Wrongfully imprisoned by his boss. Seeking justice

[Explainer video is underneath this story: 38 minutes long]

We are here to raise money for Antony who was wrongfully imprisoned by his boss after he discovered that she was using her charity, Leather Inside Out (“LIO”), to cover up her criminality. LIO had contracts with prisons and they were used as a shield to legitimise and conceal a vast criminal enterprise.

Antony’s boss was convicted of money laundering and fraud and she boastfully pretended to have reformed. Following her release from prison she hired a PR company to publish numerous articles claiming that prison had saved her from a life of corruption and set up the charity called Leather Inside Out, claiming to rehabilitate ex-offenders and prison leavers.

Antony, a prison leaver who pleaded guilty to assisting an offence in 2013, is one of the rare individuals who not only made a genuine attempt to turn his life around but also tried to help others do the same. He led a small project for the St Giles Trust (which referred him to LIO for employment) where he mentored young kids on Youth Offender Orders to help divert them away from knife crime and gang life. Antony gave talks at schools and continued his work as a volunteer with Suffolk County Council after funding for the project ran out.

His boss on the other hand, while portraying herself as a saviour to ex-offenders, encouraged the very people she claimed to rehabilitate into committing further offences by pressuring them to falsify invoices - she falsified the very invoices from the PR company she paid to polish her public image and used them to withdraw funds against the charity’s dubious loan facility. She also tried to get Antony to help her import £900,000 from Dubai under highly suspicious circumstances that he realised was a laundering scheme.

Leather Inside Out is currently in administration and is being investigated by the Charity Commission because LIO has declared that it received £3.4 million in loans that remain unpaid, but LIO’s former staff, including Antony, who raised concerns, have no idea where the money went.

The charity’s lender, a small private company called Just Cash Flow (“JCF”), is also in administration and has declared writing off over £20 million of loans in the period LIO borrowed. The man behind the curtain at JCF is a former trustee of LIO. Is this a coincidence or perhaps a conspiracy?

When Antony realised what was happening and raised his concerns to senior staff, his boss panicked and exploited his vulnerability as a prison leaver by filing a false report to the probation service causing him to be recalled to prison for the remainder of his term (2.5 years). Not only did Antony do nothing wrong, but he was being punished for standing up to her criminality and affirming that he had reformed.

Within a moment's notice, Antony lost access to his home because he feared being wrongfully incarcerated before being able to prove his innocence. He tried to appeal the decision while in the community, but the probation service unfairly refused to let him appeal until he was back in prison.

Antony subsequently spent 79 days sofa-surfing and living in fear while collecting evidence to disprove the false allegations before he was unduly returned to custody on the 18th of March 2020 - just days before the national lockdown. Fortunately, the evidence he collected proving his innocence availed his appeal and he was released after 60 intense days. Had Antony not taken the time to gather evidence, he would have remained in prison until late 2023, just as she craftily intended.

Upon his release, Antony discovered that his boss celebrated his return to prison by writing and publishing another article about the harms of being incarcerated during COVID-19, claiming that prisoners were being condemned to death. Antony felt this was a clear and direct message from his boss saying: ‘I hope you die in prison and no one cares about you’.

We are here to prove that this isn’t true.

Antony has felt alone and unheard throughout this ordeal. He has been fighting for justice to get compensation for what his boss and her aides did to him, but he has struggled because he does not have legal representation. His boss on the other hand, is a former Oxford-trained lawyer with a notable legal career, who has had the benefit of 5 big-city legal teams and two senior barristers.

The Employment Tribunal acknowledges that criminality took place, but they erroneously dismissed Antony’s claims on an unjust legal technicality that is contradicted by evidence. Antony is appealing the decision and the Employment Appeal Tribunal has acknowledged the deficient reasoning in the Employment Tribunal’s judgement. Antony also has a live-action for Malicious Falsehood in the High Court.

Not only does Antony face this legal battle alone, but he risks having to pay his boss’s legal fees if he loses the case on an unjust legal technicality, and her legal team are doing everything in their power to make that happen. Their legal fees already amount to several hundred thousand pounds and this will continue to rise, putting Antony further at risk. All the while, steps have been taken to close the charity which means Antony may be left without compensation for his ordeal even if he does win. It is unclear how his boss is funding her legal defence because she claims to have left prison with nothing.

Her duplicity is staggering. She is the villain who publicly played the hero and used the justice system as both her weapon and shield to protect her greedy criminal empire enriched by millions of pounds of suspicious loans.

Antony needs our help to get the justice he deserves because her false allegations derailed his life. He has been diagnosed with severe PTSD and his wrongful incarceration put a further and false stain on his record which has compromised his sincere rehabilitation journey. Needless to say, Antony has found it impossible to find employment in the 4 years since.

Antony has a hearing in the High Court in a matter of weeks and this campaign may be his last hope.

Donations will fund legal representation, protect Antony against his boss’s mounting legal fees, rebuild his life and investigate the possibility of a private prosecution against her and her aides to bring them to justice because justice for Antony is justice for all. For this reason, the campaign target may change in the future.

JUSTICE FOR ANTONY

See our explainer video...