner took no notice of my concerns. The client’s behaviour became more and more odd so I started digging around – found him on a bankruptcy list; double-checked; off he went leaving a trail of unpaid bills. He wasn’t a director of the business he was working through; he’d put all his assets in his wife’s name; no doubt there were other tricks in play. The law here is an ass – many steps are unenforceable and, in the end, the law acts against the interests of the honest law abider.
But that’s a really, really thinly disguised front, isn’t it?
Chef Media does indeed have GREBENYUK, Lesia (Ukraine) registered as the sole director at Companies House, as noted in an earlier comment.
There are also two other officers registered, who are marked as “resigned”:
MIDGLEY, Harry
The Old Stables, Greenfield, Greenfield, Watlington, United Kingdom, Appointed on 3 January 2014
Resigned on 6 April 2015
Occupation Chartered Accountant
SNOWDON, Maurice Rowland
Forum House, Stirling Road, Chichester, West Sussex, England, PO19 Appointed on 6 April 2015
Resigned on 25 October 2015
Occupation Publisher
But in all the publicly available information about Chef Media and Chef Magazine Peter Marshall is indicated as “publisher”, “sales director” and other leading roles.
One can also see that Chef Media Ltd seems not to have filed accounts for quite some time and that the latest in the “filing history” is a letter from Companies House to Chef Media Ltd that:
“gives notice that, unless cause is shown to the contrary, at the expiration of 2 months from the above date the name of Chef Media Ltd will be struck off the register and the company will e dissolved. Upon dissolution all property and rights vested in, or held in trust for, the company are deemed to be bona vacantia, and accordingly will belong to the crown”.
That, presumably, means that the Queen will become proprietor of for example the Chef Magazine title. Good luck I wish to Her Majesty.
The “above date” is 05/04/2016 so the Crown has just a little bit less than a month to wait before it will take possession of this prized property.
Sounds pretty standard for PM – let Chef Media Ltd get dissolved, by which time any assets will have been transferred to a shiny New Chef Media Ltd, sole director Ms Grebenyuk, or some other unfortunate he has charmed into helping him.
It is (possibly) interesting that the Chefmag/Chef Media Twitter and Facebook accounts have been rather quiet lately. Maybe he is lying low, rather than just lying.
Update – according to the Companies House website, the application to strike off Chef Media Ltd was “temporarily suspended” on May 27th, as an objection had been received. I assume that was Peter with his usual story of a misunderstanding / the cheque is in the post / I’ve not been well.
Meanwhile another issue of Chef has appeared, full of chef-type people, delighted to get their face in a magazine, but probably unaware of the background of the person they have just become associated with.
Dear All
As some of you may be aware from my previous post, I am Joint Liquidator of a company previously run by Mr Marshall – Network Publishing Limited (In Liquidation).
Another partner in my firm is acting as Trustee in the bankruptcy of Mr Marshalls estate.
We are continuing to collate information in relation to Mr Marshalls affairs, anyone with information or who believes they are a creditor of one of Mr Marshalls companies or him personally I would ask to contact me directly on the contact details below.
stratford.hamilton@haslers.com
Stratford Hamilton
Insolvency Partner
Haslers
Old Station Road
Loughton
Essex
IG10 4PL
Be interesting to see if the magazine circulation is 5000 mailed magazines or rather x amount mailed but Pete is claiming each magazine is read by say 5 people. I would be requiring evidence of the mailing volume by the postal company before advertising.
Anybody who wants to meet Peter (to shake his hand, serve a writ, demand payment, remove goods & chattels etc) might be able to find him on September 20th at the Universal Cookery & Food Festival, stand 17, at Laverstoke Park Farm, Hampshire – https://www.cookeryandfoodfestival.co.uk/
Strangely, their website has a link which points to the other, unrelated, magazine called “Chef”. Either a simple mistake by them, or a ruse by PM to throw people off the scent.
Thanks. Took some digging to find it, but here’s the mention, under “get inspired zone” (sic.):
https://www.cookeryandfoodfestival.co.uk/exhibitors
Yet when you click on the Chef Magazine (Stand 17) name it directs to the legit Chef Magazine in Chicago (?) and not to the phony swindler’s product based who knows where now – Good idea though to go to this show direct and serve him with your writs / arrest warrants / debt recovery agents etc etc
If it really is him exhibiting, wouldn’t it be best (from BK Wine’s point of view – to preserve its reputation) to warn Laverstoke Park Farm?
Well, we’re just a creditor as everyone else, Joanna. One of many.
I know. I thought it would be best for BK Wine to warn Laverstoke that Laverstoke is dealing with a financially dodgy person. It would make BK Wine look responsible.
And it’s worth pointing out that he’s not with the Chef Magazine he’s pretending to be with (unless he has conned that Chef Magazine into working with him).
On the subject of clicking the link on Chef for the Laverstone event it’s definitely Peter Marshall he did the same thing at the restaurant show last year, as a creditor I went to check it out and there bold as brass was your friend and mine the crook, bankrupt, and banned from holding any directorships Peter John Marshall conning another poor unsuspecting
person into purchasing a two year subscription to his virtually non existent magazine.
We photographed him taking money from the guy and approached his stand to confront him and he ran off leaving his unpaid assistant looking completely confused, we Enquiries if he had been paid in advance for his working on the stand he said know, so we explained to him whom he was working for and the fact that it was highly unlikely that he would on previous experience be highly unlikely to be paid. Not sure if he took our advice but hope so.
Was that at last year’s Restaurant Show?
Yes
Sincere apologies I should have said we saw him at Hotelolympia and not as previously stated the restaurant show ( although I understand he was also there)
Well, I would suggest that anyone who has information should share it with Haslers, the liquidator. Contact details have been given in a previous comment.
Not sure if that will help, but that seems to be the best single point of contact.
In addition to posting information here as a comment of course!
I have done
Look what popped up in my Twitter alerts today. Another issue of Chef Magazine with emails to be sent to peter@ and he’s also listed as its photographer:
https://twitter.com/ChefMag?t=1&cn=ZmxleGlibGVfcmVjc18y&refsrc=email&iid=127a9826744d450eae7882b9efdea435&uid=272734667&nid=244+281088013
and
https://issuu.com/chefmagazine/docs/chef_47_web_issue
Interesting that the link on the Twitter page to the website goes to a wrong page: https://www.chefmagazine.co.uk
Thanks Joanna for sharing this bit of info on this conman bankrupt charlatan.
I have passed the info on to his receiver in bankruptcy Stratford Hamilton at Haslers who is compiling a case against him.
I will also speak to the chefs concerned I honestly thought they by now all had the message.
We will be successful in stopping him hopefully soon.
If anyone is on Facebook, then the link below he came up 8 or 9 on the search (type his name and London)
https://en-gb.facebook.com/public/Peter-Marshall
He has “1,952 friends” – Really?!!!!
It appears he does a lot of networking on there (ironic that word!)
He always flogging “his” books, magazines etc
Wished there was a way to let all these people know what low life he really is!
That Facebook link didn’t work for me but I did find him – more hidden to me than to you, it seems. This link is the one I found him on: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009538383557&hc_ref=SEARCH
Jo
I am merely an outsider looking into this despicable mans business antics, and I feel so sorry for all of you that fell victim to him. He sounds like a revolting person. It makes me so angry knowing that someone could do this too so many people and STILL get away with it.
I was thinking of ways I could help spread the word about this man and let people know not to do business with him. So, I have started my campaign against Peter Marshall, firstly by sending emails to all of his advertisers in his supposably ‘latest’ magazine and telling them all about the Real Peter Marshall, and so far I’m having some very shocked responses. The first one was to his latest design company who is based in Macedonia (obviously can’t find any closer to home). They were very thankful to hear about this.
Just to make sure he was still involved I sent an email to Chef Media asking why I hadn’t received my subscription and surprise surprise I got a reply from the man himself. Seems I wasn’t added to the subscription list. Well I wouldn’t of been Peter as I’m savvy enough not too of actually taken one out!!
I think the only way to stop this man is to spread the word, as he has some how evaded the authorities all these years and still seems to get away with it! I have linked each and every one of them back to this site so they can read about it. I urge you to do the same paste the links into as many blogs, social media pages as you can, and hopefully it will help stop this.
For a few giggles, here’s some of his responses:
……………………..
PETER MARSHALLS RESPONSE:
Hi Jake
Many apologies for this, it appears you did not get added to the subscription list
Can you please advise me if it was the 2 year subscription you paid for
If so I will start the subscription from this edition
Can you please confirm your address details
Peter
……………………..
(me and all the other, so it would seem! :( )
……………………..
MY RESPONSE:
Peter,
I would like it backdated please from when I subscribed about 4 months ago!! You can then, as you say, start my subscription from this edition as a gesture of goodwill.
I’ve heard a lot about your company Mr Peter Marshall! So I won’t hold my breath on this happening. But it seems it would be nice for you to do the right thing for once in your life!
……………………..
PETER MARSHALLS RESPONSE:
Good morning Jake
I am unsure why you have taken it upon yourself to email contacts in the latest issue of the magazine
I do not know you and you do not know me and all you know of me is from the content of the blog you are circulating
Bearing in mind your actions and your opinion of me as detailed in your email circulated recently I am not going to supply the magazine to you
I will of course refund the amount you have paid
Can you please send me details of the subscription you paid for and I will arrange for the amount to be credited back to your bank or credit card
……………………..
(Busted….but blimey is he really offering money, that must be a first!)
……………………..
MY RESPONSE:
Thats alright Peter I don’t want your money, why don’t you do something useful with it, like paying back all those poor people you owe money too.
I never actually took out a subscription for your so-called ‘magazine’ anyway. I just wanted to find out fully if it was you still involved, bearing in mind you shouldn’t have anything to do with this business as YOU ARE BANNED!!. But then again you never listen do you, Chef Magazine was wound up a long time ago Peter, so why are you still using it? You’ve been a very bad boy haven’t you Peter, and its time people knew what you are like.
No your exactly right you don’t know me, but I KNOW YOU, and I know exactly what you have done over the years and I PROMISE YOU I will make it my mission to bring you down for once and for all. Call me a online vigilante if you like. Yes I have contacted a number of people and yes I’m getting some great responses, the more I can spread the word about the way you do business, the better, so as long as you keep going I’ll be right behind you ;)
Good luck Peter your going to need it, as from what I hear its only time before your banged up behind bars for a very long time. Where you should have been a long time ago!
……………………..
PETER MARSHALLS RESPONSE:
Hello Jake (if that is your name)
I suspected that you were not be honest about your subscription
A lot of what you are saying and distributing is incorrect and it’s a pity you cannot channel your energy into something less vindictive and and more worthwhile
I am fully aware of the problems I have caused following my personnel situation and I am trying to correct the situation
If you get some form of pleasure from being a vigilante then that is your choice I will send the email you have sent to me to the friends that have contacted me showing support to me so they can understand your motives
I wish you luck in your future and hope that bad health does not disrupt your life
please do not email me again
Best Regards
Peter Marshall
Publisher Chef Journal
Email peter@chefmedia.co.uk
Telephone+44 20 7097 1396
……………………..
(have faith people, he’s fully aware of it so be expecting you outstanding balance cheques in the post… Yea right!! Oh and this is his latest phone number, for anyone who wants it.)
……………………..
MY RESPONSE:
Well you suspected right Peter, congratulations. You’d make a great detective! Let’s just hope the ones working on your case are as good as you.
Come on Peter, you’ve always got an excuse! You honestly think these things are factually wrong, then you must have a very bad memory, most of them are public knowledge and available to read online. Oh don’t worry about me Peter, I have plenty of energy in fact I do very well for myself. I will have to disagree with you on that one Peter, as I think this is very worthwhile, people need to know about you, as we can’t have anymore falling victim to you antics can we?
Haha, seriously, if your fully aware of them, then why don’t you do something about it and stop keep running away from your problems, I for one think you knew exactly what you were doing, let’s face it Peter no one can be as bad as you have been in business, surely after the first time, if you were honest about your endeavours, then you would have tried your hand at something else, but no you had the taste for it then didn’t you. You wanted more and more and then came the second, third, fourth and so on! 168 bad comments about you on one blog says something as well some of them ex employees, how can you still deny it? Peter, we all know you had some health worries a few years back and nobody would wish that upon anyone but there’s only a certain amount of time you can keep blaming it on your ‘personal health’.
Yes, I get lots of pleasure telling people about Mr Peter Marshall and what a crook he is. Please do, the more people that read it the better, (great, rubbing my hands together) if you can help spread the word too, I’ll welcome it. Fantastic. But hey that friend list must be getting smaller and smaller day-by-day. If they are still supporting you, then more fool them!
Thank you for the good wishes, I sure hope that too but if that’s how life treats me then so be it, at least I can look back at mine knowing I’ve lived a good honest one!
I will email when ever I want Peter, I’m not breaking any laws. But having said that I’ve had enough of talking to you for now, but I’m sure you’ll be hearing from, or of me again ;)
Good luck
……………………..
So far haven’t heard back from him again, and don’t expect too, but I will keep on this and do what ever I can to help spread the word. Hopefully the authorities will speed things up too and get him behind those bars sooner rather than later!!
The name Rob Titchener comes to mind. It means the ability to fool a lot of people a lot of the time. Using superficial charm, the fictional Rob causes a lot of damage to a lot of lives and is known to be a narcissistic psychopath. He gets a lot out of people but gives very little back. He’s incapable of acknowledging any of his wrong doings. The Archers’ recent storyline has given us all a lot to think about.
That’s a classic him saying you were not being honest !
It is really like the Archers, only very, very sadly this one is for real….
Peter approached me 18 months ago to publish
A pastry book and owes me over £8,000 50% sales
On all my books and I have not seen one penny.
He is total crook he rips of chefs and takes advantages
Of all types of people working in the hospitality
Industry. He must be stopped!
So sorry to hear that, but you won’t get it, it’s welcome to the club I am afraid.
However please send the details to Stratford Hamilton at Haslers his receiver in Bankruptcy as it will be another nail in the coffin of this dispcable crook.
He will get his comeuppance soon of that I am sure.
If you are the author of Patisserie Perfection by Sarah Barber, there are two used copies on amazon, so this is the kind of evidence that he cannot refute if he claims there are no copies selling. The liquidators should be making attempts for you to recoup your costs by collecting any printed stock or taking back the publishing rights.
Interesting point Matt. If I look at Amazon from here there seems to be 4 used copies for sale on Amazon.com and 19 on Amazon.co.uk.
Hello Sarah,
I don’t know if you are Sarah Barber but, if you are, Peter Marshall has been busy on Twitter today – posting Tweets encouraging subscriptions for Chef Magazine AND encourage sales of Patisserie Perfection. I posted the below in a separate comment but thought I’d add it to this as well.
This cropped up on Twitter today, three hours ago in fact – a Tweet encouraging subscriptions for Chef Magazine. The Tweet below this one, also dated three hours ago, is encouraging sales of Sarah Barber’s book Patisserie Perfection. Chef Mag still gives an address in Buckingham which is clearly deceptive as I notified a networking colleague who is connected with him on LinkedIn who told me his now living in Ukraine. (In passing, that contact also told me that while being wary of doing business with him, he’s useful for placing articles on behalf of clients; no idea if those clients have to pay for the coverage …).
Here he is on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChefMag?t=1&cn=ZmxleGlibGVfcmVjc18y&refsrc=email&iid=7381d332a6e4448e9e7d87d6dd5f3233&uid=272734667&nid=244+272699405
Jo
Sarah B, My partner and i published a book with him in 2014 on a 50/50 basis. Haven’t seen a single penny. He claimed he never sold a single one (even though we were standing right next to him when he sold the first 100 within a couple of hours at a food fair) And he still has the audacity to be selling our book on his website!
He even has the gall to claim that he is the author of it Natalie – Check this out on his Amazon page – You should get in touch with Amazon about this….
Check to see if there are any used copies on amazon. If there are then he must have sold those and you can claim for them
Hi Natalie
What is your book called ?
Why not request payment in kind, Sarah?
If he hasn’t sold a copy then he could give you the whole print run – since he then obviously have all copies still in his possessions – and you can sell it yourself? (And since he hasn’t sold a single copy they must be written down to basically zero value to him, which means that it could only be a partial payment…)
And it might be of interest to the liquidators too, since it seems he has not disclosed all information about produced books still in his possession, undeclared stock in whatever place he might be hiding them. (Which in fact is an asset that should be disclosed to liquidators…)
Great point Per I believe they are stored in Buckingham I have been to his store as I managed to get the key and repatriated the copies of “Cooking with Balls” however although I could drive there I can’t remember the actual address.
I understand that he is going to be at the restaurant show at Olympia working his favourite scam of pick a book of your choice if you sign up for two years of his non existent magazine, maybe a few of us ought to go down there and pick up what we can ??
I see that Peter Marshall is on LinkedIn – and that I am connected to two of his connections. I will send them this stream of information. If we all did this we could reach quite a lot of people. This is his LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-marshall-328bba22
I have also found the following via Google:
Banned from being a director for eight years from 2013: https://www.buckinghamtoday.co.uk/news/eight-year-ban-for-company-director-1-5638929
He published a recipe book Recipes for Life: Living Beyond Cancer (which pulls at the heart strings, doesn’t it) and I wonder how many of the recipes are lifted from other books he’s published and for which the authors were never paid; authors on here might like to check; there seem to be two Amazon pages about the book one of which mentions that a dietitian wast involved and wonder if he/she was ever paid:
https://www.amazon.com/Recipes-Life-Living-Beyond-Cancer/dp/1908202173
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Recipes-Life-Inspired-Cooking-Beyond/dp/1908202173
Does he still publish the Waterside Inn’s newsletter and do Michel and Alain Roux know the reality about Peter Marshall and not just his spin: https://www.waterside-inn.co.uk/uploads/general/Waterside_2013.pdf
Company check services seem to be out of date giving the impression that he has not been banned: https://companycheck.co.uk/director/913148569/MR-PETER-JOHN-MARSHALL/summary
Trying to find him on Companies House is very difficult; the company number given in the service above isn’t recognised giving the impression that he has not been banned as a director; his official entry is confusing, also giving a different impression from reality:
Overview: https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08830389/filing-history
Filing history showing the company has been struck off the that being suspended but the ling to the pdf about the suspension doesn’t work: https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08830389/filing-history
Officers: https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/08830389/officers
Information about his liabilities and assets (but it’s undated) is here: https://www.duedil.com/company/04153843/network-publishing-limited
I am sure there is more …
Oh, there’s plenty more…
His Bankruptcy Order (which is still in place) – https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/2333442
The details of his disqualification – https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/disqualified-officers/natural/zUTO4Y1JO2jBnF88peX_X1bwTO4
A website that used to be his, but which has been hijacked by Christian propoganda. How ironic. https://www.chefmagazine.co.uk/
And his Twitter account. (Reply with care – he has been known to hit the Block button) https://twitter.com/ChefMag
Hijacked by Christian propaganda is probably not the right conclusion.
When people don’t pay the bills to the web hoster/domain registrar (the internet hotel where a site is “hosted”) then they can take back that domain name and sometimes they then use it to publish all sorts of advertising.
They probably hope to recover some unpaid costs in that way.
Maybe that’s what happened.
Ah yes, it looks as if it is now registered to someone in Pakistan. Another bill Peter chose to ignore (but he was probably ill at the time…)
I can confirm that having spoken with Stratford Hamilton at Hasler’s his receiver in Bankruptcy, that he will not be released from his bankruptcy in the normal way after 1 year, there are serious investigations going on, and whilst these are in progress, the receivers are keeping a tight grip.
I can also confirm that his ban ( NOT THAT HE SEEMS TO CARE ABOUT THIS) from holding any Directorships was granted in the Luton County Court for a period of 8 Years which commenced on the 9th September 2013 and will be in place until the 8th September 2021.
He gets around this ban by not actually being a director – the only director of Chef Media Ltd is his Ukranian girlfriend.
But he does fall foul of the same court order, in that he is not permitted to get involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company. He clearly does this all the time.
Another condition imposed by his ban is that he is FORBIDDEN to handle any of the company’s products as well as promote them – This condition stipulates that that applies to ANY LLC or Partnership – But, as we have seen, he continues to cock a snook at this stipulation and in doing so is committing a CRIMINAL offence –
Again I have denounced him to the Insolvency Service, with screen grabs as proof of his criminal activities, but so far my efforts have had no effect – Hopefully all yours will and I hope that finally SH at Haslers will finally do for him and bang him up where he belongs…
However in the title page of issue 43 April 2016 he calls himself Director of Sales and the Publisher!!
This cropped up on Twitter today, three hours ago in fact – a Tweet encouraging subscriptions for Chef Magazine. The Tweet below this one, also dated three hours ago, is encouraging sales of Sarah Barber’s book Patisserie Perfection. Chef Mag still gives an address in Buckingham which is clearly deceptive as I notified a networking colleague who is connected with him on LinkedIn who told me his now living in Ukraine. (In passing, that contact also told me that while being wary of doing business with him, he’s useful for placing articles on behalf of clients; no idea if those clients have to pay for the coverage …).
Here he is on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChefMag?t=1&cn=ZmxleGlibGVfcmVjc18y&refsrc=email&iid=7381d332a6e4448e9e7d87d6dd5f3233&uid=272734667&nid=244+272699405
I noticed that our mutual friend Peter Marshall has some how conned his way to publish another issue of his magazine Chef.
This really angers me as nothing official seems to be happening, I tried to post a warning on his Facebook and twitter accounts but he’s blocked me.
So I have messaged the following to his mobile phone
Peter I see you have blocked me on leaving true stories about you on Facebook, and Twitter, but be assured that I will never stop spreading the word about you to all that will listen
As well as being banned from being a director, and an undischarged bankrupt, yo are also a cheat a lier, and con man !!!
Sooner or later the authorities will get there act together and prosecute you for fraud and theft and place you back where you belong in jail.
Anyone with similar thoughts can do likewise his number is
0791 789191
I agree, it is really frustrating to see how blatantly he can get away with fraudulent activity. However, I am not sure that messaging him in this way is going to have any effect on retribution. What it might do is make him retaliate by accusing whoever does so of harassment or trolling or whatever the current legal definitions are. Remember, he is very wily, has no integrity and seems to have no empathy. He plays the heart strings, too, and has cited ill health as a reason for his business failures. I expect he will use all his usual tactics again.
Ultimately, the law around fraud is ineffective. Perhaps we should all form a lobby group and lobby the government to change the way fraud is handled so that those who are defrauded don’t lose out and those who are the frauds face justice. The system is wrong.
As another example, I have taken a client to the small claims court for non-payment and that client now has a County Court Judgement against her. Unfortunately, the CCJ attaches to an address (rather than, for example, a national insurance number) so every time I track her down and try again (with fees and costs to me each time, yes added to what she owes me but I have to pay first …) she moves. And then I have to go through it all again. She doesn’t have to pay up; she disappears. We could lobby for the system to be changed so that everyone who was defrauded by Peter Marshall could have a greater chance of getting to him (though he won’t have any money to pay up) or at least keep chasing him without having to pay all these fees. The bad debt owed to me was £720; it is now over £1,200 – all extra costs are fees I’ve had to pay, to the court and the debt collectors, while she escapes justice.
If we were all to write to the relevant minister, MPs and civil servants we might have an impact. What do you think? I am a former lobbyist so could help with tactics. I need more voices than mine.
Jo
Hi Jo,
It was me and the Jersey tourist board that organised the reopening of the winding up of Network Publishing Ltd that had been less than forthcoming with the amount of creditors effected at the initial winding up. I approached my MP and he lobbied the Attorney General to reopen the case, which was successful in getting him banned from hold any directorships for the next 8 years, and in fact also instigated the bankruptcy petition which was successful, I can tell you that because of ongoing investigations against him, he will not be allowed automatic release after the normal 12 month period.
I do hope that he tries to instigate proceedings against me for trolling or harassment, free speech is everyone’s right, especially when what’s being said is totally true!!
I would be happy to join any lobby group, I think as I have done that we keep liaising in the strongest terms with his appointed receivers in bankruptcy, as he is in clear violation of the terms, which is a criminal offence.
Please let me know if I can do anything to help.
Sorry not to have seen this comment earlier. I have had an email disaster and lost emails, and didn’t see them arriving, for several months. I am not sure that the receivers are in the least bit interested beyond the very basics. Answers from them on here have not been reassuring.
Meanwhile, I am about to email the independent family-run jewellery business he’s been working with to warn them. I assume that they will have paid him a fee for the book and that will be a straightforward transaction they agreed to. Whether anyone involved in producing the book gets paid by Peter from that fee is an issue they won’t have to worry about. Except by association – which is not good.
Unfortunately, too many people in the food and drink business are happy to use him to get publicity for their clients. If they pay for editorial, or whatever the deal is, they don’t lose out. It’s naive and, of course, allows Peter to continue to trade as they are bankrolling him while he exploits others.
Just because Peter has blocked you doesn’t mean you can’t tell the truth about him.
He has blocked me too, but I can still search for “chefmag” and find out who else is talking about it. A surprising number of worthy establishments and chefs seem only too happy to get their faces in his magazine or books. I always do my best to contact them and tell them who they are associating their business with.
I would encourage others to do the same.
Hi Paula
How true, I do so at every opportunity
I am very disappointed to see from Peter Marshall’s Facebook account that he has now managed to worm his way into the Far East , so much so that he is photographed with the Prime Minister of India….how on earth can this keep happening? The trail of destruction he leaves behind and all the comments and repeated reporting him to the insolvency company seem to be worthless….he has now moved his circus and is ready to rob and cheat the kindly folk who are now taking him under their wings….it’s just so wrong…
He also appears to be branching out into Jewellery brochures – his Twitter account mentions that he has just published a glossy catalogue for Michael Spiers, based in Plymouth & the south west. So there’s another name for the Insolvency & bankruptcy investigators to contact, as they try to piece together his dealings and find his assets.
He’ll publish anything for which he’s paid a fee – it’s how he seems to operate. Whether anyone else is involved in its production, and whether they get paid out of that fee, is the point.
Try to find out WHERE this fancy catalogue was printed – In India ?? – Yet another printer who won’t get paid !!
Hi Paula
Could you possibly give me the link to his twitter account as I can’t find him on there.
Paula
Do you have any more details of who has written the publication, what is the name of it, etc etc.
Any specific detail that you can quote here would be helpful.
There is a link to it on his Facebook page:
https://issuu.com/chefmagazine/docs/michael_spiers_art_book
Here it is; it’s under the magazine’s name. https://twitter.com/ChefMag
Interesting to note he’s calling the magazine Chef Journal, now, no doubt as an attempt at setting up a new guise.
It seems that as of issue 45 Chef Magazine has been rebranded / renamed Chef Journal:
https://issuu.com/chefmagazine
Maybe that is a strategy to avoid litigation or to avoid historic claims on Chef Magazine? Or to avoid explaining how Peter Marshall could continue publishing Chef Magazine although he claimed that Chef Magazine had gone into liquidation / bankruptcy?
(Curiously, after Chef Magazine went into liquidation it continued to be published. Can one assume that Peter Marshall paid a fair value to the liquidators for the trade name and the publication to be able to continue publishing it?)
Impossible to know, isn’t it. No doubt he has what seems like a plausible explanation when asked by people who don’t know what is going on behind the scenes.
There is a GENUINE “Chef Magazine” published in Chicago IL, USA at this address : 704 N Wells St, Chicago, IL 60654, USA –
The online link to it is : https://www.chefmagazine.com
One can imagine that the publisher of this genuine professional mag must have been aware of the fraudulent antics of Peter Marshall for some time – So I can imagine that the Chicago Publisher will be mightily pissed off about Marshall, because some of the flack aimed at HIM may have come the way of the genuine Chicago mag – I don’t know for sure, but if this is the case and Marshall has been threatened with yet MORE legal pursuits, then that might explain why he has changed the name of his pretentious crappy product – Has anyone here been in touch with the Chicago mag ?? – If not, it might be worth contacting them – Per ?
Anyway just a thought…..
Well, what a to do. As someone who is passionate about independent businesses, I emailed Michael Spiers, the jeweller for whom Peter Marshal has published a glossy brochure, with a link to this stream to warn them. I have done this with a couple of other people I know who know Peter. Peter has emailed me. I have also had an email from a PR agency, writing on his behalf. I will post the PR agency email, and my reply, when I have replied. In the meantime, I have replied to Peter and below is his email to me – and my reply to him. His subject line is of special interest:
On 24 Nov 2016, at 10:51, Peter Marshall wrote:
Subject: Re: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
Hi Jo
I really dont want to get into lots of interaction from you but I am very dissapointed that you have a need to keep on spreading the information about my past troubles. Have I caused you some problems?
I, as you know I have lost everything and I am trying to rebuild. It does appear that when human beings suffer problems in their life, and I appreciate my problems have caused other people problems, but its a very sad sole that has a need or gets pleasure from continuously attacking that individual I am sure you believe you are providing a vaulable service advising people what a terrible person I am but can I ask that you consider how you would feel if you found yourself in such circumstances
I have noticed in your website that you work is about crisis management and that you advise people about how to manage a crisis It seems strange that you chose to exasipate a crisis when you profess to manage them
Any way I am sure you will derive some pleasure knowing that recent email has caused me more problems and you will no doubt use this email against me but just to let you know I am very tired of all this and I hope that you never suffer from the problems I have and if you do that you don’t end up with people like you attacking you all the time when you are at your most vulnerable
Peter
From: Joanna Biddolph
Subject: Re: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
Date: 24 November 2016 14:24:43 GMT
To: Peter Marshall
Dear Peter,
I feel very strongly that, as someone who was nearly caught up in your web, and discovering how many were, I should reduce the chances of others being drawn in only to find what you say is not what you do. I notice the heading of your email and wonder why you think it should apply to me but not to you.
Your use of the word “continuous” is a little strange; there is nothing continuous about what I’ve said or done; it’s been sporadic and relatively recent. I note from the information on BKWine that there is a long history of similar behaviour from you with many people left unpaid for work commissioned by, and used by, you. It isn’t my behaviour that has been “continuous”.
I am, of course, sorry that you have cancer but the incidents I was referring to, and that are catalogued on BKWine, predate that. You say you are trying to rebuild your life. What about the lives of those who have been affected by your behaviour? What have you proposed to do about the debts you incurred? I don’t have any evidence that you have lost everything; the evidence I have is that you bounce back, trading again without any hint of repaying the debts you caused. Everyone knows bankruptcy is a way of writing off debts. That works for the person who goes bankrupt; it does nothing for those whose fees or bills have not been paid.
As for my work as a crisis management consultant, it has nothing to do with this. I chose to comment using my professional email address because I didn’t want anyone to think I might be hiding away from it. I manage crises for my clients, and for myself. As far as I’m aware, I haven’t been contracted by you to manage yours so commenting on it is something I’m free to do. As anyone in crisis management knows, the first fundamental is to take responsibility. The next is to apologise. This should be followed by a statement of what will be done – and then it should be done. As far as I’m aware, the only person exacerbating the reputation crisis you are going through is you. You seem not to have taken responsibility for the trail of debts you incurred. You don’t appear to have apologised for it. As for what you are going to do about it – there’s no information on that, either (beyond writing them off through bankruptcy, which works for you but not for them).
There is no pleasure in this for me. The whole saga is deeply unpleasant for all. What I do want to do is protect independent businesses from the risks of doing business with you. I am passionate about supporting independent businesses, which includes freelancers like me, and stepping in to alert people to the risks meant I was being true to myself and true to my business aims.
Jo
As far as I am aware, there has been no effort from the side of Peter Marshall to settle things with people he has wronged before. Certainly not with us.
The only contacts we have had – after the initial promises of payments never fulfilled – are threats, and rather unpleasant ones after me having written the story of what happened to us. (As an example, I was told: “Do you want me to commit suicide? Is that what you want? When I do, it will be your fault and I will have the coffin delivered to your door.”)
Perhaps if Mr Marshall, now with his revived business (“his business” – how can that be so? I thought he had been banned from running a business), presumably again generating revenues, if he then made an effort to reach out to the people that he owes money (or strictly speaking, owed money before the bankruptcy) and showed some willingness to settle what they were owed.
Perhaps then there would be fewer people upset and less people talking about these experiences?
Indeed, Per. Smoke and mirrors. Manipulation. At least we can see clearly what is going on.
Here’s more. Peter replied to me; I replied to him.
On 24 Nov 2016, at 14:50, Peter Marshall wrote:
Thank you for your reply
I really think you should take the time to understand all the facts before you spread such information, and I would have thought that being in crisis management that you would understand that before you decide to cause a crisis that you should understand the impact of spreading such information both legally and personally
You do not have all the facts and have chosen for your own apparent morale grounds to spread information which you have not attempted to clarify.
From: Joanna Biddolph
Subject: Re: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
Date: 24 November 2016 15:12:54 GMT
To: Peter Marshall
Dear Peter,
Thank you for your reply.
One marked aspect of all this is an absence of facts from you. The comments you have made on BKWine have addressed some of the issues but not all. Please give me the facts and I will gladly post them on BKWine, seek responses of fact from those who have commented, and then respond to you. You are, of course, free to post them yourself.
I have not caused a crisis. If there is a crisis, it is not mine.
The only information I have passed on is a link to the information on BKWine. If that information is wrong, it is surely for you to clarify and correct it. It has been up there since October 2013. You have been aware of it since at least October 2014. You commented on it, directly to the editor, in January 2016. And you commented on it, by messaging it yourself, in February 2016.
I am sure everyone will be glad to have the facts. What seems to be the case, based on this stream, is that facts are challenged by others.
Jo
Well done Jo.
I assume the PR agency you mention in your first post is Sorted PR of Newcastle, run by Bernice Saltzer. Bernice wrote a couple of articles in the recent edition of Peter’s Chef Journal. She also contacted me recently, as, like you, I get in touch with people who I assume are unaware of Peter’s background, and warn them about him. Bernice asked me, very politely, why I did this. I told her. She asked me to stop, as she was worried that I might be guilty of trolling, and therefore breaking the law. Quite ironic really, when it is Peter who is ignoring a court order by running a business.
I am surprised that Bernice, who appears to run a very legitimate and successful PR business, is getting dragged into all of this, but from her messages to me she seems to be of the opinion that Peter’s troubles were long ago and everyone on this thread is just raking over old coals. Maybe this is what Peter has told her. I pointed out to her that many of the complaints on here refer to more recent cases.
But whatever, the history, the plain fact is that Peter should NOT be running a business, and quite clearly he does. I have no problem with him earning a living to rebuild his life, but not in a way which defies a court order.
I will continue to tell people the facts.
Yes, it is Bernice. Her email is sufficiently lacking in clarity as to leave a very muddled definition of what is the past and what is recent and what she counts as relevant regardless of when it happened.
I believe Peter isn’t allowed to be a director so he might have reinvigorated Chef Journal, as I understand Chef Magazine is now called, without being in that role. Without seeing it, we can’t know.
Stop press … Just had a call from Bernice. She has questioned my motives saying it must be that I’m aggrieved that Peter did not give me the work he talked to me about; that I’m being petty and driven by a bruised ego. She says Michael Spiers thinks I’m (can’t remember the word she used but it was the equivalent of bonkers) for alerting them to this out of date stream. She ended the call by saying, “It’s pathetic. Just stop it” and hung up.
Several times she tried to put words into my mouth – a classic journalist trick – and said I was on the defensive. She interrupted me repeatedly then just carried on talking over me. She mirrored Peter’s manipulative tactics, including castigating me for criticising someone who has cancer. A deeply unpleasant approach. And, as with so many, she accused me of not being professional … while being unprofessional herself.
As for a bruised ego from not being given work Peter suggested he’d give me, we had one brief chat in passing at a trade show (The Restaurant Show, I think) about a potential ghost writing of his editorials (which I thought was an extremely peculiar suggestion); nothing more. I don’t consider that a promise of work or anything to be bruised by if it didn’t come through. Plus, as every freelancer knows, we wouldn’t be able to survive without huge amounts of resilience to cope with far greater issues than one vague conversation.
Bermice says she’s been paid up-front by Peter and that she thought about whether to work with him, knowing there were issues.
I too have had a PR agency contact my boss, saying that I have been trolling about Peter on Twitter. If think Peter was hoping this would effect my job, but my boss knows me well and I had already told him all about my awful experience with this man. I do feel tempted to call the silly women at the PR agency and ask her what it’s got to do with her in the first place.
The fact he is still banging on about his past issues is crazy, everyone had problems in their life’s, it doesn’t give you reason to tip people off time and time again. He had no morals what so ever.
Hi Jo
Thanks for posting this exchange you’ve had with the serial fraudster and criminal cheat, Peter Marshall – Yet again, for the umpteenth time, he attempts to pass himself off as the victim, instead of the perpetrator of the 10s, even 100s, of victims that he is – Even his claims about his cancer should be taken with a large dose of salt – He always comes up with this wheeze whenever his next victim pressures him, not unreasonably, to get paid for work that has been undertaken for him – If there’s anything that is really sick, it is his recidivist habit of using emotional blackmail on his victims….
Now we see from his FB page that he’s managed to worm his sneaky way into a government reception hosted by PM Modhi in India and get himself videoed, posing on the front row of the guests – How many legitimate guests got elbowed aside for him to get there is anyone’s guess – Where did the funds for his latest freeloading parasitic jaunt come from ?? – How many more people financed his first class flight (Business Class isn’t good enough for Marshall !!) through non-payment for work they’ve done for him ?? –
On a secondary note, it is appalling to see the way that Marshall massacres the English language !! – Littered with spelling and grammatical errors, this so-called “publisher” shows as much sensitivity for our wonderful language as he does for his “clients”…..
I decided not to comment on his command of English though I was tempted. I did try to use some of the words he’d massacred – so it was clear I’d spotted them. Exacerbate, for example, not “exasipate”.
As an occasional journalist, I’ve been on the receiving end of editors’ “corrections” which were wrong so he’s not alone. *sigh*
Yes, it was Bernice and I’ve now replied. Please do not read the exchange without reading this statement, from her email, which threatens legal action to anyone copying it to others (that would be me) and anyone reading it (that would be you). Here is the statement:
This transmission and any attachments are confidential and are intended solely for the named addressee(s). Unauthorised use, disclosure, dissemination, copying, printing or reliance on the contents of this email may give rise to legal action being taken. If you are not the addressee, please do not read, copy, distribute, use or disclose this transmission and please notify us immediately by telephone on +44 (0) 191 265 6111 or by reply. Please then delete this transmission from your system. Although Sorted PR has taken steps to ensure that this email and attachments are free from viruses, we advise that in keeping with good computing practice the recipient must ensure that they are in fact virus free. No contracts may be concluded on behalf of Sorted PR by means of email communications. Sorted PR reserve the right to monitor all emails and all other forms of communication whether electronic or otherwise either sent by or received by its employees. Thank you.
Only read on if you are happy to take a risk of legal action. I’ll post my reply separately.
On 24 Nov 2016, at 12:58, Bernice wrote:
Hi
I have been forwarded a message that you sent out about Chef Magazine, advising someone not to work with them. I am sorry that you have nothing better to do than flag up reports that are three years old and which have absolutely nothing to do with you. Could you explain why you have chosen to get involved in this matter?
Just FYI – we work with Chef magazine and yes there were problems in the past, mainly because the owner was suffering from cancer. I am not sure why you’ve chosen to try and cause trouble in this way – very odd for someone who professes to be a “crisis management” expert. I am not sure if this is some attempt to get work out of the person you sent the message to – if that’s the case it’s failed miserably.
I would suggest you might want to try and find some proper work rather than spend your time sending out vicious, troublemaking emails. It doesn’t really reflect very well on you at all.
This kind of behaviour is totally beneath someone who claims to be a skilled professional. Let’s hope this is now an end to it.
Regards
Bernice Saltzer
Bernice Saltzer
Managing Director
Sorted PR Ltd
Suite 3, Maling Studios, Hoults Estate, Walker Road, Newcastle, NE6 2HL
Tel 0191 265 6111
Mob 0797 786 0183
Fax 0191 265 6011
Email bernice@sortedpr.com
Web http://www.sortedpr.com
Map
company number 07234922 vat 996 36317
This transmission and any attachments are confidential and are intended solely for the named addressee(s). Unauthorised use, disclosure, dissemination, copying, printing or reliance on the contents of this email may give rise to legal action being taken. If you are not the addressee, please do not read, copy, distribute, use or disclose this transmission and please notify us immediately by telephone on +44 (0) 191 265 6111 or by reply. Please then delete this transmission from your system. Although Sorted PR has taken steps to ensure that this email and attachments are free from viruses, we advise that in keeping with good computing practice the recipient must ensure that they are in fact virus free. No contracts may be concluded on behalf of Sorted PR by means of email communications. Sorted PR reserve the right to monitor all emails and all other forms of communication whether electronic or otherwise either sent by or received by its employees. Thank you.
And this is my reply:
Begin forwarded message:
From: Joanna Biddolph
Subject: Re: Chef Magazine
Date: 24 November 2016 16:04:35 GMT
To: Bernice
Dear Bernice,
Thank you for your email. Answering your points in order:
Nothing better to do than flag up reports that are three years old: As you might have seen from my reply to Peter, I gave Michael Spiers a link to the stream of comments on BKWine. Although the stream started in October 2013 it is current and not in the least bit out of date. Comments over the last few days are especially interesting. As for having nothing better to do, I am passionate about supporting independent businesses and was concerned that the family-run Michael Spiers might be caught up in this sorry mess. Supporting independent businesses is what I do; there is, in my view, nothing better to do than that. I note from your website that you love small businesses, too.
Nothing to do with me: I was nearly caught up in this saga; I was alerted (I can’t remember how) to the stream on BKWine; I saw how many others (including small businesses) had been caught out; I wanted to commiserate and add my experience. That makes it to do with me.
Chef magazine problems: From the stream on BKWine, it is clear that the problems occurred long before Peter Marshall learned he had cancer. Perhaps you didn’t read the comments from his brother, and many others, cataloguing problems including with payments for work commissioned by and used by Chef Magazine long ago.
Causing trouble: It is clear from the stream of comments on BKWine who has caused trouble. I have wanted to alert people – which is my right – to the risks of doing business with Peter Marshall having nearly been at risk myself.
Angling to seek work from Michael Spiers: No, I have no knowledge of the jewellery industry except as an occasional buyer (of contemporary jewellery, from independent makers) and being lucky enough to have inherited some. As you’ll have seen from my website, I am straightforward and honest in my approach. (You will understand that, given that you state on your website that you are known for your plain talking.) If I had been angling for business I’d have said so. Besides that, there is no evidence that Michael Spiers is going through a reputation crisis so there wouldn’t be a role for me.
Crisis management: Although reputation crisis management is a form of PR, there can be a wide chasm between some forms of PR and reputation crisis management. As you might have seen from my reply to Peter earlier today, the first and fundamental point is to take responsibility. Next comes an apology, then a statement about what will be done to prevent it from happening again or to put it right; this must then be followed by the promised actions. Openness, honesty and transparency should underpin it all. Spin is a no-no. From information on the stream on BKWine, which has not been corrected by Peter Marshall, Peter’s crisis stems from repeatedly commissioning work which he then did not pay for. He has used his much later ill-health as an excuse, sometimes unpleasantly manipulatively, which is a form of spin. Where are the facts? Your own comment, “yes there were problems in the past, mainly because the owner was suffering from cancer” isn’t transparent. What was there other than the “mainly” bit and what about the past before he developed cancer? Where is any comment about what he will do to repay those whose bills he did not pay? I think it’s clear who in this exchange understands reputation crisis management – and who is prepared to be open, honest and transparent about it.
Proper work: You and I have similar jobs. Mine seems proper to me.
Vicious, troublemaking: There was nothing vicious in my action of warning an independent family-run business about someone it was working with. I passed on information that is public and accessible and which Peter Marshall knows of. The person who has made trouble is not me.
Behaviour beneath a skilled professional: I have made it clear, above, that supporting independent businesses is a passion of mine. It runs through everything I do at work and in my private life. If being true to oneself is unworthy of a professional, then I am guilty. For me, as a reputation crisis management professional, spin is never an option ever.
We all have a right to defend whoever we wish to take on as clients. You have chosen to support Chef Magazine (I believe it has been renamed Chef Journal). I have chosen to support those who are owed money by Peter Marshall and to alert others to the fact that the risks of the same happening to them appear to be high, if history is to be believed and it does have a habit of repeating itself.
I hope that’s all sorted.
Best wishes,
Jo
Joanna Biddolph
Amethyst Communications
162 Gunnersbury Avenue
London
W3 8LB
Tel: 020 8993 6764
Mobile: 07775 902904
Website: http://www.amethystcommunications.com
Blog: http://www.crisismanagementblog.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/crisistips
***************************************************************************
Building and protecting business reputations
Reputation management and risk, issues and crisis management
Specialising in independent companies and charities
I’ve just realised that the three “No Caller ID” calls I’ve had today were from Bernice. Having a “No Caller ID” phone number is a complete no-no in PR. Why wouldn’t you want to be accessible? It makes no sense to me.
Just thought I would give Bernice the benefit of my knowledge of her new employer, I did supply her with my contact details at the bottom of my email but I have deleted them from this posting
Dear Bernice,
Firstly I have read the email exchange between yourself and Jo Biddolph.
Not sure if my reading and responding to this leaves me liable to your threat of prosecution, if so, so be it I will willingly see you and your client in court.
I am a contributor to the ongoing blog, and will continue to be so, as unlike Jo your client owes me £15,000, a small part of the £1,300,000 he owes in total, but never the less it is a substantial sum to me.
Let me point out a few hard facts about Peter John Marshall, he is an undischarged bankrupt, who will have no automatic release from bankruptcy, he is banned from holding any directorships, holding any management positions, or supervisory roles for a period of 8 years, this ban became official in mid 2013.
With regards his alleged Cancer, I can tell you that in 2010 he had a scare, but I was actually there in the London clinic in the same year, when he got the all clear from his surgeon, however it suited Peters purpose to continue the story as he digs it out as an excuse each time there is a crisis.
I see he says he is trying to rebuild his life, let me tell you for as long as I have known him his lifestyle has not changed one bit, he continues to live high on the hog, flying first class, staying in the best hotels etc etc, and it is for this reason his victims despise him so much is that his lifestyle in the main is being paid by someone he’s ripped off.
As said, he knows who I am, and that I have never shied away from telling him to his face that he is a cheat, a lier, and a CROOK!!!
I see that you got paid up front, for your consultancy, just a little word of advice make sure that’s always remains the case, because I guarantee if you let that change then you will without fail be joining our ranks of the ever growing band of unpaid!!
My kind regards.
Glenn Ratcliffe
Sent from my iPad
A word from me concerning “PR” Bernice….
Dear Bernice….
I, too, have now read your attempted defence of the indefensible – namely the fraudulent crooked business methods and activities of my vile, disgusting, revolting “brother”, Peter Marshall…
I have to say that I am singularly unimpressed by your infantile and contemptible threats to take legal action against anyone who reads communications emanating from you concerning Marshall and his nefarious deeds…..
Before rushing off to your lawyer, you would be advised to read this thread in its entirety – In doing so, you will get some idea of the scale of the retaliatory class action that will come crashing around your head if you attempt to follow through on your pathetic threats…
Yours very sincerely…
David Marshall
Well said Glenn and David. Bernice needs to be made aware of the facts.
I left in my contact information so the post was exactly as I sent it – didn’t want to be accused of trying to hide. The same doesn’t apply to you two. It matters in my world where transparency is essential.
Early morning call from Bernice – I was not up so left it to ring then listened to the message. She said she has looked at this stream which is “interesting”. She noticed that I had said I would be posting her email on here which she said would be “completely illegal”. She advised me not to post it as she would take legal action.
Odd that, as she said she had looked at this stream, she didn’t see that I had already posted her email, highlighting the non-disclosure statement. Odd, too, that she should describe something as “completely illegal”. Are some actions slightly illegal or not very illegal or only a little illegal?
I’ve turned to Google. These non-disclosure notices are not worth the space they take up. Here are two of several sources that say similarly:
“Disclaimers in email signatures are not just annoying, but legally meaningless” https://lifehacker.com/5790930/disclaimers-in-email-signatures-are-not-just-annoying-but-legally-meaningless
And this, from Pinsent Masons, a large firm of lawyers in the City: “Do not take it for granted that your confidentiality notice can be relied upon, however much care goes into its preparation. There is no legal authority on the value of these notices in email communications. When the notice is added automatically to every external communication, there is a risk that a court would consider that the venom in your warning has been diluted.
“The value of the notice is that, if the disclosure of the content of an email becomes a subject of dispute, it would be possible to point a court to the existence of the confidentiality notice and argue that the recipient should have known to not disclose the contents of the message.
“If your organisation decides that it is worth including such a notice, just be aware that it will be in a court’s discretion to ignore it.”
https://www.out-law.com/page-5536
Jo
A quote from Peter’s email to Jo above – “I really think you should take the time to understand all the facts”
Here is the fact that Peter needs to publicly acknowledge, and agree to abide to:
At Luton County Court on September 28th 2013, Peter John Marshall was banned under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986, Section 6, for a period of 8 years. Under this ban he shall not be a director of a company, act as receiver of a company’s property or in any way, whether directly or indirectly, be concerned or take part in the promotion, formation or management of a company.
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/disqualified-officers/natural/zUTO4Y1JO2jBnF88peX_X1bwTO4
Bernice and her PR company need to ask themselves who they speak to when they are dealing with Chef Journal? Who is running and promoting that business?
It really is as simple as that. His personal bankruptcy and illness is irrelevant.
And if repeating this information is seen by either Peter or Bernice as in some way committing an offence, then so be it.
8 years. That means until 28 September 2021.
(If it is the date of the Court order that is valid.)
Or perhaps there has been some further court proceedings after this that has overturned this judgement?
If so, I am not aware of it. If that is the case I would be very interested to know about it.
I was in the shower wondering why he’d appointed Bernice and Sorted PR (any PR person or agency) to promote the magazine but, having re-read the above which I know was posted some time ago but I’d forgotten, I realise it’s because he’s not allowed to. There’s an interesting legal argument to be had about who is paying Bernice/Sorted PR’s bills as paying for them himself would presumably be enough to prove he’s promoting the magazine. Who is behind his Facebook page, on which he promotes the magazine? If it is in his name … And so on.
Bernice needs to see the post above this one … as she’s so interested in the law, she needs to be sure she’s not helping Peter break his ban.
I can confirm that Bernice has seen the post.
However even on this blog Mr Marshall listed HIMSELF as Publisher in September this year, on a message to another of his victims. So he confesses to running the company.
Bernice’s puerile threat to take legal action is the classic “gagging writ” technique used by cheats, fraudsters and criminals in attempting to bully people into suppressing free discussion of the said criminal’s activities – The 8 year ban imposed on Peter Marshall by Luton County Court still stands, and will do until well into the third quarter of 2021 – In flouting and cocking an arrogant snook at his ban, Marshall is committing a CRIMINAL offense….
If Bernice has indeed looked at this stream, as she appears to claim, she ought to be alarmed – Instead of issuing silly threats, she should realise that in defending Marshall, she is putting herself in a position of aiding and abetting Marshall to continue his criminal activity, thus exposing herself to legal action from the Insolvency Service and other government agencies responsible for regulating good business conduct…
If she has indeed been paid up front for services rendered to Marshall, it is legitimate to ask where the money came from to pay her for her services – In reading this blog, she should realise that it is by defrauding his other “clients” that Marshall has been able to hire her – Perhaps Stratford Hamilton at Haslers, who is handling Marshall’s bankruptcy and attempting to recover his assets would be interested to know this too….
Bernice should be aware that she is treading on very thin ice – If she’s got any sense, she should drop Marshall like a toxic stone – Is her PR business SO desperate for clients that it needs the likes of Marshall ?? – So put up or shut up, Bernice !! – If you really HAVE read this stream, you should understand that there are very many ANGRY people, here, who have been turned over by Marshall and who do NOT take kindly to your infantile brat-like behaviour…
I can also confirm that Statford Hamilton is aware of the link between Peter and Bernice/Sorted PR
All very helpful and thank you for your posts Paula, David and Girly. I have received the below from Bernice. Note the heading “Without prejudice” – another example of how not to be “completely illegal”. If she thinks it’s going to make me quake in my boots, she’s … completely wrong (not a little bit wrong, slightly wrong, not quite wrong …):
Begin forwarded message:
From: “Bernice”
Subject: witthout prejudice.
Date: 25 November 2016 12:18:48 GMT
To: “‘Joanna Biddolph'”
Hi Jo,
I think it is best if I just leave this in the hands of my solicitor and he will be in touch with you.
Bernice Saltzer
Managing Director
Sorted PR Ltd
Suite 3, Maling Studios, Hoults Estate, Walker Road, Newcastle, NE6 2HL
Tel 0191 265 6111
Mob 0797 786 0183
Fax 0191 265 6011
Email bernice@sortedpr.com
Web http://www.sortedpr.com
Map
company number 07234922 vat 996 36317
This transmission and any attachments are confidential and are intended solely for the named addressee(s). Unauthorised use, disclosure, dissemination, copying, printing or reliance on the contents of this email may give rise to legal action being taken. If you are not the addressee, please do not read, copy, distribute, use or disclose this transmission and please notify us immediately by telephone on +44 (0) 191 265 6111 or by reply. Please then delete this transmission from your system. Although Sorted PR has taken steps to ensure that this email and attachments are free from viruses, we advise that in keeping with good computing practice the recipient must ensure that they are in fact virus free. No contracts may be concluded on behalf of Sorted PR by means of email communications. Sorted PR reserve the right to monitor all emails and all other forms of communication whether electronic or otherwise either sent by or received by its employees. Thank you.
From: Joanna Biddolph [mailto:jo@amethystcommunications.com]
Sent: 25 November 2016 09:41
To: Bernice
Subject: Re: Chef Magazine
Dear Bernice,
Thanks for your message. I have just added this (everything in blue) to the BKWine stream:
Early morning call from Bernice – I was not up so left it to ring then listened to the message. She said she has looked at this stream which is “interesting”. She noticed that I had said I would be posting her email on here which she said would be “completely illegal”. She advised me not to post it as she would take legal action.
Odd that, as she said she had looked at this stream, she didn’t see that I had already posted her email, highlighting the non-disclosure statement. Odd, too, that she should describe something as “completely illegal”. Are some actions slightly illegal or not very illegal or only a little illegal?
I’ve turned to Google. These non-disclosure notices are not worth the space they take up.
Here are two of several sources that say similarly:
“Disclaimers in email signatures are not just annoying, but legally meaningless” https://lifehacker.com/5790930/disclaimers-in-email-signatures-are-not-just-annoying-but-legally-meaningless
And this, from Pinsent Masons, a large firm of lawyers in the City: “Do not take it for granted that your confidentiality notice can be relied upon, however much care goes into its preparation. There is no legal authority on the value of these notices in email communications. When the notice is added automatically to every external communication, there is a risk that a court would consider that the venom in your warning has been diluted.
“The value of the notice is that, if the disclosure of the content of an email becomes a subject of dispute, it would be possible to point a court to the existence of the confidentiality notice and argue that the recipient should have known to not disclose the contents of the message.
“If your organisation decides that it is worth including such a notice, just be aware that it will be in a court’s discretion to ignore it.”
https://www.out-law.com/page-5536
Jo
Just keeping you informed.
Jo
Joanna Biddolph
Amethyst Communications
Tel: 020 8993 6764
Mobile: 07775 902904
Website: http://www.amethystcommunications.com
Blog: http://www.crisismanagementblog.com
I would just like to clear up the comments here as regards myself, my company and Peter Marshall, given that someone seems to be delighting in posting private emails on a public forum.
I am in no way involved in any way other than as a contributor to Chef Magazine for which I have been paid.
I have also been in a position where I have lost money to companies that have gone bankrupt and I do have sympathy with anyone who has had this problem.
I have my own company to run and seem to have been dragged into something that I really have a) no interest in being involved with and b)no time to be involved with and will not be commenting further.
Just to make it TOTALLY clear – I am NOT working for Peter in a PR capacity, he is not one of my clients.
I wish you all luck in recouping any money you are owed. I now intend to distance myself from this whole situation.
Is this down to Bernie reading the links and realising that the problems aren’t three years old, but current, as Pete is still flogging books and not paying the authors their royalty.
I think we should be told.
Thanks for your comment Matt. It could also have to do with the very recent comment from Stratford Hamilton (further down in this thread), and in particular the link in it to the explanatory text on their ongoing liquidation investigation, which seems quite pertinent.
I suspect she’s spoken to a lawyer, found out she is on shaky ground – and seen sense.
Not sure I can square her comment, “I am in no way involved in any way other than as a contributor to Chef Magazine …” with her comment in her email to me, “we work with Chef magazine” or with the other comment, “I am NOT working for Peter in a PR capacity, he is not one of my clients”. As with everything else she’s said or threatened, it’s all a little hazy.
It might mean that Peter is not the proprietor/editor or whatever of the magazine, whatever it is currently called, so working with Chef Magazine isn’t technically working for Peter. Or it might just be PR froth.
And it’s very odd that she should have leapt to his defence, very offensively, and issued me with warnings for warning others about him – if he wasn’t in some way a client. She criticised me for taking up an issue which hadn’t directly affected me – but did the same herself.
Nor can I square her comment that she’s asked her lawyer to contact me direct … with her comment that she has no interest in being involved with and has no time to be involved with … this issue. Was the lawyer point another empty threat – or has she been advised that her pompous email disclosure notice has no teeth?
We’ll never know whether she’s told Michael Spiers of her about-turn. Given that she told me they thought I was (I remembered the word she used) “crazy” for warning them about Peter, it’s clear she had been involved in defending Peter to them.
It’s all rather shabby.
I assume she means that she is not working for him NOW, because it’s pretty obvious she was a few days ago.
She issued you with warnings.
She issued me with warnings about telling people about Peter.
And her company contacted Vikki’s boss (post above) and tried to warn her off too.
Hardly the actions of someone who just writes a bit for his magazine.
Anyway, if she has seen the light, all to the good. One less friend to stick up for him.
Yes, exactly the wrong way to manage a reputation crisis, which is what she is going through. She’s put a spin on it – and spin is never acceptable in a crisis (it’s never acceptable in any situation in my view) – by playing the “now” card as if there was no “then”.
I hope this isn’t what she advises her clients to do; it is bound to unravel. As a journalist, she should know that someone could ask, “have you ever worked for him?” or “why did you defend him?” as they are obvious questions. On the defence one, having criticised me for defending people who I have not got a professional relationship with she could hardly use the same reasoning for herself. As I said earlier in this stream, it’s a tale of smoke and mirrors.
Like so many bullies, when the intimidation doesn’t work and looks like being thrown back at them with a vengeance, they back off….
It would appear to me that her lawyer will have told her that she hasn’t a leg to stand on and that it would be a waste of time and legal fees to prove the point….
So she’s backed off with her puerile threats and so much the better – It would make good business sense to tell Peter Marshall that she no longer wishes to have anything to do with him – But then, that’s up to her…..
I see that Peter Marshall of Chef Journal or whatever he now calls it has locked his Facebook account so I assume only ‘friends’ can now see his posts. So that clearly says he is coving his tracks…only we know that’s not the case!
Well spotted! I just tried it and I am blocked too – it is now Friends only. That won’t be helpful to him if he uses Facebook as a marketing tool – which he has done. I wonder if he/the magazine will crop up on another page …
Also, I notice that it says he lives in London. Has the Ukrainian link ended? Did the girlfriend realise what was going on or is the address just another of his illusionary tricks?
Dear All
As you may be aware Dominic Dumville and Stratford Hamilton of Haslers have been heading up the investigation into the affairs of Mr Marshall as his Joint Trustee in bankruptcy and Joint Liquidators of Network Publishing Limited.
The link below is a short article on a recent development in the case which is continuing.
Anyone who believes they have information which will assist the trustees or believes they are a creditor of Mr Marshall or the Limited Company should contact the above on 0208 418 3333.
https://tinyurl.com/gsulhov
Hi Stratford,
Many thanks for the update, and whilst I am sure that all of those of us that are owed would love to think that we had a chance of getting at least some of their money back, my thoughts, which I believe may be shared by the majority of creditors, is that they have come to terms with the fact they will never see that happen.
What I believe would be welcomed is to see Peter Marshall brought to task on the current evidence, which I am sure is considerable, so is it not possible, as he’s often in this country to arrest him and bring him before a court to answer in front of a judge to his crimes, which I know to be criminal offences.
I earnestly believe that knowing him as I do, he treats all of these things with contempt, he’s just laughing at us all, continuing highlighting his ongoing misdeeds which pass as before with impunity, time Inbelieve to put a stop to them once and for all.
Intrerested to see what those other creditors feel about this.
You need to send your message direct to Stratford – he is emailable through the Haslers website. Putting it here isn’t as effective.
Jo
Not sure why I can’t see the latest exchanges in this stream – Per’s most recent message replying to Matt’s seem not to be here. But here’s an update from me.
I sent the Haslers message, and the commentary at the end of the link they provided, to Michael Spiers so they had the latest. I took the chance to comment on Bernice’s comment that Michael Spiers considers me “crazy” for having warned them about Peter Marshall. It turns out that Bernice had not spoken or emailed Michael Spiers. My assumption, therefore, is that Michael Spiers contacted Peter Marshall who contacted Bernice and either PM or Bernice decided to accuse me of being “crazy” and make out it was a word used by Michael Spiers.
I also sent the information to Bernice telling her that I’d sent it to Michael Spiers. My assumption was that Michael Spiers was a client of hers but that isn’t so clear now. I suspect she isn’t connected with them but that PM contacted her when he found out I’d contacted Michael Spiers and asked her to put me off. Who knows what is really going on between her and PM; she seems to switch from laying on the charm to pouring out the venom; the truth doesn’t seem to feature and she’s either absurdly naive or hugely calculating.
Here’s the exchange between her and me. It starts with an apology but that was merely spin; she quickly reverted to type:
On 7 Dec 2016, at 07:49, Bernice wrote:
Hi Joanna,
I am completely distancing myself from all of this and I want to apologise to you if you think I was rude. I would write more in this email but I don’t want it published on BK Wine so I’m happy to enter into some dialogue with you about this but only on the assurance it’s between us. I am not sure how I’ve got entangled in this from someone who was genuinely just doing a writing job but I certainly don’t want my company tied up in this mess.
Thanks
Bernice
Joanna,
I don’t intend to get in to any further discussions with you about this. I would appreciate if you did not contact me again.
Bernice Saltzer
Managing Director
Sorted PR Ltd
Suite 3, Maling Studios, Hoults Estate, Walker Road, Newcastle, NE6 2HL
Tel 0191 265 6111
Mob 0797 786 0183
Fax 0191 265 6011
Email bernice@sortedpr.com
Web http://www.sortedpr.com
From: Joanna Biddolph [mailto:jo@amethystcommunications.com]
Sent: 07 December 2016 11:57
To: Bernice
Subject: Re: From Haslers – solicitors investigating Peter Marshall’s business affairs
Hi Bernice,
I don’t think it is as easy as “distancing” yourself from this. You reacted with unbalanced vigour – to the point of being bullying and threatening, well beyond rude – and you resorted to personal comments which as everyone knows is a last resort when the argument has been lost. You chose to become entangled in this issue. If you were “genuinely just doing a writing job” you would have looked carefully at the background before letting rip.
Everyone in PR knows that it is essential to establish the facts before taking a stand. You ignored them – and became tied up in this issue because of your own inaction at the start then an inappropriate reaction when the facts were passed on in good faith to Michael Spiers.
As I’ve said before, I take an open, honest and transparent approach so I cannot give an assurance that whatever dialogue there might be would be between us. I am committed to continuing to inform people affected by Peter Marshall’s behaviour.
Jo
From: “Bernice”
Subject: RE: From Haslers – solicitors investigating Peter Marshall’s business affairs
Date: 7 December 2016 12:20:23 GMT
To: “‘Joanna Biddolph'”
Joanna,
I don’t intend to get in to any further discussions with you about this. I would appreciate if you did not contact me again.
Bernice Saltzer
Managing Director
Sorted PR Ltd
Suite 3, Maling Studios, Hoults Estate, Walker Road, Newcastle, NE6 2HL
Tel 0191 265 6111
Mob 0797 786 0183
Fax 0191 265 6011
Email bernice@sortedpr.com
Web http://www.sortedpr.com
And this is the exchange with Michael Spiers:
On 7 Dec 2016, at 14:02, James Walker wrote:
Dear Jo
Thank you for your message regarding Peter Marshall.
There seems to be some kind of confusion regarding our response to your original message, no one from Michael Spiers has spoken with Bernice Saltzer.
Thank you again for bringing this to our attention, I can assure you that we are dealing with this internally.
Kind regards
James
James Walker
Group Manager
Michael Spiers
82 Lemon Street, Truro, Cornwall, TR1 2QA
Tel: 01872 272264
On 7 Dec 2016, at 22:47, Joanna Biddolph wrote:
Dear James,
Many thanks for letting me know. It is very odd, though, as I had never heard of her until she rang me as a result, she said, of my first email to Michael Spiers. Perhaps it was an email exchange rather than a spoken one.
Jo
From: James Walker
Subject: Re: Peter Marshall
Date: 8 December 2016 07:42:07 GMT
To: Joanna Biddolph
Hi Jo
No it was not an email exchange, no communication of any kind has been made with Bernice Saltzer or any other party in relation to this.
As I have previously stated, we thank you for bringing this to our attention and we will continue to deal with this internally.
Kind regards
James
Dear all,
I refer to previous posts regarding Dominic Dumville and Stratford Hamilton’s administration of the estate of Peter Marshall In Bankruptcy. I write to advise that the Joint Trustees have secured approximately 1,900 books for the benefit of Mr Marshall’s bankruptcy estate. Furthermore, they have recently received an offer from a third party in relation to purchasing the entire book stock.
Whilst considering this offer, I would like to invite anyone who has an interest in purchasing the book stock in its entirety to make an offer by contacting either Stratford Hamilton or myself, by close of business 23 December 2016, on 0208 418 3333.
I’ll give you £1 for the lot, which is a fair offer bearing in mind I was left out of pocket by more than £10k for services in paid for and legal costs relating to the creation of many of the books I’m sure you have in possession.
If you feel this is a fair and reasonable offer which I think it is considering my circumstances then please reply to this message and I’ll drop you a line.
He won’t see this! It’s an important message best sent to him direct.
Wouldn’t it be fairer to give the copies of the books to the relevant authors who have all been swindled by this blatant serial fraudster.
Girly, my guess is that it is not how bankruptcy procedures work. At least not in other countries that I know of.
(Unpaid) Authors are just like any other creditors. They have a claim on the estate. The liquidators try and recover as much assets as they can and then they are shared according to certain rules among all creditors.
Giving them to authors would give them priority over other creditors. For example, why not give the books to the (unpaid) printer instead? They have even had direct costs for paper etc for producing the books. Or should authors have priority over printers?
The difficulty here is, I guess, to find someone who is willing to pay anything for the books.
So my guess is that the best option for the authors is to offer to buy them from the liquidators, as unfair as that may seem. But the author is probably the one who has the best chance to make some kind of sales from those books.
The fact that the books will be slow to sell unless remaindered and the transportation costs and warehousing, means that the estate will be lucky to get about fifty pence per unit. Anything higher will be considered a bonus.
The best bet would be for the authors to get back the copywriter and see if they can get back the original digital files and reprint their books with POD
Has anyone been reading Chef Mag on twitter lately ? Here PM clearly says he is about to embark on a new publication, also from other tweets he is trying to hoodwink some other poor mug for funding for one of his scams…..will it ever stop ?
Couldn’t find what you are referring to Girly. Looks more like a spam feed on twitter with nothing but sales plugs for books and the magazine.
Did lead me to the new chefpublishing.com site though, with “Peter Marshall’s blog”, where he signs posts as “Peter Marshall, Publisher, Chef Journal”.
I wonder how you can be a publisher and not be running a business?
Here they are –
Chef Journal @ChefMag Jan 26
@JustinPollard Hi Justin I would like to talk about funding a recipe book What is the best number to call you on. Peter
and
Chef Journal @ChefMag Jan 26
Launching a new food publication looking for part time experienced sales person Please email peter@chefmedia.co.uk
Justin was sent a message warning him about Peter, which we can only hope he took note of.
Missed that.
“Part time”, no pay, no doubt.
Also I see Shaun Rankin talking to him about a book…on it goes !
Someone should inform Shaun Rankin of what he is about to support – a serial crook – and that he should protect his own reputation by not getting involved.
No worries it’s in hand.
The address where PM is living now (from Spring 2016) is Ukraine, Kiew, Kosenko street 43, (zip code 04123)
This job advert has turned up on Indeed.co.uk –
Sales Manager
Chef Publishing Ltd – London
Chef magazine is recognised in the Industry as the leading most read magazine. The magazine has recently been acquired by a new company and there are great plans to expand and drive the publication forward both via the print distribution and the electronic distribution….
Who is this mysterious new company, or is it still just Peter and his Ukranian girlfriend?
I have tried to find a way to contact Indeed, to warn them about PM, but so far have not found an easy way.
It looks as if things have changed. The name on the job advert is Chef Publishing Ltd. According to Companies House, this company was only created this month, with two directors, Martyn Keen of Henton, Oxfordshire, and David Vernau of Aston Rowant, Oxfordshire. The former is involved with Injectmedia, a digital marketing company, and the latter with what sound like various food and distribution firms.
Has Peter sold up, or are they just new front men?
If really sold, makes you wonder for how much. And what kind of valuation they might have done of it.
Also, if really sold, should not that money go to the liquidation funds? Most people who have not been paid (as described in this article and in the comments thread) have demands on Chef Magazine, and the owner(s) thereof. How that magazine could continue to publish after the liquidation is a mystery. Did Peter Marshal acquire the title from the liquidators?
And if it is now sold for some monies, should those not be part of the liquidation assets?
The real question is will the subscribers still receive the magazine for which they paid for.
Perhaps the magazine was bought for the mailing list.
I am not convinced that he has actually sold the magazine. The website is still the same, and still features his blog. His most recent Tweet, regarding the sales job, asked people to “retweet to help fill my job” – sounds like typical Peter.
Maybe he has just found a couple of new suckers to be dummy directors, so he can hold his hands up and say he’s not in charge. Heaven help them if they have actually put money into it.
I suspect Peter is still very much involved with Chefmag.
The twitter account is pointing people to a Kickstarter fundraising campaign, to fund a book by a Ukranian chef. Dig into the background, and the campaign has been set up by Martyn Raymond Keen, one of the new directors of Chef Publishing Ltd. But the Ukranian connection says “Peter” to me.
Sadly, so far it has only raised £100 of the £13,000 target. And the good news is, no money changes hands until the target is reached.
Incidentally, a new March/April edition of Chef is out now. Can anybody confirm if PM’s name is still all over it?
Last week I called the central London telephone number on the Chef Media website and Peter Marshel answered the phone once he realised it was me he hung up.
I reported this to his receivers in bankruptcy, but haven’t as yet heard that they are following this information up.
And what about the publication entitled Bite which is now on the Chef Publishings web site, supposedly centred around Brighton eateries and printing 10,000 copies per run? How has this been incorporated? More ducking and diving I imagine, I don’t understand why the administrators of PM haven’t investigated fully.
Bite is edited by Andy Lynes, who is one the writers for Chef. Anyone in Brighton got a copy? Is Peter involved with it?
As far as I can see, there are no contact details on the website at the moment, apart from the phone number which Peter answers. And the email link is still to Peter. Still very much his business…
Andy Lynes was one of the two people I warned about all this, months ago. He is fully aware of the pitfalls of working with Peter Marshall but isn’t concerned.
The other person I warned battled back at me saying that she’s aware but doesn’t see a problem as he is useful to her because his magazines give her opportunities to get coverage for her clients. I imagine, but don’t know, that her clients pay for that coverage so there is no risk from her point of view.
Clearly, people have different values – and have probably not been affected by his behaviour.
banned from holding any directorships, and involvement in publishing, plus being an undischarged bankrupt Peter Marshall chooses to completely ignore those fact and when calling 02070971396 the number for Chef Publishing Ltd guess who answers the phone !!!
Please can I implore that his receivers in bankruptcy to bring him to task, and at the very least haul him before the court for contempt, or better still lock him up, as after all he continues to break the law, He’s a criminal !!!
Another familiar name is back on the block – Bernice Saltzer of Sorted PR. Back in November/December there was quite a bit of communication from her, denying that she was doing PR for Peter, but at the same time making various threats of legal action against people who were warning others about Peter. (see higher up the thread)
At the end of it, she appeared to see the light, and told me that she wanted no more to do with Chef magazine.
But in this month’s magazine, who wrote the feature on James Close, which makes the front cover? You guessed it. And she’s so pleased about it, she used the Sorted PR twitter account to give it a little boost.
When I queried this with her, she blocked me on Twitter.
So Bernice, if you are reading this, is it now OK to help a banned businessman with his business?
For all those with interest in this blog, you might like to know that if your in the region of Westminster Magistrate court around 10am tomorrow, you may well see someone of interest, facing criminal charges before a a judge.
ooh, that sounds interesting. Just a shame I can’t be there. I hope someone can provide us with an update.
I see that his KickStarter campaign to raise funds for the Ukranian chef book was a rip-roaring success – a grand total of 6 people were interested enough to pledge their £25, so slightly short of the £13,000 he was hoping for.
On what charge?
Let’s hope the judge is told about his long history and the many breaches of previous bankruptcy orders and “stories” about ill-health, etc. I wonder who will appear as witnesses for the accused and what they will say in his defence. Unfortunately, there are some, including the two people I contacted to alert them to the facts, who find him useful as I’ve mentioned earlier on this thread and who will on doubt want him to continue in business so they can get coverage for their clients and/or have outlets for their own writing. I fear the outcome will do nothing to change what we’ve all heard before …
Breach of his bankruptcy, breach of his ban of acting as a director in an active role. Both criminal offences. Don’t think it will be finalised tomorrow it’s a first step to trial by jury in the crown court,.
So, what happened? Did he offer a plea of “I’ve not been well…”? Or did he blame everybody else that knows him?
Haven’t heard yet will update everyone when I do
Latest update, on our mutual person of interest is that he didn’t turn up at court ( now there’s a surprise) but he did send an email which said he would like to plead not guilty and elect for a trial by Jury in the Crown Court, the judge at yesterday’s hearing refused to accept this as he firstly wasn’t there, and hadn’t appointed legal representation to speak in his absence, and therefore he is summonsed to appear at court on the 9th May 2017.
Typical of him to believe that he is some how not answerable to his misdeeds, let’s hope at the next hearing he gets a tough judge who will rap his knuckles well and truly.
At least he wasn’t using a lawyer’s time – that might never be paid for. He is no doubt hoping to manipulate a jury by playing on his (non-existent) ill-health and perhaps other (also non-existent, perhaps) problems. He can put on a good performance, as we all know.
So he has now been summonsed to appear before one seriously pissed off judge at Westminster Magistrates Court on 9th of May – But will he ?? – Or will her now attempt to do a runner to Kiev, Ukraine ?? – Knowing what a vile coward he is, I will wager that he will attempt the latter – So let’s hope the frontiers (airports with flights to Ukraine notably) are tipped off and will detain him if he attempts this – Jail is the ONLY place for this disgusting individual, Peter Marshall….
David, have faith I am sure he will appear on the 9th
Hope you’re right G – but I lost faith in my vile brother decades ago !!!
Still fingers crossed X
To all those people interested to hear the latest news on our devious friend Peter Marshall
He turned up yesterday to the hearing at Westminster magistrates court, and pleaded not guilty.
His case has been transferred to the Southwark Crown court for a trail by Jury. There is a pre trial hearing on the 9th June to set a trial date.
Thanks G for the update.
Fingers crossed for the 9th June and that he shows up!
How do you find this Information? Google doesn’t bring much success with court information.
as courts are public places, information on cases is readily available so you can call and ask the outcome of cases.
Further update the per trial hearing for Peter Marshall is now the 6th June at Southwark Crown Court
Thanks for the update. 6th June – D-day – how appropriate.
Just seen the latest Chef magazine.
Peter is credited as the Publisher (should go down well in Southwark Crown Court), with Lesya Grebenyuk doing the accounts & admin. Sales & Marketing, and quite a bit of the writing is by Claire Bosi, a new name on the block as far as I know.
June 6th – all I can find online is “case started”. Does anyone know any more about it?
The 6/6 hearing at Southwark Crown Court was to fix a date for his trial by jury – Peter Marshall claims he has to go into hospital for an “operation” – So the date for his trial by jury at Southwark Crown Court has now been fixed for 6 March 2018 !! – So on and on it goes – Disgusted !!
Hmm…as an artist/illustrator I had dealings with guy 15yrs ago, several of us (illustrators) and agent encountered likewise problems as above, eventually we agreed to a deal which meant a big loss in original fees but were able to resolve some conclusion out of his conning ways. Oddly enough I still have his mobile number which I came across in my phone book whilst searching for someone else, I checked on WhatsApp and blow me the number was active yesterday pm, searching google then the number is still attached to Peter Mashall…so guys here it is > 07540 789191 < I've had it for that long period of time and obviously he still cherishes that number.
Update on this vile individual:
His trial is due to start 9th April at Southwark Crown Court
So….today’s the day….let’s see how many more lies and falsehoods come from him…
Any updates on this vile character?
Seems to be some evolution in this case. Or perhaps not.
It seems Chef Magazine has been sold. Or “sold”, I don’t know. At least “taken over”. (How can sell something that you don’t own?) “In February 2017, Chef Publishing Ltd acquired Chef Magazine with the aim to grow it into the worlds number one Chef Publication.” quoting from their own web site (chefpublishing.com).
Chef Publishing Ltd is apparently run by Martyn Keen (“managing director”). I am not familiar with who he is.
The magazine seems to be run by someone called Claire Bosi. I am not familiar with her either.
The magazine is, it is claimed, now published with 10 issues per year.
It is interesting to read page 3 of the March/April 2017 issue:
https://issuu.com/chefmagazine/docs/chef_march_april/5
Most issues seem to be available online on Issuu.
However…
From what I hear, contributors still have difficulties getting paid.
And, from what I understand, Peter Marshall is still involved.
At the same time I believe there was, or was supposed to be, court proceedings in a court in the UK late last year (2017) on the issue of the bankruptcy and the liquidation of the Peter Marshall estate. I have not heard how that went, or if it even took place.
Plus ça change……..
(Please keep any comments civilised and factual!)
His court case was today (April 9th) at Southwark Crown Court. All I can find out online is that the case commenced, and that the hearing finished a couple of hours later. Possibly just finished for the day, but I can’t tell. Was anybody there? Anybody know any more?
See my reply
I Thought I would let all of you other victims of Peter Marshalls devious ways, at the Southwark Crown Court today Mr Marshall pleaeded guilty to all of the charges he was accused of, and I am delighted to tell you all that he received a 6 months prison sentence ( unfortunately it was suspended for two years) however he had his ban from taking any management position in any company in the UK extended by nearly another 7 years, and he has to pay the full legal fees of £10,000.
I know that we would have all hoped for more. but this is now a criminal record against him, and I am pretty sure that the likes of HMRC might also be looking into his finances too.
Let’s all be vigilant and keep an eye open for him popping up doing things he shouldn’t and if you do hear of anything please let the insolvency service know.
Opening a nice bottle of wine now to raise a glass to British justice not ideal I know but better than him getting away Scot free.
Excellent news. Pleading guilty? Maybe the operation he claimed he needed the last time he appeared in court was some sort of a conscience implant.
As you say, let’s keep our eyes and ears open for any appearances he chooses to make, any time over the next seven years…Also, anybody trying to flog a garage full of cookery books for £10,000
I would be interested to know if anyone has had any fairly recent interactions with Peter Marshall / Chef Magazine, or knows of anyone who has.
Would you then kindly contact me privately:
https://www.bkwinephotography.com/contact/
(Unless you would prefer to publish a comment here.)
For information:
The Joint Trustee, at Haslers Insolvency and Recovery Services, has recently published a report on the progress of “the Bankruptcy” (“Peter John Marshall – In Bankruptcy (‘The Debtor’) in the Slough County Court number 143 of 2014”).
This report should be available to “all known members & creditors” through Haslers.
Peter Marshall has shown up in Thailand and is doing the same thing, not paying people and misrepresenting himself as being part of Chef UK as he starts a new magazine called Chef Thailand. He has fraudulently published 3 issues of the new magazine.
https://view.joomag.com/chef-magazine-for-thailand-december-january/0192542001546467765?short
https://view.joomag.com/chef-magazine-for-thailand-december-january/0192542001546467765?short
Extraordinary. Then again, I suppose he had to turn up somewhere. Anyway, issue 4 of Chef Thailand can be seen here –
https://issuu.com/chefmedia/docs/4th_issue_23_feb_for_issu
and the twitter account @MagazineChef is linked to it.
Even more surprising, the magazine’s website https://www.chefthailandmagazine.com gives the contact address as his old Chef Media address in Buckingham – surely he was turfed out of there ages ago?
Update, Peter has apparently stopped trying to do business in Thailand, There is a very tight network of English editors and journalist here and we all know each other or of each other, I have also warned the local high profile Chefs here as well. No one will do business with him, he apparently also conned some high -end hotels into comping rooms for him by misrepresenting who he was. I Know he was talking about trying to start something up in Hong Kong, Singapore, and New York. Hopefully, we can ensure that no one else gets scammed by this con artist.
I applied for a job as an advertising salesperson posted by Peter Marshall on Linked based in Bangkok. He has apparently called me for a short discussion. This was before I Googled his name which led me to this.
He has offered me 45,000 Baht ($1400) with 20% commission (that part was fishy as hell). I told him that I would need a legal work visa in order to work in Bangkok as I am not Thai. He said he is committed to sorting that out for me as soon as he finds a Thai partner. Sounds too good to be true.
After reading the comments, I believe this may have been a sign NOT to do business with him.
I see that Our old thorn in the side Peter Marshall is back on the UK scene again, purporting to be Chef & Restaurant Magazine, he has nothing to do with this but this isn’t stopping him stealing the intellectual property of The Chef & Restaurant editorials and images.
As most of you know, ( as I have pointed it out many times) Peter Marshall is an undischarged Bankrupt, Con man, who cannot legally without the permission of the official receivers giving him leave to do so ply his trade in the UK.
If you come across him do not under any circumstances get involved in any way financially as you will almost certainly fall foul of his devious practices.
Last week I Received a letter from Peter Marshall’s receiver in bankruptcy, Nicholas Nicholson of Haslers saying that he was looking at finalising his bankruptcy and releasing him from it, and did I have any objection, well yes I do!!
I have supplied up to date proof of his continued activity all of which are restricted by both his bankruptcy, and the two separate court orders stopping any management involvement in any business one ends in April 2021 and the the other not until 2025.
He is also currently not yet released from his criminal conviction where he received a 6 month prison sentence suspended for two years.
If you are owed money by Marshall, please email those details to Mr Nicholson at Haslers, conveying your objections. nick.nickolson@haslers.com
Many thanks,
Glenn
I have also raised objections. Note that the email address is Nick.Nicholson@haslers.com, not Nickolson.
Hi Glenn,
I strongly object, I have at least $100 dollars he owes me, but I am not worried about that. He owes many people money in Bangkok. I am happy to write a letter about what he did here. Feel free to contact me directly.
Hi Melissa
Please can you contact me when you get a moment.
I’d like to introduce myself and listen to your story.
Thanks
Richard
Hi Richard,
If I can help please ask
Hi Glenn
Unsure how to reply to you directly without email address etc showing up on here.
Hi Richard
glennr2322@gmail.com
Hi Also Owed,
Sorry about that, I think that my auto correct might have done that, but thank you for joining in.
I spoke with Nick and sent evidence of his ongoing dealings over the last 4 years, which he wasn’t aware of so let’s hope that it does the trick.
Looks like Peter Marshall is relaunching chef magazine
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/peter-marshall-4176b697_chef-magazine-re-launched-to-meet-the-needs-activity-6712268278066135040-MNdE
There is a contact included so it might be worth a minute of your time to ask for your money he owes you
That is strange. A while back (last autumn) I met someone who I understood to be the editor of Chef Magazine (if my memory serves me right, Jean Smullen) who said that it is now operating normally and has no relation at all to Peter Marshall.
From the info in your link, it seems at least Marshall claims there is still a link to the UK magazine.
You will find that Marshall is running Chef Magazine ( which he is by law not entitled) under the banner of his holding company Chef Media, the confusion comes in his old title that Was in fact taken over and is now in fact Chef & Restaurant Magazine.
Just thought I would let you all know that I have today received a letter from Marshall’s receiver in Bankruptcy saying that following further info he’s received that he is not proceeding with releasing him from bankruptcy as things have come to light that might see more chances of raising more funds for creditors.
I am also hopeful that his suspended sentence might be brought into fruition that seems him (Fingers well and Truly X) go down for real.