Justice For Families

Statement 12: Report and update on Brian Ashworth and The Orchard Centre, February 2008

Today we publish our latest report and update on the activities of Mr Brian Ashworth of The Orchard Centre, Bilston, West Midlands. Read the full report and update here: http://meagenda.wordpress.com/the-orcha ... uary-2008/

Since 1994, Brian and Jeanie Ashworth have operated in the area of representation for benefits and benefits appeals, largely for the ME and CFS patient community. Mr Ashworth also involves himself in casework relating to education issues, child protection and MSBP casework and in other cases where there has been involvement of social services with families. Mr Ashworth is also known to undertake immigration casework and work of a general legal nature; he also describes himself as a "private health practitioner", a "complementary health practitioner" and a "trained counsellor".

Some of Mr Ashworth's clients have placed their advocacy and representation work with him on the understanding that he is a "lawyer" but Mr Ashworth is not a solicitor, a barrister or any form of legal executive. Since 2006, Mr Ashworth has also operated under the name of B & J Legal Services.*

Over the past three years, we have been gathering information about the activities of The Orchard Centre. We have identified significant concerns surrounding Mr Ashworth's modus operandi and the standard of service he provides to his clients.


How can you help us?

To assist in taking things forward, we need to hear from anyone who has an outstanding case with Mr Ashworth in any field of advocacy and representation work - immigration, applications for benefits, benefit appeals and tribunals, housing, social services, educational, MSBP, Family Courts, matrimonial and general legal work and particularly, cases taken on since 2005 onwards.

We need to hear from those who have not been charged by Mr Ashworth for his services as well as from those who have paid money to him, however nominal, or have made "donations" or contributions towards his admin, travel or general expenses.

We need to hear from anyone who has been approached by Mr Ashworth seeking donations towards specific clients' legal costs or for him to take up their case or for specific ventures such as "research projects" or for the running of The Orchard Centre, generally, whether as a client or otherwise.

We also need to hear from you if your casework has been concluded but you weren't happy with the way in which your casework was being carried out, either at the time or subsequently, or if you consider you experienced misrepresentation by Mr Ashworth relating to the progress of your case or the outcome of a benefits appeal. We would also like to hear from you if you consider that Mr Ashworth has misrepresented his academic or professional qualifications to you or if you had been told that your case was part of a "class action".

We need to hear from you if you have letters, paperwork, "Form of Authority" documents or electronic documents where Mr Ashworth has used the letters "LLB" after his name or if you had placed your representation work in Mr Ashworth's hands on the understanding that he was a lawyer or a barrister, or a retired barrister or some kind of legal professional or if Mr Ashworth had been referred to you by others on that basis.

We also need to hear from anyone who has been given to understand that Mr Ashworth was a "trained counsellor", a "complementary health practitioner", or if he has "diagnosed" or "confirmed" medical or psychological illnesses or conditions using questionnaires or carried out "neurological tests" or carried out complementary health care treatments or consultations. Or if he has recommended or arranged for medical tests to be carried out by private laboratories and subsequently recommended treatments on the basis of his interpretation of the results of private or NHS tests or if he has advised or sought to advise your medical practitioner or your child's medical practitioner on medical issues or on medications.*

We would also like to hear from you if Mr Ashworth has sold you vitamins, minerals and other food supplements or complimentary health care products, and the claims he made for the efficacy of these products and if your experiences of his services were satisfactory or not.

*Neither Mr nor Mrs Ashworth are medical practitioners and they are not qualified to make or confirm medical diagnoses or produce medical assessments for their clients or for the agencies involved in their cases.


Read the full report and update here http://meagenda.wordpress.com/the-orcha ... uary-2008/


Part One
Bilston Resource Centre
Complaint to the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner
"Law degrees" and the continued use of "LLB"
New cases brought to our attention over the past year

Part Two
"Class actions" and "the barrister in London"
The finance of class actions
Evidence of gross misrepresentation
Contact details for Trading Standards

Part Three
Contacting organisations who have referred on to Mr Ashworth
Regional ME/CFS support organisations
Leger M.E.
National ME/CFS patient organisations
Local issues
Change of contact details for The Orchard Centre
Contact details for Suzy Chapman & Ciaran Farrell


How to contact:

If you would like to discuss any of the issues raised in our statements or discuss your own experiences or if have any information which may assist us please contact us, in confidence:

Suzy Chapman & Ciaran Farrell

Email: suzy.chapman@virgin.net

or telephone:

Ciaran Farrell
ciaran@jfarrell58.freeserve.co.uk
Tel/FAX: 0207 485 3404
28 Headcorn, 25 Malden Road, Kentish Town, London, NW5 3HZ


Contact Suzy Chapman if you would like a PDF version of Statement 12.
For further information and copies of our previous statements click here http://meagenda.wordpress.com/the-orchard-centre/

*Mr Ashworth and his wife, Jeanie Ashworth, have used a variety of Trading As names for their operation, none of which are registered companies, registered charities, registered charitable organisations or any form of voluntary organisation.

The Orchard M.E. Centre
The Orchard M.E. Centre Benefits, Pensions and Appeals Service
The Orchard M.E. Centre Benefits & Appeals Service
The Orchard M.E. Centre Benefits & Appeals Advice
The Orchard Centre
The Orchard Centre Advocacy
The Orchard Centre for Fatigue Illnesses
The Orchard Centre for Fatigue Illnesses Benefits and appeals advice
The Orchard Fatigue Centre
The Orchard Centre Study of Fatigue Illnesses
The Orchard Centre Study of Fatigue Illnesses Education Service
The Orchard Study
The Orchard M.E. Study
The Orchard Study Centre
The Orchard Trust
The Orchard Centre for Training Coun [sic] [thought to be abbreviation of "Counsellors"]
The Orchard Centre Services
The Orchard Centre Services Appeals, Pensions & Legal
The Orchard Centre Services Appeals & Benefits Education & Legal Advice
B & J Legal Services

I was just on another forum about Ashworth. Wondering why he got money from a charity and from parents also. Which charity it was.

What was concerning is the people in parliament referring parents to him,when they had been informed of trading standards investigations.

Hi Avenger,

A number of cases where Brian Ashworth has taken on representation work involving children/family issues/social services have already been brought to our attention within the past eighteen months, or so, as a result of notices placed on several other boards but it is likely that there may be other cases of which we are not yet aware.

Because of the sensitivities surrounding this exercise and in order to protect our sources and maintain the confidentiality of the individuals and organisations that come forward to talk to us, we are not able to discuss individual cases - as I'm sure you'll understand.

Our information gathering exercise, which we have been involved in for over three years, is evidence based and to be of use to us we can only accept information for our records which is backed by documentary evidence or which comes directly from first hand accounts. The case/cases to which you refer may or may not already be known to us.

If discussion about The Orchard Centre/B & J Legal Services is currently taking place on another board, at the moment, then it would be useful to know which board this is so that our latest report and update can be flagged up - either by ourselves or through the moderator/owner of that board.

By all means PM me, if you prefer.


You've made a reference to Mr Ashworth receiving funding from a charity and you wonder who this charity might be.

Mr Ashworth is known to obtain money to fund his activities through a variety of means:

By charging sums of £30 to £50 up front for taking on benefits appeal cases and attending appeals tribunals;
By charging fees of £30 to £35 per person per session for "consultations" at "Benefits Surgeries" and "ME/CFS Clinics" held in association with regional ME/CFS support groups;
By charging fees considerably in excess of the amounts above for undertaking to carry out certain types of work;
By selling vitamins and supplements;
By suggesting to his clients that they may like to make "a donation" following a "successful outcome" at an appeal tribunal;
By requesting or accepting contributions from his clients towards his travel and admin expenses;
By claiming travel and other expenses from the appropriate agencies for attending appeals tribunals as a client representative;
By tapping up individuals for donations of money for administration costs in specific cases.

Mr Ashworth is known to make claims that he receives funding from charitable sources in order that he can finance the work he undertakes (or which he claims to be undertaking); he is also known to claim that his admin expenses are, in some cases, funded by Local Education Authorities; he is also known to claim that he is in a position to secure from charities funding for computers for children or specific special needs equipment for children.

However, none of his clients who have discussed their cases with us have been provided with any documentary evidence whatsoever by Mr Ashworth that would confirm that he does have sources of charitable funding; none of his clients who have discussed their cases with us have been provided with any documentary evidence to support the claim that Mr Ashworth can and does obtain funding from LEA's for his admin costs; none of those who have discussed their cases with us have been provided with any documentary evidence that he has secured funding for computers or other equipment for their children and none of these items has ever been forthcoming.

Mr Ashworth has also made claims that he can secure funding from high profile charitable foundations to fund projects unconnected with The Orchard Centre and his own clients. None of these alleged sources of funding are known to materialise, either.

Part Two of our report and update deals with some of the issues around funding and in particular, in relation to alleged "class actions" and alleged involvement of "barristers".


You have also mentioned the issue of referrals. Yes, it is extremely disturbing when individuals continue to recommend Mr Ashworth despite having been apprised by ourselves or by others of the known issues associated with Mr Ashworth's MO and the fact that his activities have also been brought to the attention of various agencies.

Part Three of our Statement 12, references some of those who are known to have referred individuals seeking representation on to Mr Ashworth in the last eighteen months or so. Once we have been alerted to a referral we contact all referrers, as a matter of course, and information and material is set before them in order that they might be fully informed and in a position to review their association with Mr Ashworth in the light of the information they have been given.

Unless a referrer has provided us with a public statement, we are not in a position to make public their responses so I am not in a position to confirm to you what the outcome of any particular approach by us has been.

If you would like a PDF copy of our latest report and update or copies of two of our previous statements, which will give you an insight into the current situation and also the wider issues around Mr Ashworth, let me know and we can arrange for these to be forwarded to you. Alternatively copies of Statement 10, 11 and 12 and additional information are available from my website.

Suzy Chapman
suzy.chapman@virgin.net
http://meagenda.wordpress.com

The discussion was on Fassit forum which is now closed.

I can't add anything to this discussion but it is very interesting.
Is this chap a complete phony then?

If you read our Statements 10, 11 and 12 you will see that there has been a history of gross misrepresentation dating back to 1994, when the Ashworths first launched themselves as The Orchard M.E. Centre in the wake of Mr Ashworth's bankruptcy. (He was formerly associated with a hotel business in Scotland).

Although some of Mr Ashworth's clients have told us that they had been satisfied with the work he carried out for them, a considerable number have not been and have lost out financially as a result of his mishandling of their casework or his failure to actually carry out the work he had taken on. Or he has compromised a family's position with social services or other agencies because he is out of his depth and does not have the knowledge and experience to operate effectively and professionally in these areas.

Some of these cases are new cases taken on in the last year or so, after he was supposed to have closed down, others date back many years and remain unresolved - these are often benefit appeals cases where Mr Ashworth claims he is still engaged in "behind the scenes negotiations" or benefits cases where he claims that he is engaged in "class actions" with a "barrister in London" for whom he will not provide a name or any documentary evidence that these alleged "class actions" are, in reality, in progress.

These cases would appear, in reality, to have been abandoned but instead of admitting to his clients that he has screwed the case up, they are given bizarre "explanations" for why these cases have dragged on unresolved (in some cases, for over seven or eight years) and why there is no paperwork and no records of the case as being a "live case" with the DWP, the Appeals Service etc.

When Mr Ashworth is challenged by his clients to account for deliberate misrepresentation over the true status of their cases or when clients demand that he provide evidence of his training or his entitlement to use certain qualifications after his name, they are met with obfuscation or with feigned distress that his clients no longer trust him after all the hours of work and expense that he claims their casework has cost him; if they continue to press for him to account for his MO, he is known to threaten them with litigation.

My colleague and I have also been threatened eight times in writing by Mr Ashworth in the last three years that he has already (or that he is about to) take out "writs" and "injunctions" against us or that he is already in the process of suing us for large sums in "damages".

There is no substance in these threats but they do serve to discourage some of his more vulnerable clients from taking further action, themselves - although most of Mr Ashworth's clients are not in a financial position to seek legal advice or intervention which is why some of them have ended up using the services of an unregulated, unqualified and non accredited operator like Mr Ashworth, in the first place.

He has, of course, come recommended to some clients by those who have failed to establish for themselves his credentials for carrying out the work he undertakes, or says that he can undertake - but which he then fails to carry out or fails to carry out to a professional standard.

And since Mr Ashworth is regulated by no professional body, there is no regulatory body to whom complaints can be taken when things go wrong - which is one reason why curbing Mr Ashworth's activities has proved so difficult.

If you look at the document:

http://meagenda.wordpress.com/the-orcha ... h-operate/

you will see the various fields in which Mr and Mr Ashworth have involved themselves or sought to involve themselves over the last 12 years or so, including offering to give unsupervised counselling sessions to minors.

What we haven't included is Mr Ashworth's claims to several clients that he used to work for MI5...


Suzy Chapman
suzy.chapman@virgin.net
http://meagenda.wordpress.com

So why are ss and the like referring people to him if he has no qualifications? How does that stand up in court?

"So why are ss and the like referring people to him if he has no qualifications?"


I assume by "ss" that you mean social services?

Social services and other agencies do not refer people seeking representation on to Brian Ashworth and have not done so, in the past.

Can I enquire where you have gained this impression/understanding from?

How can you help us?

To assist in taking things forward, we need to hear from anyone who has an outstanding case with Mr Ashworth in any field of advocacy and representation work - immigration, applications for benefits, benefit appeals and tribunals, housing, social services, educational,
MSBP, Family Courts, matrimonial and general legal work and particularly, cases taken on since 2005 onwards.

Since 1994, Brian and Jeanie Ashworth have operated in the area of representation for benefits and benefits appeals, largely for the ME and CFS patient community. Mr Ashworth also involves himself in casework relating to education issues, child protection and MSBP casework and in other cases where there has been involvement of social services with families. Mr Ashworth is also known to undertake immigration casework and work of a general legal nature; he also describes himself as a "private health practitioner", a "complementary health practitioner" and a "trained counsellor".

So are you saying that people who have used his services approach him directly? Not that social services or the family courts use him as an approved "professional".....It's not clear from your posts

Also - why don't you write to watchdog?

So are you saying that people who have used his services approach him directly?


Yes, individuals approach him directly - we do not imply otherwise in our reports and updates.

We have listed the types of advocacy and representation work that Mr Ashworth undertakes or seeks to involve himself - if you prefer:

...we need to hear from anyone who has an outstanding case with Mr Ashworth in any field of advocacy and representation work - immigration casework, applications for benefits casework, benefit appeals and tribunals casework, housing casework, social services casework, educational casework, MSBP casework, Family Courts casework, matrimonial casework and general legal work and particularly, cases taken on since 2005 onwards.

Also - why don't you write to watchdog?


It would not be in the interests of this exercise to disclose publicly which media have or have not already been approached and what interest may or may not have been expressed.

It would not be in the interests of this exercise to disclose publicly which media have or have not already been approached and what interest may or may not have been expressed

Why not?

Yes, individuals approach him directly - we do not imply otherwise in our reports and updates.

I never said you did. It just wasn't 100% clear from the posts you have made.

May I ask if you have been a "victim"?
Why are you interested?

[quote="fassitangels"]It would not be in the interests of this exercise to disclose publicly which media have or have not already been approached and what interest may or may not have been expressed

Why not?


Because it would compromise our position with those with whom we have had/are having discussions and those who have already approached us directly.

You have also asked whether I am a "victim" of Mr Ashworth and why I am interested. Since I have worked on all aspects of this project for nearly four years with a colleague then you should be given both our backgrounds and I will provide our backgrounds tomorrow.

Thank you Suzy - would be most interested