BBC's Panorama exposes abuse at UK hospital owned by Irish investors

[PaddyJoe]

FOUR HOSPITAL staff working in an English hospital owned by prominent Irish investors, Denis Brosnan, JP McManus, Dermot Desmond and John Magnier, have been arrested, following allegations of abuse against patients.
The charges were levelled by BBC Panorama’s programme, which spent months investigating the Winterbourne View hospital in Bristol, after it was approached by a whistle-blower whose earlier attempts to raise the alarm were not heeded.
Winterbourne is part of the Castlebeck Group, which was bought in 2006 for £255 million by the Swiss-based Lydian Capital Partners, which was set up by Mr Brosnan as a private investment company after he left Kerry Group.
He was joined as investors in Lydian by Mr McManus, Mr Desmond and Mr Magnier, along with other equally wealthy, but so far unidentified individuals. Lydian later bought out the successful Chrysalis radio group. Broadcast on Tuesday, the Panorama programme showed film recorded by an undercover reporter where a nurse goaded a patient about suicide, and subjected others to cold showers. In another clip, a patient was pinned to the floor by a chair.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...298260361.html

[PaddyJoe]

This story gets a lot of coverage in the Guardian as well:

Meanwhile, No 10 has demanded a full report following the disclosure by the BBC Panorama programme of systematic abuse at a unit for people with learning disabilities near Bristol run by the Castlebeck company, a firm ultimately owned by Irish tycoons JP McManus, John Magnier and Dermot Desmond.
The Department of Health had been insisting behind the scenes that it was an issue purely for the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the care sector regulator, and the local authorities and NHS primary care trusts that paid the £3,500-a-week fees for the young adults they referred there.
But the health department found itself obliged to step in. No 10 has asked for a detailed account of what the various agencies knew and did about the regime at the unit. The CQC, which failed to follow up tip-offs from a whistleblower who then contacted Panorama, has admitted its mistakes were "unforgivable".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/20...ministers-move

[Munnkeyman]

I saw the program on Tuesday. Disgusting, sick and depraved people.
Literally made me feel sick.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yuPvUHsx1Y"]YouTube - ‪Panorama BBC Undercover Care (31/5/2011) Part 1‬‏[/ame]

[Holly]

Greedy investors are motivated by one thing only. It is called the free market which enjoys political patronage in both England and Ireland.

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

Yeah but they do a lot of work for charidee.... they'll be immune to any consequences because it'll be a limited company which is in turn owned by a subsidiary which is registered outside the UK no doubt.

Think those overindulged moneywhores give a tuppeny ***** how the places are run?

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

'along with other equally wealthy, but so far unidentified individuals'

Ho hum. Wonder which Fianna Failers will tumble out of this corner?

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

Swiss-based Lydian Capital Partners ..

'Lydian Capital Advisors is the exclusive investment advisor to
Lydian Capital Partners LP, an independent private equity fund investing in the
Health & Care, Consumer Products, Leisure and Education sectors.

Lydian Capital Advisors S.A.

Rue du Rhône 63
CH-1204 Geneva
Switzerland
Tel. +41 (0) 22 718 70 00
Fax. +41 (0)22 718 70 01
firstname.lastname@lydiancapitaladv.com'

http://www.lydiancapitaladv.com/


'The sale of Castlebeck, which specialises in providing rehabilitation services to those with learning disabilities and challenging behaviour, is HgCapital’s fifth deal in the healthcare sector in the past 18 months. Castlebeck is to be acquired by Lydian Capital Partners, a Swiss-based private equity firm, backed by the Irish billionaires. Lydian is thought to have beaten competing bids from Cinven, Electra Partners and ABN Amro Capital.

The Irish trio are also investors in Barchester Healthcare, Britain’s fourth-biggest care home operator, which is associated with Lydian Capital Partners. At the end of last month, Barchester went through a £1 billion refinancing backed by Royal Bank of Scotland. The refinancing paid out a £125 million dividend to the three Irishmen, whose investments include the Sandy Lane resort in Barbados.

The sale of Castlebeck is the latest in a raft of deals in the sector. Earlier this week, BC Partners together with AXA, bought Medica, the French nursing home company, from Bridgepoint in a €750 million (£520 million) deal.

Lindsay Dibden, a partner at HgCapital, said: “Castlebeck demonstrates what is possible when you consolidate ten years of sector knowledge with a culture of hard work.”

Castlebeck was bought off 3i, the venture capital company, four years ago. HgCapital’s original investment totalled £20 million. Since then, £30 million has been invested in new hospital facilities and the management team has recruited a team of 15 psychiatrists and psychologists. HgCapital is thought to have made £175 million on the sale compared with its original investment. The sale follows the recent £322 million acquisition of Paragon Healthcare by HgCapital.

In the past six months, half a dozen healthcare companies have changed hands or have opted to list their shares on the London stock market. Private equity firms favour healthcare companies because they are seen as a safe sector to invest in, and many of the assets are backed by property.' http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...icle683525.ece


You have to wonder whether these people EVER do any business that isn't run out low regulatory zones and tax havens;

'About Lydian Capital: Lydian Capital Partners is a Limited Partnership based in Jersey in the Channel Islands. Lydian Capital Advisors, based in Geneva, Switzerland is the exclusive investment advisor to its Jersey-based General Partner. Lydian invests in businesses that will achieve superior long-term capital growth. Lydian does this by acquiring companies in partnership with management and arranging and leading buy-outs or providing further financial resources to help established companies grow. Lydian has extensive experience in managing and investing in companies in the healthcare, consumer products and leisure sectors, and those areas are of particular interest. To learn more about Lydian Capital Advisors visit their web site at www.lydiancapitaladv.com

[Andrew49]

You'd think that with the 'client-base' of this establishment that the training of staff would me one of the most important things:

Inspection Report 2009/2010

Winterbourne View - Vantage Office Park, Old Gloucester Road, Hambrook, Bristol. BS16 1RS

Findings: There is no clear record of staff training in place and it is not clear when training has been completed or when update training is due.

Source

Gosh! Considering the big big names involved in this .. enterprise... there must be big big financial rewards available for those who invest in "... services for people with a mental illness or mental impairment"

[Slim Buddha]

Swiss-based Lydian Capital Partners ..

'Lydian Capital Advisors is the exclusive investment advisor to
Lydian Capital Partners LP, an independent private equity fund investing in the
Health & Care, Consumer Products, Leisure and Education sectors.

Lydian Capital Advisors S.A.

Rue du Rhône 63
CH-1204 Geneva
Switzerland
Tel. +41 (0) 22 718 70 00
Fax. +41 (0)22 718 70 01
firstname.lastname@lydiancapitaladv.com'

http://www.lydiancapitaladv.com/


[/url]

McManus' foreign exchange operation is, strangely enough, also based on Rue de Rhone in Geneva.

[PaddyJoe]

The late lamented Sunday Tribune here on the rewards to be reaped from a spot of private health care:
August 2010

JOHN Magnier, JP McManus and Dermot Desmond have shared the spoils of a £117m (€142m) dividend from Barchester, the UK-based nursing home company they co-own.


Magnier, the owner of the Coolmore stud farms, owns about 20% of the shares in Barchester through his investment company Acomita. Based on 47 million Barchester shares in issue he would have received about €28m from the dividend payout.


McManus, the legendary gambler and racehorse owner, also has a stake in the company. According to filings Desmond's Bottin's investments owns about 2% of Barchester. John Bateson, finance director at Desmond's International Investment & Underwriting, is also a Barchester shareholder.

As many of the shares in Barchester are held through nominee companies, some based in the British Virgin Islands, the exact shareholdings of some of its investors aren't known.


Denis Brosnan, the company's chairman and a long-time associate of the Coolmore supremo, owns about 5% of Barchester. Several members of the former Kerry Group chief executive's family are listed as investors in the company.


Barchester has become the UK's fourth-largest nursing home group since its establishment in the 1990s by Englishman Mike Parsons. The growth has mainly come through acquisitions and Barchester now has 11,000 beds in 176 nursing homes across the UK. The company expanded into the Irish healthcare market a few years ago.

http://www.tribune.ie/business/news/...reap-millions/

[Andrew49]

Three members of staff from a care home near Bristol have pleaded guilty to the ill treatment of residents. The case follows secret filming by the BBC's Panorama TV programme at the Castlebeck-owned Winterbourne View hospital near Hambrook. Wayne Rogers, 31, of Kingswood, pleaded guilty to nine charges. Allison Dove, 24, of Kingswood, pleaded guilty to seven charges at Bristol Crown Court. Source

[PaddyJoe]

Looks like a shake up at Barchester as Denis Brosnan steps down

FORMER KERRY group chief executive Denis Brosnan has stepped down as chairman of healthcare company Barchester.

Filings for Barchester Healthcare show that Mr Brosnan, who is also an investor in the company, has been replaced by Baroness Margaret Ford.

Former EU commissioner Charlie McCreevy was appointed to the Barchester board late last year. As well as serving on the board of Ryanair, Mr McCreevy is a director of WorldSpreads, the spreadbetting company which collapsed last month in the UK.

Other Irish board members of Barchester include John Bateson, finance director at Dermot Desmond’s IIU, Prof John Hegarty and Edward Irwin, finance director of Coolmore Stud.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...314568400.html

[C. Flower]

Looks like a shake up at Barchester as Denis Brosnan steps down


http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...314568400.html

Edward Irwin, finance director of Coolmore Stud.

They shoot horses, don't they ?

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

A lot of money seems to have been made by various characters in 'foreign exchange' trading in the last couple of decades. It isn't travellers cheques the billions were made from I'm pretty certain.

There is a Swiss guy who paid some bizarre amount for an estate in Buckinghamshire who is also a chap who made a lot out of 'currency trading'- his wife who is a former Aussie beauty queen or something is godmother to one of the Princes in the English royal family. Came from pretty much nowhere ten or fifteen years back. The estate he bought is one of the real prize estates and of course he bought it through an offshore company in the Caymans.

Very unlikely to be a major taxpayer in the UK but he and his wife are being feted around on the fringes of royal circles in the UK these days.

I've often seen various big name Irish tax exiles referred to as 'foreign exchange' billionaires and I know of one other chap who sold out of the exchange bureaux business who is a tax exile in Monaco now.

I've always wanted to take a closer look at that business because it seemed to make a group of gamblers very rich very quickly a few years back- so much wealth in fact that I suspect there is more to it than making commissioon off travellers cheques or changing currencies for tourists.

One thing they all have in common is frequent use of tax havens and places like the Caymans and Switzerland- all places where private wealth funds are registered in order to preserve confidentiality around who the shareholders are.

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

It would be utterly pointless expecting the financial media to take a closer look at how exactly certain people became extremely rich from currency transactions so quickly- the Irish media would be told to eff off out of it very quickly considering who the owners of the Irish print media are and bearing in mind these foreign exchange billionaires and tax exiles can stroll in and out of Minister's offices at will I wouldn't hold my breath on any investigations by RTE or the like into how exactly the billions were made.

Smells funny though. The usual, I suppose, arcane movements of large sums of money in and out of private wealth funds, derivatives and currency transactions and all offshore beyond the scrutiny of national regulators- or those few countries who have financial regulators worth a damn.

There is a dark economy on the international scene and I suspect it is bigger than most national official economies and it operates out of sight of the law which is one reason I suspect why the Americans are so interested in it nowadays with their sponsorship of 'white lists' for banks and demands for access to the international SWIFT money transfer system- which a number of tax havens are distinctly shifty about allowing oversight to US authorities on.

This is one reason why the Vatican Bank got bounced a year or two back and their St Cashier of the Holy Funny Money was arrested and questioned by Italian regulators.