In This Issue
Alan Roper wins Director of the Year Award
Sales build towards Christmas, last week up 27% on 2019
Former LOFA secretary Phil Gibbs receives prison sentence for fraud
The new revolutionary smokeless fire pit
Trade back to 'normal' after petrol crisis
What a week for plant sales
Dizmezs’ ‘Home of Firewood’ increases production capacity
Poundbury supports memorial garden planting project
From compost bags to Plaswood garden furniture
Dalefoot Composts scoops rural business award
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Notcutts resume redevelopment programme after 2020/21 pause
Small adjustments to Seasonal Worker Pilot Scheme would bring huge benefits to UK horticulture businesses says HTA
Intrepid Explorer sets London Marathon record
Generic promotion of flowers boosts sales
‘Helping Your Community Grow’ winners
Johnsons Seeds updates website in support of retailers
Garden Project Manager – Greenfingers Charity
Plant Area Manager – Full Time – Alternate Weekends – Twickenham
Get your copy of GTN Xtra
Hozelock welcomes new Commercial Director
New normal for garden products is up 7%
Haskins promotes long-standing staff member to Operations Director
A quarter more gardening still growing on
Good weather delays Christmas boom
Scholarship applicants encouraged to outline how they'd use cash to further their horticulture careers
The Newt in Somerset to sponsor RHS Chelsea Flower Show
The best of last week's
Smart, Kaemingk and Allensmore are Choice Marketing Suppliers of the Year
Roger Smalley, Smalley House & Garden Plants, has died
Weber opens new European centre in Poland
It’s a sell out for the 40th annual GIMA Awards
Bestsellers Top 50 charts every week
Buy your subscription to the GTN Bestsellers printed weekly newsletter
All the latest news from the world of pet products
Plant-based dog food firm unleashes carbon balanced packaging
AQUA 2021 New Product Awards revealed
Situations Vacant
Garden Project Manager – Greenfingers Charity
Salary: Negotiable
 
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Former LOFA secretary Phil Gibbs receives prison sentence for fraud
 

On the 14 October 2021 – Phil Gibbs, former LOFA Secretary was given a 27-month custodial sentence for Fraud by abuse of position – fraud act 2006 between 01/08/2013 and 31/12/2018.

 

Read the full story in The News: https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/crime/royal-navy-veteran-jailed-for-siphoning-charity-cash-in-ps117000-waterlooville-business-fraud-3423028 

 

A LOFA statement issued today reads:

 

He had been made redundant in October 2018 as LOFA needed a greater marketing input, and there were some serious concerns and disciplinary actions relating to his poor financial reporting as requested by the previous Chairman Mark Osborne and Pravin Patel.

 

A former Secretary seconded in an interim term discovered suspicious paperwork which then prompted the launch of a full investigation. The board appointed an accountant to conduct a full forensic investigation going back several years and once the Fraud squad were involved there was an enormous amount of work carried out over many months to retrieve the facts and allow the Fraud Squad at Portsmouth to build a solid case. Phil Gibbs was calculating and conniving and had duped a professional company of auditors for over 6 years, there are suspicions his devious activity started even earlier than has been proved.

 

Phil Gibbs mis-appropriated a substantial amount of money from LOFA /SOLEX and even stole money allocated by the Board at LOFA to be donated to various charities, he was arrested in 2019 but still continued to evade the legal system until the overwhelming strength of the case was relayed to him by his council and finally led to him pleading guilty. The sentencing too was delayed by his actions before justice was finally served.

 

Pravin Patel (current Chairman) commented: "We are saddened and appalled that someone in such a position of trust could abuse the people and the organisation that had looked after him so well. We at LOFA have already ensured that the charities who were deprived of vital donations have been sent the funds allocated to them, the long fight to retrieve some of the money stolen from LOFA and SOLEX now begins."

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