E11 BID co.

Dear friend,
As you will have seen there has been a lot of recent coverage in the local press about the problems facing the E11BID co.
I wanted to write to you to give you the background information behind the headlines.
The E11BID Co was set up in 2008 to support local businesses within Leytonstone. Businesses paid a contribution based on their rateable value - this amounted to around £55K in total.
This money was to be spent in a very specific area of Leytonstone to promote and improve the shopping district for the local community.
Unfortunately we have seen little improvements in our shopping district, for example the website has done little or nothing to promote businesses and initiatives such as the One Stop Shop have been completely ineffective.
Because of the lack of achievement I was asked by some of the business community to get involved, and put myself forward as a director in May 2010. After some unexplained delays I was finally accepted as a full voting member in May 2011.
Since then I have been actively seeking to understand the financial status of the company and have uncovered some serious financial issues from earlier days which are having an increasingly detrimental effect on the E11BID and therefore Leytonstone town centre.
Some issues highlighted by the auditors include:
 Income tax and national insurance being deducted from employees’ wages but not being paid over to HMRC
 The Managing Director as sole cheque signatory and able to authorise electronic payments on their own
 Accounting records were not kept in an orderly or logical manner
 Penalties and County Court Judgements were incurred and not reported to the board
 Accounts not kept up to date and filed late at Companies House again incurring penalties.
 Cash payments of at least £18,000 made but could not be reconciled due to the lack of a petty cash book
In my attempts to uncover and resolve these matters I have constantly been blocked by the managing director of the E11BID, Mr Fawaad Sheikh who has now taken the extraordinary step of unlawfully removing me as a director on his own responsibility and without the support or prior knowledge of the rest of the board. Several of the other Directors have now resigned in protest at his conduct.
Police fraud investigators have now launched a probe into the company following a complaint.
As well as the financial problems there are also issues around the delivery of ‘projects’ with no evaluation of the impact of the various projects so no way of knowing if they have helped the area.
The problems I refer to all occurred BEFORE I became a Director. As soon as I became aware that all was not well – which was shortly after I was admitted as a full voting board member - I informed other Directors including members of the local authority of my concerns. In my short time on the board I have worked hard both to resolve the problems and to uncover the truth of what has gone on.
If you want to know more please get in touch.
Shah Ahmed
shah@starofindiauk.com