Business Link sued over blacklisted
adviser
An entrepreneur is suing the Governmentís business
advice network
after advice given to her by a blacklisted director allegedly
sent
her company to the wall.
Madi Sharma is pursuing Business Link in Nottinghamshire for
more
than £200,000 for losses sustained by her and her creditors
when her
company, Original Eastern Foods, became insolvent in December
last
year. After the firm went bust on December 4, 2002, she discovered
that the adviser she had been appointed by the service was a
disqualified director.
She alleges that the poor advice he gave her sent her company,
previously one of Britainís biggest provider of Indian
snacks, to the
wall. Ms Sharma has informed Business Link about her concerns
and has instructed her lawyers, Gateley Wareing, to pursue her
claim. The
Department of Trade and Industry is also investigating the case.
"I had run a successful company for nine years when this
man came in supposedly to help me. I had no reason to doubt his
advice," she
said.
Ms Sharma's business, which she launched from her kitchen
in 1994,
was based in a regeneration area of Nottinghamshire. She employed
only the long-term unemployed. She alleges that the adviser told
her that he had secured funding for the company from three investors.
At the 11th hour, she claims, it transpired the financiers did
not exist and the company went rapidly downhill after that.
Business Link Nottinghamshire confirmed that the director
was
disqualified at the time he worked with Ms Sharma. A spokesman
said: "Advisers are asked to declare any disqualifications
when they
join us but the man did not. We did review our processes immediately
after we found out and it could not happen again."
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