Thank you Cybus for bringing this to my attention. I was not aware of the post.
I challenged the IVA Council's letter to my clients (which I assumed had been sent to all of them and not just a handful, but was only actually send to 8 in total). Fortunately a couple of my clients rang me to advise me that the letter had been sent, and I took the matter up with the Council directly. You will see that there is a string of correspondence on that web-site with regard to my efforts to extract the client list and a letter of retraction. At long last I am very grateful to have received a gracious reply from Malcolm Brown, which will be circulated to those people whose privacy was taken advantage of by such inappropriate correspondence.
When I first became aware of this firm's activities, at the time that they were using letterhead and typeface very similar to that used by the Insolvency Service, after several attempts I did manage to make contact with their representative to discuss the nature of their business.
I am open-minded, and believe that there is room for all opinions to be aired within our profession, however I did not agree with the way this the Insolvency Register was deliberately used to fire-shot their message. My views also extend to other organisations who use the Register for such purposes.
Over the last couple of months I have been watching the Council's own forum with some interest, but have decided not to make further contributions as I am concerned about the nature and tone of some of the postings - particularly of those who are professionals and purport to be supportive of the Council.
I would stress that this is purely a professional and personal opinion, but would suggest that if anyone does seriously feel that they have been provided with inappropriate advice, that they take this up with the firm concerned or the IP's regulatory body.
Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner
