It was just the type of start-up that Wales needs more of – a young entrepreneur with a pioneering technology gaining significant market traction.
Former army bomb disposal expert Andy Ling formed Lampeter vehicle energy storage company Perpetual V2G Systems in 2013. Its customers have grown to include blue chips including BT and Sainsbury’s.
The Welsh Government-owned Development Bank of Wales (then known as its predecessor Finance Wales) made a debt-to-equity investment of £500,000 and later loaned it £100,000. Perpetual V2C was on track for a £60m valuation.
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However, there was not to be a happy ending for the married father of three. Mr Ling, now 39, was sacked in spring 2018 after an internal investigation alleged he had taken £148,000 from the business without consent.
Six years later, as the largest shareholder and chief executive, Mr Ling can start to put his life back together after being acquitted in court of theft charges he faced.
Before his dismissal, Mr Ling said he had rejected a £20m takeover from BT Ventures, which he believed significantly undervalued the business. Today he is a bankrupt who only has a children’s bank account.
It’s been a traumatic six years for the would-be entrepreneur, who insists he only took money he was rightfully owed, for unpaid wages and company expenses he financed personally. A report compiled by forensic consultants, Emmerson Associates, confirmed his claim that the money he took was owed to him. It said he was still owed £20,000 by one calculation.
Back in 2018, an internal investigative report accused him of extensive and persistent embezzlement of company funds.
He was sacked and his stake in the company he founded, then valued at almost £4m, was redistributed to other shareholders. With the reallocation of 9,000 shares, the development bank became the largest beneficiary with approximately a third. Mr Ling received just £89.84 for his capital.
The ownership share of the development bank in the company increased to almost 40%. Other investors included fellow directors of Perpetual VG2. Only a few months after his release, he had no choice but to declare bankruptcy.
Two years later, his family home in Lampeter was raided by eight officers from Dyfed Powys Police and he was accused of stealing from the company. He lost two jobs after news of his criminal case appeared in the media. He said he “100%” considered taking his own life, given the extreme pressure he and his family were under and were treated as virtual outcasts by some in the local community.
The protracted criminal proceedings took four years to reach a conclusion. Faced with a sentence of more than three years in prison, he was found not guilty at Swansea Crown Court in February this year. It took little time for the jury to return its unanimous verdict.
Mr Ling believes the development bank, which appointed its own board monitor after its £500,000 investment, should have done more to protect the company’s inexperienced boss rather than letting him go out of business.
As for the minority shareholder, the bank’s own website says: “We are not involved in the day-to-day running of the business, but we will attend monthly board meetings as board observers and have the right to consent to certain matters to protect our position. “
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Reflecting on the investment he received from the Development Bank of Wales, Mr Ling said: “The fact that we ended up getting investment from the Welsh Government was huge for us, especially considering we were based in a small town in West Wales . It was great to know that we had sparked something with the support of the biggest investor in Cardiff and we were going in the right direction. I have been involved 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 did (the investment).
After his dismissal, his shares were redistributed to other shareholders. Mr Ling said: “They (the development bank) then benefited from my shares being redistributed. They can’t turn around like one of the biggest lenders in the country and say “we just didn’t really ask” about my dismissal, which then resulted in them getting over 3,000 shares in a start-up that could be worth £60m in three years. I would have thought they would have checked how this happened. I don’t think it paints a very good picture for them.’
The development bank was asked to explain why it received a third of the redistributed shares and whether it was a condition of the debt equity investment or a subsequent £100,000 loan made in 2018. In dismissing Mr Ling, it said it was the company’s decision to remove him from director’s position and hand over the matter to the police.
After Mr Ling was made redundant, Perpetual V2G Systems moved to Cardiff with reduced staff. Although not actively trading, it changed its registered address from Cardiff to Cross Keys last month, according to Companies House.
Then in 2020, following an initial complaint from Perpetual, Dyfed Powys Police raided Mr Ling’s home. He was subsequently accused of stealing from the company.
Despite serving as a bomb disposal and improvised explosive device expert in some of the world’s most hostile environments, including Iraq and Kosovo, with 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment and the Royal Logistic Corps’ search and rescue unit, he said it could not prepare him for the “hell” he and his the family has endured for the past six years.
He recalled: “I was 100% thinking about taking my own life. It’s a terrible thing to admit, but the pressure on me and my family was intense. In the various theaters of war I have been in, I have had a weapon and training. And I honestly felt more comfortable there because I was prepared.
“It was the first company and I tried to make sure that we were bulletproof against external accountants and that we only entered into investment contracts with established government entities (development bank). But then I found myself without the right level of training and certainly without any weapons to fight it. It’s been super tough times over the last couple of years.”
On the impact on his family, Mr Ling said: “One of my daughters had to move out of school because of bullying after the criminal allegations appeared in the press. My wife Dawn, who runs a nursery in Lampeter, has seen a number of cases where parents have taken their children out because of what was reported in the media. Join our WhatsApp news community here and get the latest news
“There were comments on her Facebook saying things like ‘now we know where the nursery money came from’ and stuff like that. It was terrible.”
At the acquittal, he said: “It’s a very strange thing and I remember telling my family and people that I knew when it all first happened, ‘put me on trial and let me explain things to 12 normal people’.” That eventually happened. Of the 12 jurors, seven were women, and during the trial, when these guys took the stand, you could tell they were starting to see what I had been through. My attorney did a fantastic job summarizing and the jury saw that I took this business from nothing to another level and then my naivety and lack of knowledge about certain aspects of how the business was run was my downfall.
“My attorney told me there will be no suspended sentence. So it was either three and a half years of my life in prison or the jury understood what happened. Fortunately, they understood what the unanimous verdict was. I walked around in a daze for days afterwards and it’s something I’m still trying to shake to be honest when you’re put into fight or flight mode.
“The trial itself lasted almost four years, and before that I had all the Perpetual stuff for two years. It was hard to try to shake the feeling.
“The frustrating thing is, yes, I was found not guilty, but I still have to pay £40,000 in legal fees.
Perpetual V2G Systems, chaired by serial entrepreneur and investor Ashley Cooper, said in a statement: “Mr. Ling was dismissed by the company for gross misconduct following a thorough investigation and formal disciplinary process. The disciplinary process was conducted in accordance with company policy, which included an appeals process, which was chaired by an independent director of investigations.
“Following his dismissal, Mr Ling had the opportunity to apply to an employment tribunal. The tribunal would review the dismissal process and the reasons for the dismissal in a public forum. It was Mr Ling’s decision not to ask the employment tribunal to review the finding of gross misconduct.
“Given the seriousness of the findings, the company believed it had a fiduciary duty to report the matter to the appropriate authorities. Following a police investigation into the circumstances leading to Mr Ling’s dismissal, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided there was sufficient evidence of a criminal offense to warrant prosecution .The prosecution was brought 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, strengthen and grow. We’re here to help you with commercial loans and equity investments, and as you’d expect, these deals come with terms and conditions that are clearly set out for customers.
“We recognize the extremely challenging period that Mr. Ling has faced over the past four years; however, these matters were between Mr. Ling and the company’s board of directors. The Development Bank of Wales has not appointed advisers or directors to the board of Perpetual V2G Systems. Our involvement has always been only as a creditor and minority shareholder.
“As such, our rights were limited to those agreed with the company in the investment agreement and articles of association. These rights are industry standard and serve to protect investments and provide some degree of protection to the public funds we invest. The company decided to remove Mr. Ling as a director and refer the matter 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 for Perpetual V2G Systems Ltd, not the Development Bank of Wales.’
Asked if it had appointed observers to Perpetual’s board, a spokesperson for the development bank said: “As part of our investment agreement, the Development Bank can send observers to board meetings of investee companies. That was the case with Perpetual.”
Mr Ling, whose complaint was rejected by the Development Bank, has six months to take his rejected complaint to the Financial Ombudsman, which he intends to do. He said: “I am also looking at other legal avenues.” Mr Ling also called on the Welsh Government, as a 100% shareholder in the development bank, to commission an independent review of what happened to him.