There is a story this week about a private firm, Empower, offering training courses to allow people to qualify in a variety of areas such as childcare, care of the elderly and more. It highlights the need for a different approach to alleged white collar crimes. On the face of it the firm's directors Stephen Doran and Vivienne Hinton have done a runner with a few hundred thousand euros of students' fees. The same company is being investigated over the authenticity of the certs it issued to its graduates and has received over €1 million in fees from the State training body FETAC. It should be possible to freeze their accounts. Instead they are now out of the country and will have plenty of time to move cash around instead of being forced to pay it back to the people who paid up-front to do courses.
Wednesday, 13 October 2020
EMPOWER pain
There is a story this week about a private firm, Empower, offering training courses to allow people to qualify in a variety of areas such as childcare, care of the elderly and more. It highlights the need for a different approach to alleged white collar crimes. On the face of it the firm's directors Stephen Doran and Vivienne Hinton have done a runner with a few hundred thousand euros of students' fees. The same company is being investigated over the authenticity of the certs it issued to its graduates and has received over €1 million in fees from the State training body FETAC. It should be possible to freeze their accounts. Instead they are now out of the country and will have plenty of time to move cash around instead of being forced to pay it back to the people who paid up-front to do courses.
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Stephan needs 500K AUD to open a training business in Australia. I hope the guards are blocking his visa application from going through there.
ReplyDeleteLets hope the guards are also freezing bank accounts. They need to act fast on this
ReplyDeleteIf this is true why isn't someone investigating this. Where are the liquidators who could move in and sort out the business and if it's not true why don't Stephen and Vivienne come forward and clear their name????
ReplyDeleteHow is it possible for him to open a training company in Australia after what he as done in Ireland? Surely it could not happen??
ReplyDeleteI'd suggest you be careful what you say on this forum. Putting someone that hasn't been arrested, not to mind being charged, with a headline such as 'fraud' and 'con artist' is a little risky to say the least. Saying someone has run away with a large sum of money with no evidence is, to say the least, sensationalist and running to conclusions without knowing the full facts.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the helpful warning 'Anonymous'. Nothing is here is 'sensationalist' nor has anyone 'run' to a conlcusion. The directors of Empower appear to have acted in a fraudulent manner and haven't taken any of the opportunities afforded to them by the media to explain their actions satisfactorily. They have ducked and dived and tried to play the system to avoid their responsibilities. In the meantime people should feel free to comment on the Empower fiasco that has left a lot of people out of pocket and feeling defrauded.
ReplyDeleteFeel free to comment by all means, but everyone knows its a tabloid journalist's job to use colourful language to whip up interest in their story. Suggestive remarks from you is your prerogative but people should know not to believe every suggestion in a paper or a blog for that matter at face value. The fact that you have 'con artists' at the top of the page and have pictures of people that have never been convicted of anything would seem a little OTT to me. Not to mind a court of law, but FETAC haven't concluded anything yet either. So YES i think you are getting ahead of yourself.
ReplyDeleteGood man Stephen. Your understanding of the media and business ethics seem to be on a par.
ReplyDeleteHow can you be convicted of anything if you ran away? I worked for Empower for a short period of time EVERYTHING Eamon has said on here sounds about right...& Stephen Doran knows it!
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ReplyDeleteAnyone wishing to get information on how an ordinary "citizen" can oppose a person's visa entry for Australia can contact us for advice.
ReplyDeletedoes anyone know what part of the world they are in now? i wonder how much money they have spent?
ReplyDeleteWhat I 'd like to know how do I get my 3000 back. I'd say I can forget about it as nobody seems to do anything about this scam in this country
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