Fallen Singh is still calling the tune

Simon Watkins|Mail13 April 2012

THE bizarre business dealings of Reuben Singh, Britain's ' youngest self-made millionaire' at 21, are revealed today after an investigation by the Financial Mail on Sunday.

This month Singh's main company was driven into administration. But in an extraordinary twist, it turns out that Singh's parents promptly bought their son's business from the administrators in a careful manoeuvre to keep the company in the family while escaping other creditors.

The slide into administration comes just five months after Singh was invited to Buckingham Palace for a party to celebrate Pioneers to the Nation.

At 25, he was also lauded as Entrepreneur of the Year in 2002, championed by Labour, and appeared in a series of rich lists.

But as Financial Mail reported in December 2002, Singh was a charlatan. For instance, he shot to prominence with the claim that he had sold his Miss Attitude fashion chain for £55m. It was later established that he had received just £1 for the struggling business.

And it seemed that Singh still had not found the magic touch when his secretary service, AlldayPA, was put into administration. Our investigations reveal that AlldayPA was sold to a company, ADP Call Centres, owned by Singh's parents, Sarabjeet and Jasbir.

Companies House records show that until two months ago, Reuben Singh was the sole owner of ADP Call Centres and he remained chairman until just two weeks ago. The records also show a series of steps over the past four months that led to the takeover of his business by his family:

3 November, 2003: AlldayPA filed its long-overdue accounts showing losses of £115,000 and debts of £2m. Its auditors complained they could not tell if proper accounts had been kept and that £2.6m had been paid out by Reuben Singh without any independent record or confirmation of where the money went.

7 November: AlldayPA issued a debenture - an acknowledgement of debt - to Mr and Mrs Singh giving them a claim over an undetermined amount of money from the company.

21 January, 2004: A separate company owned by Reuben Singh, ADP Call Centres, held an extraordinary general meeting of all members, that is, the sole shareholder Reuben Singh, at which it was decided to increase the capital of the company by issuing more shares.

22 January - 11 February, 2004: AlldayPA allocated 9,900 new shares. Of these, 7,900 are given to Sarabjeet and Jasbir Singh, while 2,000 are granted to GNDJ Venture Capital Fund of Ontario, Canada, owned by the Singh family.

3 March: Administrators are called in to AlldayPA after it is unable to pay money owed to Mr and Mrs Singh under their debenture.

5 March: Reuben Singh steps down as chairman of ADP Call Centres. Soon after, ADP Call Centres buys AlldayPA from the administrators.

18 March: AlldayPA's name is changed to Newton 1884.

Reuben Singh insisted to Financial Mail: 'There are very few trade creditors and the majority of the trade creditors have been taken on by ADP.'

He also confirmed that HBoS bank was owed money along with some other financial institutions. He added: 'I am owed £2.5m and there is substantial money owing to the Singh family.'

But bizarrely, Singh, 27, went on to claim that his business was 'growing fast'. He said: 'I would strongly deny that AlldayPA has not been a success.'

He added that the company had gone into administration 'as the best option to take the business forward. No one can deny this is a fast-growing company.'

AlldayPA was set up to offer small companies a secretarial service by phone and the internet. Within a year of the company being set up, Singh's spokeswoman was claiming the company was worth £100m.

Despite these latest byzantine manoeuvres and reports that Singh was being replaced in his management role, he said: 'I am fully involved and I have management control.'

It is not known how many other creditors have been left unpaid by AlldayPA. Singh himself has been quoted as saying that, apart from banks, other creditors were owed 'within the region of £50,000' - a figure he described as 'negligible'.

The flurry of activity by the Singh family to rescue their son from his creditors is sure to bring down the curtain on Reuben's reputation as a whizz-kid.

And it provides an insight into the extent to which he has been backed and advised by a family that was already well versed in business.

Singh's family live in the affluent Cheshire village of Poynton. Outside stand luxury cars, including a maroon Rolls-Royce.

Reuben himself has said his father Sarabjeet was extremely wealthy before Reuben went into business. Sarabjeet was born in Canada and it is understood the family continues to keep some of its business interests there.

Those taken in by the Reuben Singh myth included the highest levels of the Labour Government. Stephen Byers, while Secretary for Trade and Industry, appointed Singh to the Competitiveness Council, a board set up to advise how to make British business more competitive.

Singh sat alongside luminaries including the bosses of BT, BP, British Aerospace and IBM. His inclusion was perhaps an ill-omen - the council was defunct with 18 months of being set up.

Singh was also appointed to the Small Business Council in 2000 by Patricia Hewitt, then Minister for Small Business and e-commerce and now herself Secretary for Trade and Industry.

A spokesman said Singh had not sat on the council for 'at least two years'.

Given the latest turn of events it seems unlikely that Reuben Singh will be joining any Government committees - or visiting Buckingham Palace again for tea with the Queen.

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