Scale Aviation&Military Modeller International cheaters

[Sutt]

I would like to come back to the thread which had been publicated here sooner, and add my experience with SA&MMI -  Scale Aviation & Military Modeller International. Totally bad!
My two articles were published a year ago in issues 613 and 615. First, Mark Willey one of the magazine team promised me several times a payment and printed issues of those magazines but I havent't received anything till now. The previous editor, Jay Laverty, has not responded to my emails at all.  Mr. Willey has gone silent and stopped responding at all in May 2023. Now I tried to contact him via FB but he blocked me.  I tried a new way but seems to me that the new SA&MMI editor based in Australia and contacted by me is either powerless or unwilling to resolve my claims. I tried to buy the printed version magzines myself. Result →
iHobby magazine ( https://www.i-hobby.co.uk/ ) ended up at number 613, they don't answer my emails and they went to bankrupt in November 2023. One does not meet such behavior even in any country of the third world and I would never expect it in the country where the word gentleman had originated.  A magazine with such a tradition does not deserve such shame
Definitely not to cooperate with SA&MMI.

Karel Sutt

 

BTW I am willing to apologize here if the matter changes.

Edited November 20, 2023 by Mike
Removal of obfuscated swearing

[John B (Sc)]

I am sorry to hear that Karel.  Sadly, you are far from the first to find difficulties with this organisation.  They used to produce some fine magazines  years ago, but have fallen into difficulties for various reasons, best not enumerated.  There are quite a few people on this forum who used to work with them; few if any now remain.

 

Regards,

John B

 

 

Edited November 20, 2023 by John B (Sc)

[Jabba]

I think that you will find that Mr Laverty is or was spending his time at one of our HMPs.

[Mike]

Just now, Jabba said:

I think that you will find that Mr Laverty is or was spending his time at one of our HMPs.

His Majesty's Prison, in case Karel is unaware.  He was arrested for a heinous crime and found guilty in a court of law.

 

Please, also remember that you should post only comments that would stand up in a court of law, and refrain from name calling or any comments that could get you in trouble legally.

[Sutt]

Sorry I'm newby, so could you explain abbreviation HMPs?  Thanks

[Jabba]

11 hours ago, Mike said:

His Majesty's Prison.

 

[Warwolf]

Just don't go trying to buy anything off of "MasterCasters_1" on ebay either as that was Laverty's ebay store which you'll never get anything off now. 

Just read the feedback to see what I mean. 

 

Equally, myself an multiple others were all stung back in the days of MAM and SAMI when they were two separate magazines. Lots of money still technically owed, but we've all classed it as a loss and moved on as this was over 2 years ago now. But your experience with Laverty and the Wiley's are echoed by many other modellers. 

Yet somehow they still try to put "magazines", "out" every now and then. 

 

There's much, much more I could say, but I won't and most of it has been said in previous threads on the same topic here on Britmodeller and over on Facebook groups too. It's not too difficult to find. 👍

Edited November 21, 2023 by Warwolf
Spelling error

[Des]

Sadly there is no solution to your problems with the organisation , this situation has been repeating itself for many years and always finishes in a dead end when the operating company which has been printing the magazine titles under licence goes bankrupt only to reappear again under a different name with the same company office bearers as the new licence holder.

 

Despite their Facebook page showing No. 623 being their latest issue as of October I have not seen any new copies in the shops since early this year when production was intermittent before seeming to cease completely when Mr. Laverty departed on his state mandated break from civilisation.

[tempestfan]

On 11/21/2023 at 1:37 PM, Des said:

when the operating company which has been printing the magazine titles under licence goes bankrupt only to reappear again under a different name with the same company office bearers as the new licence holder.

Odd - if essentially the same organisation moves from bankruptcy to bankruptcy to bankruptcy, each time with a new name and Company's House number but the same officers, one would expect a serious enough corporate offence somewhere along the line to have those folks banned from being officer. At least in Germany that would usually happen.

[Des]

Apologies for my layman's repetition of the word bankruptcy from the original post , looking back on some the fate of some of the previous title holders they went into voluntary insolvency.

 

This does not seem to have the same restrictions on individuals as bankruptcy and under UK law does not prevent the formation of what are referred to 'Phoenix Companies' (no connection to and long predating the publisher of the same name) in which nothing much changes but the operating name.      Intended as a positive  protection for traders who by circumstance fail but have little choice about remaining in the same line of business however there are negative implications especially to creditors.

[John B (Sc)]

3 hours ago, tempestfan said:

Odd - if essentially the same organisation moves from bankruptcy to bankruptcy to bankruptcy, each time with a new name and Company's House number but the same officers, one would expect a serious enough corporate offence somewhere along the line to have those folks banned from being officer. At least in Germany that would usually happen.

 

Sadly, our company law seems much weaker. Repeated declarations of insolvency and  the re-appearance of the same directors in a new company carrying on iin the same line of business gets little aattention though it is indeed bad news for creditors.  Even repeated bankruptcies - not the case here incidentally -  get a lot less attention than I'd expect.

 

I suspect the only defence for a prospective creditor is to do a thorough check on Companies House for previous directorships before taking on a new customer.

Our law does very little to protect anyone but company officers, it seems.  Even a Court Order can be avoided by declaring insolvency, something which surprised me. 

 

 

[tempestfan]

3 hours ago, Des said:

Apologies for my layman's repetition of the word bankruptcy from the original post , looking back on some the fate of some of the previous title holders they went into voluntary insolvency.

 

This does not seem to have the same restrictions on individuals as bankruptcy and under UK law does not prevent the formation of what are referred to 'Phoenix Companies' (no connection to and long predating the publisher of the same name) in which nothing much changes but the operating name.      Intended as a positive  protection for traders who by circumstance fail but have little choice about remaining in the same line of business however there are negative implications especially to creditors.

 

28 minutes ago, John B (Sc) said:

 

Sadly, our company law seems much weaker. Repeated declarations of insolvency and  the re-appearance of the same directors in a new company carrying on iin the same line of business gets little aattention though it is indeed bad news for creditors.  Even repeated bankruptcies - not the case here incidentally -  get a lot less attention than I'd expect.

 

I suspect the only defence for a prospective creditor is to do a thorough check on Companies House for previous directorships before taking on a new customer.

Our law does very little to protect anyone but company officers, it seems.  Even a Court Order can be avoided by declaring insolvency, something which surprised me. 

 

 

I guess the "voluntary" largely depends on whether the creditors with due claims litigate and execute, if successful. If they don't - and who will, for 150 GBP or so, in particular if from abroad, which reputedly was the case quite often -, the claims probably will not even have been booked as such or accrued for. Which keeps the balance sheet tidy 🙂 But in case the books were not kept properly, wouldn't that be a case for penalising the company officers?

I have been duped myself way back when when I contributed a number of articles to an obscure and very short-lived publication when at university. The payment for the last article was refused because "all were so bad we had to completely rewrite them." Ahhhh well - he was obviously an expert in Airfix history/numbering systems/(re-)release history, and I sadly was't 😉 I left alone as I had better things to do. I think that chap still organises some classic car conventions. I have a real itch to visit one of them, move up to him and say "Oh Mr V., have you finally got the point of paying your bills?" With as many people around me as possible. I'd really like to see a very red face.

 

[Eric Mc]

On 23/11/2023 at 15:02, tempestfan said:

Odd - if essentially the same organisation moves from bankruptcy to bankruptcy to bankruptcy, each time with a new name and Company's House number but the same officers, one would expect a serious enough corporate offence somewhere along the line to have those folks banned from being officer. At least in Germany that would usually happen.

We have similar laws in the UK. But they are hardly ever enforced. Our regulatory bodies are very lax.