Buccament Bay Resort operation was ‘Quite Chaotic’ former employee tells court

"by" Lee Yan LaSur

A former employee of HMSSE, owners of Buccament Bay Resort, told a Southwark crown court that the operations at the resort were troubling.

According to the FTAADVISER, Slade told the court that during the early years of resort development, the ICE Group, which had managed construction, had been pulled off the site.

“When we arrived at the site, there wasn’t much activity. It was a very messy construction site.”.

Surveyors’ reports on the construction were quite damning. The surveyor’s report’s value was eye-wateringly low, Slade said.

“A lot of waste and poor management were to blame, as well as poor construction and remedial issues on the site. The surveyor’s report was quite damning.”

In response to his request for a copy of the contract between contractors and developers, Slade said he was handed a two-page document listing the types of buildings to be constructed.

“They didn’t specify how they would build or the costs. It wasn’t a construction contract.”

A deposit of 30 percent had already been paid on a variety of ‘units’ or apartments in the Caribbean.

Many investors might not be able to afford the remaining 70%, so mortgages would have to be made available to them, Slade said.

Slade said there were no mortgage facilities available at HMSSE, despite the company advertising them to investors.

In his testimony, he told the court: “Mortgages were very much going to be necessary for a lot of investors to fund their investments.”

“Normally, 70% would be paid in stage payments related to the building of the property”.

“Ames intended to wrap everything up as a mortgage at the end.”

Despite being a qualified accountant, Slade said his role at HMSSE was to raise finance.

“Dave [David Ames] was fairly insistent it wasn’t an accountant role. I didn’t run HMSSE’s finances.”

According to Slade, Ames appeared to exert a high degree of control over the company, despite not being a director.

“As I understand it, Daniel Ames [a company director] was responsible for managing transactions, transferring money, etc., but it was always under Dave’s direction”.

“There was no money leaving the accounts unless Dave instructed it to do so. Dave was responsible for the fundamental direction and decision-making.”

Ames’ bookkeeper, Sarah Tricker, was also understood by Slade to be a close friend or relative. According to him, she acted as a ‘gatekeeper’ who prevented employees from getting the information they needed.

“It was a ‘silo’ management style. Every individual was told what they needed to know to do their jobs”.

The court heard that Ames was ‘furious’ with Slade after he shared company information with his colleagues.

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