How do you do?

I have been around the board for a little while and I am happy to be here you all seem to be a very friendly group of people. I am on my own at the moment and your warmth has been much appreciated.

My husband and I had a business that we had worked so hard for. Due to my ill health I had to retire from my much loved job in the NHS, the busiess was growing and therefore was a 24/7 commitment. Anyone who runs a business for themselves or who ever has knows what headaches that can mean.

We were approached by someone who we thought was a loyal friend, he had helped my husband to run the business on a day to day basis. He said he knew two people who would be interested in buying our business. My husband met with them and was impressed.

My husband was completely taken in by these people and he allowed them access to his computer banking and customers so that they could do what they called due diligence.

We decided that we would go to the Caribbean, I had lived there many years ago and still had family there and after all it is everyones dream to live in the Caribbean and we thought it would help my health.

To cut a long story short the people we sold the business to used our good name and credit worthyness to comit a huge fraud against banks and businesses.

These people just disappeared but of course my husband and I did not disappear as we had done nothing wrong. We thought. For the next three years we have tried to prove that we had nothing to do with this fraud. The banks who were taking us to court had no evidence that we were involved in fact a great deal of the time we were not even in this country.

Of course we returned to 'sort' this matter out. Due to poor advice by barristers my husband admitted that he was reckless in selling the business and not doing enough due diligence on these people.

He was sent to prison and now I am alone and isolated. We live in the country and my neighbours are sheep and cows but at the moment I can only see sheep as the cows are being kept in the warm.

I am trying hard to cope on my own. My husband was my sole carer. His mother is 81 and also needs his care. The thing is we are managing she has lovely neighbours and I have a computer and telephone so that you message board friends and Tesco are just at the other end.

My lovely dog is my friend and confidant at the moment. My story is long but I wanted you all to know that some people who go to prison are actually innocent but the real victims are the people outside waiting.

Re: How do you do?

Hi Cate and welcome it's good to have you with us.

What a terrible story , I learnt a long time ago not to put my trust in others . You are among friends here so never feel alone...xx

Re: How do you do?

Hello,
Welcome to the forum.
My goodness you have been through the mill of late. I am so sorry.
I to run a business with my husband, www.marlinrosettes.com , so can certainly sympathise with the seven day a week and all hours God sends thing.
Sometimes it seems there is no justice in the world and you must feel pretty bleak at the moment.
I do hope time will bring happiness in the end for you and I hope chatting on here will help some.

Re: How do you do?

Thank you Meg and LynX for your warm welcome. I am determined that this business will not make me bitter but I have learned that you cannot trust many people. I have to say there are days when I am afraid just in case things can get any worse. I am almost waiting for that other shoe to fall.

Re: How do you do?

...some years ago a whole series of devastating events took place in my life, I though they would never end and I lost just about everything. That is when I learnt not to put my trust in others .

I also learnt 'what can't be cured must be endured' and that bitterness is pointless and harms the person who is bitter most of all. Once I came to terms with this I began looking for small 'positive' aspects to each day to get by and in doing so I found a kind of peace .

Re: How do you do?

Oh Cate, what an awful thing to have to go through

If your business or you or your husband can't be proved to have benefited from this fraud in any way then why have they put your husband in prison! Have they caught up with the people who you sold the business too? Hopefully your lawyers will be able to track the money back to them!

Have you tried getting in touch with the local press? Maybe the local chamber of commerce? Getting all the support you can will help put pressure on the authorities to do more to get to the truth.

Welcome to Over50sF - hopefully you'll get plenty of moral support here.

Re: How do you do?

Megs : What a fabulous way of looking at things. I know what you mean each day is more positive than the next and you are so right the bitterness would show in my face and I would rather smile than frown.

Azz: You would think that they could trace the money wouldn't you. For ages I thought that we could not be harmed as we had not done anything wrong. The found one of the men but it was the wrong person as this poor chap had had his identity stolen. That is our problem our lawyers never tried to prove we were innocent everyone felt there was no need. We are putting complaints about barristers and solicitors but you know the worst thing is that we will have to go through a proceeds of crime investigation. They will not investigate where this money went only look into our finances to see if we have come by riches through this awful mess. We haven't infact we are the victims here we were never paid for the business and by the time we realised what was going on it was us under investigation. These criminals are still at large you can find them on the internet but it was never a police case and therefore now someone can be blamed they will look no further.

Re: How do you do?

cate, all I can say is you have friends here so whenever you feel the need to offload please do. Where is the justice nowadays? My siblings proved themselves untrustworthy over a family matter. I can never trust them again. I wish there was more you could do cate. Best wishes. chinadoll xx

Re: How do you do?

It took quite a bit of courage to tell you all my story but I think it needs to be told. I am so grateful for your messages. chinadoll, family do let you down and money is usually the root of the evil. At this time I am just waiting for him to come home. This should be in March. I suppose then we will look around to see if there is anything that we can do to clear his name. Until then he is just getting on with it. I am overwhelmed by his strength because there have been some scary times. He knows that I am here supporting him and it is good to know that I have someone out there to help me too.

Re: How do you do?

Hello nice to meet you and hope you enjoy the forum

Sorry to hear about your trauma and hope that things will begin to look up for you..........