Company founder loses multi-million pound business and is made bankrupt after being accused of theft

It was just the sort of start-up company that Wales needs more of - a young entrepreneur with groundbreaking technology gaining significant market interest.

Former Army bomb disposal expert Andy Ling created Lampeter-based vehicle energy storage company Perpetual V2G Systems back in 2013. It grew to count blue-chip companies including BT and Sainsbury among its customers.

The Welsh Government-owned Development Bank of Wales (then known as its predecessor Finance Wales) made a £500,000 debt-to-equity investment and later loaned it £100,000. Perpetual V2G was on track for a £60m valuation.

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However, there was to be no happy ending for the married father-of-three. Mr Ling, now 39, was dismissed in the spring of 2018 following an internal investigation which claimed he had taken £148,000 out of the business without consent.

Six years later, Mr Ling, as the biggest shareholder and chief executive, is only now able to start piecing his life together after being acquitted in court of the theft charges which he found himself facing.

Before his dismissal, Mr Ling said he had rejected a £20m takeover approach from BT Ventures which he thought undervalued the business significantly. Today he is a bankrupt who only has a child’s bank account.

It has been a traumatic six years for the would-be entrepreneur who insists that he only took money that he was legitimately owed for unpaid wages and company expenditure he had financed personally. A report he had compiled by forensic science consultants, Emmerson Associates, backed up his claim that the money he had taken was owed to him. It said that, on one calculation, he was still owed £20,000.

Yet back in 2018, an internal investigation report had accused him of extensively and persistently misappropriating company funds.

He was sacked and his shareholding in the company he founded, then valued at nearly £4m, was redistributed to the other shareholders. The reallocation of 9,000 shares saw the development bank becoming the biggest beneficiary with around a third. For his equity Mr Ling received just £89.84p.

The development bank’s ownership stake in the business rose to just under 40%. Other investors included fellow directors of Perpetual V2G. Just months after his dismissal he had no alternative but to declare himself bankrupt.

Two years later his family home in Lampeter was raided by eight officers from Dyfed Powys Police, and he was charged with company theft. He then lost two jobs after reports of his criminal case appeared in the media. He said he “100%” contemplated taking his own life, given the extreme pressure he and his family were under, and being treated as virtual outcasts by some in the local community.

The protracted criminal case took four years to come to a conclusion. Facing a sentence of more than three years in prison, in February this year he was found not guilty at Swansea Crown Court. The jury took little time in returning its unanimous verdict.

Mr Ling believes that the development bank, which had appointed its own board observer after its £500,000 investment, should have done more to protect an inexperienced company boss rather than allowing him to be driven out of the business.

Where it is a minority shareholder the bank’s own website says: “We do not get involved in the day to day running of the business but will participate at monthly board meetings as board observers and will have consent rights to certain matters to protect our position.”

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Reflecting back on the investment he received from the Development Bank of Wales, Mr Ling, said: “The fact that we had sourced investment from ultimately the Welsh Government was huge for us, especially considering we were based in a small town in West Wales. It was great knowing we had ignited something with the backing of the biggest investor in Cardiff, and we were heading in the right direction. I participated in a number of PR initiatives for the bank and even presented to the Senedd on the future of energy storage in Wales with Mark Drakeford. They were super proud of what they had done (investment)."

Following his dismissal his shares were reallocated amongst other shareholders. Mr Ling said: “They then (development bank) benefitted from my shares being reallocated. They cannot turn around as one of the biggest lending institutions in the country and say ‘we just didn’t really ask’ about my dismissal, which then resulted in them receiving more than 3,000 shares in a start-up business that could have been worth £60m in three years’ time. I would have thought they would have checked how that came about. I don’t think it paints a very good picture for them.”

The development bank were asked to explain why it received a third of the redistributed shares and whether it was a condition of the debt to equity investment or the subsequent £100,000 loan made in 2018. On Mr Ling's dismissal it said it was the company’s decision to remove him as a director and to refer matters to the police.

After Mr Ling was dismissed, Perpetual V2G Systems relocated to Cardiff with a reduced head count. According to Companies House, while not actively trading, it last month changed its registered office address from Cardiff to Cross Keys.

Then in 2020, following an initial complaint from Perpetual, Mr Ling’s home was raided by Dyfed Powys Police. He was subsequently charged with company theft.

Despite serving as a bomb disposal and improvised explosive devices expert in some of the world’s most hostile environments, including Iraq and Kosovo, with the 11 Explosive Disposal and Search Regiment of the Royal Logistic Corps, he said it couldn’t prepare him for the “hell” he and his family endured over last six years.

He recalled: “100% I contemplated taking my own life. It is a horrible thing to have to admit, but the pressure applied to me and my family was intense. In the various theatres of war I have been in I had a weapon and training. And I honestly felt more comfortable there because I was prepared.

“This was the first company, and I tried to make sure we were bulletproof with external accountants and we were only doing investment deals with established government entities (development bank). But then I found myself without the correct level of training and definitely without any weapons to fight this. There have been super difficult times over the last couple of years.”

Regarding the impact on his family, Mr Ling said: “One of my daughters had to move schools because of bullying after the criminal allegations appeared in the press. My wife Dawn, who runs a nursery in Lampeter, experienced a number of instances where parents took their children out because of what had been written about in the media. Join our WhatsApp news community here for the latest breaking news

“There were comments on her Facebook saying things like ‘now we know where the money for the nursery came from’ and things like that. It was terrible.”

On his acquittal, he said: “It is a very strange thing, and I remember saying to my family and people that I knew when all this first happened, ‘take me to court and let me explain things to 12 normal people.’ That is ultimately what happened. There were seven women out of the 12 jurors, and throughout the trial when these guys were getting on the stand, you could see them starting to see what I had gone through. My barrister did a fantastic job in summing up, and the jury saw that I took that business from absolutely nothing to a different level and then my naivety and lack of knowledge around certain aspects about how business was my downfall.

“My barrister told me there wasn’t going to be a suspended sentence. So, it was either three-and-a-half years of my life in jail or the jury had understood what had happened. Thankfully, they understood, in what was a unanimous verdict. I walked around in a daze for days afterwards, and it is something I am still trying to shake off now, to be honest, as you are put in that fight or flight mode.

“The court case itself went on for the best part of four years, and I had all the Perpetual stuff going on for two years before that. To try and shake that feeling off has been difficult.

“The frustrating thing is yes, I have been found not guilty, but I still have £40,000 of legal fees to pay.”

In a statement Perpetual V2G Systems, the company chaired by serial entrepreneur and investor Ashley Cooper, said: "Mr Ling was dismissed by the company for gross misconduct following a thorough investigation and formal disciplinary process. The disciplinary process was carried out in accordance with the company’s policies, which included an appeal process chaired by a director independent of the investigation.

"Post dismissal Mr Ling had the opportunity to take the matter to an employment tribunal. A tribunal would have scrutinised the dismissal process and the reasons for dismissal in a public forum. It was Mr Ling’s decision not to ask an employment tribunal to review the company’s finding of gross misconduct.

"Due to the severity of the findings, the company considered that it had a fiduciary duty to report the matter to the appropriate authorities. Following a police investigation into the circumstances which led to Mr Ling’s dismissal, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) determined that there was sufficient evidence of an offence to warrant a criminal prosecution. The prosecution was instigated by the CPS, not the company.”

In a statement, the Development Bank of Wales said: “Our role is to provide businesses in Wales with the finance they need to start up, strengthen, and grow. We are here to help with commercial loans and equity investment, and as you would expect, these agreements come with terms and conditions that are set out clearly for customers.

“We recognise the extremely challenging time faced by Mr Ling over the last four years; however, these matters were between Mr Ling and the company’s board. The Development Bank of Wales appointed neither advisors nor directors to the board of Perpetual V2G Systems. Our involvement was only ever as a lender and minority shareholder.

“As such, our rights were limited to those agreed with the company within the investment agreement and articles of association. These rights are standard in the industry and are in place to protect the investment, providing a measure of protection for the public funds we invest. It was the company’s decision to remove Mr Ling as a director and to refer matters to the police. The Development Bank was not contacted by the police and was not asked to provide evidence. The issues raised by Mr Ling are therefore a matter of consideration for Perpetual V2G Systems Ltd, not the Development Bank of Wales.”

Asked to clarify whether it had appointed an observer to the board of Perpetual, a development bank spokesperson said: “As part of our investment agreement, the Development Bank can send an observer to board meetings of investee companies. This was the case with regards to Perpetual.”

Mr Ling, whose complaint was rejected by the Development Bank, has six months to refer his rejected complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which he intends to do. He said: “I am also looking at other legal avenues." Mr Ling has also called on the Welsh Government, as the 100% shareholder of the development bank, to commission an independent review into what happened to him.