On 19th of June, 2016 I have asked the Metropolitan police to start a thorough investigation of criminal (according to my believe) activities of a group of employees of Pickfords Move Management Ltd. that includes members of top management of the company. Pickfords is a largest company in the UK and one of a leading companies in the world that specialises in household and office removals and storage. It should be noted that as part of the Allied International Network, Pickfords has access to global resources including 600 offices in 45 countries. Thus the overall amounts of goods actually stolen from clients might be quite significant. I am certain that the group not only provides a false information to clients on their consignments but equally organizes a false public auctions in small British towns (instead of public auctions to be held in London) to justify a sale of goods at artificially low prices to keep the difference as a personal remuneration. - - - Updated - - - Please see below the text of my letter to the Metropolitan police. 19th of June, 2016 Victor Borodulin City of London Police, PO Box 36451, 182 Bishopsgate, London EC1M 4WN, United Kingdom Dear Sirs, I am a foreign national and a cliet of Pickfords (part of Pickfords Move Management Ltd.) since 2005 (I lived in the UK in 2005 – 2007) and still keep my shipment at storage in London with Pickfords. Pickfords Move Management Ltd. ( Registered in England and Wales - Company No. 804436 is a leading international and the largest British moving and storage company. I would like to request a thorough police investigation of activities of Pickfords with a special focus on my accounts with the company (ZP146495 and ZP031656). I have reasons to suspect that my personal items were stolen and sold at bargain with a direct involvement of a top management of the company. The chance exist that similar criminal activities have been used against other domestic and international clients of Pickfords. The fact that I am a foreign national does not constitute an excuse to ignore my request for a thorough police investigation since the alleged criminal policies and criminal acts have been undertaken by a British company and by British nationals acting on British territory and under British law. On 16th of June, 2016 I have finally received reply from Pickfords regarding my outstanding balance. The company have ignored my request for this information for more than a month. Moreover, the last communication from Pickfords was on 18 August, 2015 (Invoice No. 821137 for a Storage period from 01.09.2015 to 31.10.2015). Last statement of my account with Pickfords was received on 18 June, 2015. There was no communication from Pickfords until very recently. On 17th of June, 2016 I have finally received their last Invoice (Invoice № 902222 dated 14.06.2016) for a storage period from 01.11.2015 till 30.06.2016. That implies that during all that period (from 31.10.2015 till 14.06.2016) no one at Pickfords had any care to calculate my storage fees and to send me any relevant Invoice. That amazing fact and my previous experience with Pickfords (mentioned briefly below) lead to question if my shipment is still at storage with that company and whether my goods have been illegally and secretly sold at bargain again. On 17th of September, 2010 I was informed by Pickfords that my items had been sold at public auction (since I was destitute and unable to redeem my outstanding balance). I was forced to instruct them to do that myself. Instead of selling my shipment (my very conservative estimate of substitution amount exceeded GBP 13 thousand) in London my goods were allegedly sold at auction in Rugby, Warwickshire with a total population of less than 70 thousand. Why Pickfords had chosen to transport my shipment to a small town miles from London ? No surprise that my items had been allegedly sold for a small fraction of the above-mentioned amount, namely at a tiny 05.65% after the auctioneer’s deductions ! There were quite valuable, often brand-new or antique items among my personal belongings that I acquired during my employment as a former investment banker (not all of them were indicated in the auctioneer's list): expensive clothing and footwear, mountain ski, clothing and equipment for horse-riding and other sport activities, two tenor saxophones, a lot of antique lithographs and a big library of expensive books and albums (both in English and Russian), a big number of Russian orthodox (christian) icons. When I questioned the company what happened with my personal documents and private photos, I received the following “irrefragable” answer: Pickfords was “fully satisfied” with the result of the auction (quoted from the email sent … on 01.09.2011). That strange satisfaction, in my view, might had only originated from the premeditated initial intention to sell my consignment at the lowest feigned price. Let me provide you with just one relevant example. I had many valuable antique prints (approximately 5 dozens prints in total) in my consignment. Their purchase prices ranged between 40 and up to more than 200 pounds each. At least three prints were priced above 200 pounds. All prints were purchased by me personally in a number of antique stores in Central London. But the auctioneer had triumphantly sold unidentified number of my prints (lots No. 845 and 854) for just 6 pounds in total ! What a bargain ! Usually, a seller and an auctioneer are keen to sell an item at a maximum price. But in case of my consignment Pickfords decided that Rugby, Warwickshire is much better place than London to sell horse-riding boots, Russian books, Russian orthodox icons and other personal items (not to mention many items that were not indicated at all in a final list, provided by the auctioneer). The preference was worth transporting my consignment (that took time and requested some costs that were never mentioned by Pickfords) from a storage in London to Rugby. Many items from my consignment that had been indicated in my Household Goods Packing List just mysteriously disappeared since they were never indicated either by the auctioneer or by Pickfords. Why Pickfords have allowed a client to accumulate a new debt of GBP 4 488,88 now (as was indicated to me on 17.06.2016) that originated many years ago ? Why Pickfords were dead silent for a long period of time and stubbornly ignored my requests to send me relevant invoices and inform me on the amount of my outstanding balance with them ? I have reasons to believe that my items have been stolen and sold at bargain again but this time in secret. I have reasons to believe that Pickfords have provided me with a false information. Although I do not encourage you to question the profitability of Pickfords and its financial results I have reasons to suspect that other clients of Pickfords have been equally negatively affected by an alleged group of criminals that undoubtedly involved top management of the company. By the way, several employees of Pickfords that communicated with me regarding my account had surprisingly left the company shortly after the alleged auction. ... Should you wish to receive any further details please do not hesitate to contact me by my email. Sincerely yours, Victor Borodulin
