The Observer - 25.08.2019

The Observer

Business 25.08.19 55

‘Even allowing that some

policies were not mis-sold,

billions of pounds still

remain with the banks’

Alliance of Claims Companies

T

hey are the three

queens of PPI, the

owners of giant claims

companies that have

banked hundreds of

millions of pounds

in fees from the PPI saga. But none

of them appears in newspaper rich

lists, and little is known about their

vast fortunes.

Lisa O’Neill, at 39 the youngest of

the PPI multimillionaires, is listed

as the 100% owner of Warrington-

based Gladstone Brookes, which

boasts on its website that it has

recovered more than £1bn for cus-

tomers. The company earns a 20%

cut from every PPI payment (this

used to be more , when fees were

higher), which adds up to a fees

bonanza worth at least £200m.

The second-biggest PPI claims

company is The Claims Guys , which

says it has obtained more than

£900m in payouts for clients since

2009. It is run by Helen Dwyer, 49,
      named at Companies House as

How a trio of claims

executives raked in

millions from clients

Yes Loans grew into one of the

biggest loan brokerages in the UK,

handling 50,000 loans a month,

enjoying a profi t margin of more

than 50% and paying millions of

pounds a year in dividends.

But in March 2012 – after Joy

Chorlton had resigned as director

but wh ile it was under the control of

her son, Simon – the Offi ce of Fair

Trading revoked Yes Loans’s licence

to lend. It said it had engaged in

“deceitful and oppressive business

practices” and was unfi t to hold a

consumer credit licence.

We Fight Any Claim now operates

out of Cradoc House in Bridgend,

Wales, the building that was the

headquarters of Yes Loans in its

heyday. Simon Chorlton was a direc-

tor of We Fight Any Claim for 10

years, but according to Companies

House documents, he resigned

recently, in May 2019. Joy Chorlton

also resigned as a director, in

November 2017. In a statement,

the company said Joy Chorlton has

“nothing to do with the day-to-day

running” of We Fight Any Claim but

remains its 100% shareholder.

Lisa O’Neill’s joint director

at Gladstone Brookes, Anthony

Chorlton (no relation to Simon

Chorlton), also has a colourful past.

He previously worked at Avalon

Solicitors, a fi rm that made huge

profi ts from fees charged to min-

ers seeking compensation from the

government for a range of heart and

respiratory diseases.

In 2006 he was named by The

Lawyer magazine as one of two

equity partners in Avalon Solicitors,

also based in Warrington, which

in 2005-06 earned £21.2m in fees

and made a net profi t of £15.5m – a

margin of 73%. It is understood that

Chorlton’s partner, Andrew Nulty,

took around £13m, while Chorlton

himself earned around £2.5m,

dwarfi ng the earnings of most law-

yers in the UK’s top 100 fi rms that

year.

In 2009, Nulty was struck off

by the Solicitors Disciplinary

Tribunal after it found that he had

taken fees he was not entitled to.

Chorlton was not subject to disci-

plinary action.

Nulty’s brother, Martin, was

named in Companies House docu-

ments as a “person with signifi cant

control” at Churchill Sloan, another

PPI company where Anthony

Chorlton is a director along with,

until recently, O’Neill.

Meanwhile O’Neill has stepped

down as the director and secretary

of Gladstone Brookes, although in

a statement, Gladstone Brookes

said she remained 100% owner

of the company. It added: “We are

proud of the work that we have

done and the fact that our exten-

sive multimedia campaigns have

encouraged people to reclaim their

PPI premiums.”

that had leapt to around 190,000

per week.

The banks have railed against

speculative claims, but on Friday the

Competition and Markets Authority

rebuked RBS and Santander for failing

to send annual reminders to custom-

ers about their PPI policies and their

right to claim.

Even dead people are eligible to

make a PPI claim: solicitors dealing

with probate have been asking the rel-

atives of deceased individuals if they

wish to take action on that person’s

behalf before the deadline. Any pay-

out would then become part of the

dead person’s estate. Meanwhile, the

offi cial receiver is pursuing outstand-

ing compensation payouts in respect

of bankrupt and insolvent individu-

als to ensure creditors receive what

they are owed.

The deadline is aimed at drawing

a line under the scandal in order to

rebuild public trust in fi nancial ser-

vices and reduce uncertainty for banks

and other companies worried about

the open-ended nature of potential

PPI liabilities.

But the claims-management

industry is furious, and believes

many consumers will miss out on

the chance to reclaim what is right-

fully theirs. Last week, the Alliance of

Claims Companies (ACC) trade body

attacked what it said was an “artifi -

cially enforced deadline put in by the

Financial Conduct Authority to pro-

tect the banks”.

It said an estimated £50bn of PPI

policies were sold, and that while

£36bn had been paid out in redress,

around half of that was interest. “Even

allowing for the fact that some PPI

policies were not mis-sold, you can

see that this scandal is nowhere near

over, and billions of pounds remain

with the banks and lenders and not

with consumers,” said the ACC.

Emma Stranack , the lead for the

FCA’s PPI deadline campaign , said

now is the time to act, adding that

it had extended its helpline hours

to 8pm on weeknights and 5pm on

Saturdays: “Ultimately we don’t want

the UK public to miss their chance

to decide.”

Call one of the biggest PPI claims

fi rms – Th e Claims Guys – and its

automated phone system soon

reveals where the next bonanza

in payouts might lie. Press two,

it says, for claims concerning

“packaged bank accounts” , or

t hree for “payday loans”, or press

four if your complaint stems from

an “investment product”.

As the PPI fi nale approaches,

the claims management fi rms

have been trying to fi ll the void and

keep at least some staff employed.

What they’ve been searching for is

systemic mis-selling, which is why

“packaged” accounts could be the

next big thing. Th ese were bank

accounts that off ered “free” travel

or phone insurance, car breakdown

cover, and other “benefi ts” – all for

a £10-£13 monthly fee.

Th e problem for the banks is

that years ago, when these were

being heavily sold in branches,

staff rarely took the trouble to

ask whether those signing up

could actually use the benefi ts, or

already had cover for things like

breakdowns. Someone without

a car or phone, or who rarely

travelled abroad, was clearly

wasting their money paying for

such an account, and may have a

c ase. Th e sums will be smaller than

for PPI, but a claim’s a claim.

Next up is payday loans,

although this looks more diffi cult.

Customers who signed up for

short-term, high-cost loans were

often sold them on the basis that

they would borrow £100 and pay

back £150, when they should

have been told the real annual

percentage rate (APR). Th ose

who took multiple loans may have

signifi cant claims – if the provider is

still around. Wonga blamed a surge

in claims, in part, for its collapse.

Other areas the claims fi rms

have moved into is EU airline delay

compensation, which – depending

on how Brexit works out – may or

may not have a future.

Miles Brignall

What next?

Firms charging fees

to handle PPI claims

enriched their bosses.

By Patrick Collinson

ABOVE
Part of the
FCA’s deadline
reminder ad
campaign,
featuring an
animated Arnold
Schwarzenegger.

RIGHT
Staff at a
Barclays’
PPI claims
processing centre
in Poole, Dorset.
Photograph by
Adrian Sherratt

holding 75% or more of its shares.

Its accounts for the year to June

2018 reveal profi ts of £45m on a

turnover of £115m in 2018, and it

paid dividends totalling £33.9m.

Given Dwyer’s 75% control, that sug-

gests she earned at least £25m in

that year alone.

Joy Chorlton, 64, is the third in the

trio of female PPI multimillionaires.

Her company, We Fight Any Claim,

says it has won £5 00m in payouts

for mis-sold PPI , and is best known

for an advertising campaign fronted

by John Cleese.

Chorlton is listed at Companies

House as the “ultimate controlling

party due to her 100% shareholding

in the company”.

Chorlton heads a family with a

controversial fi nancial past. She was

a director of Yes Loans, a company

founded by her late husband, Keith,

which encouraged customers to

take out expensive short-term pay-

day loans.

ABOVE

John Cleese

appeared in

advertising

for claims-

management

fi rm We Fight

Any Claim.