Statement Regarding Closure of GRIDL.

On Thursday 5th of May at around 5:20pm I was pulled over by the police in the van with my 22 month old daughter and 8 ½ month Pregnant partner and was questioned and threatened with arrest due to false allegations of theft against me by Baylor Julian of Prow Park.

We have had a difficult tenure at Prow Park. There were many reasons why the location was not a good fit for GRIDL and there have been a few clashes with management over various issues, all of which were fruitless as there is no negotiating with these guys.

On Monday the 2nd of May, I removed a large portion of equipment owned by GRIDL from the cafe. I will go into more detail about why I did this later but I need to deal with this allegation of theft first.

Then on Wednesday the 4th of May I returned to the cafe with Jodie, Esmee and a friend to clean through and remove the rest of GRIDL’s larger belongings. I found that the locks had been changed and there were workmen already in the cafe, refitting it out ready for another tenant.

There was no notice of eviction on the door and I was greeted by an employee of Baylor saying that I have been asked to leave the site and I should leave as its all done. I asked to see notice of eviction and I said that if I am being locked out, I want the rest of the equipment belonging to GRIDL. He said he couldn't help me, he was just the messenger, so I asked to speak to Glen.

The employee goes to the office to get Glen. He comes out all bullish as per usual and asks me what I am doing here. I say I am coming to my cafe? He says that the locks have been changed and that's that. There was quite a bit of discussion regarding my tenure at the cafe and the end of other businesses tenures, I explained that I had to remove my things from GRIDL to protect it from them as I have seen what goes on here. He then asked me if “I thought I could just walk away from here and thats that? I dont think so”...

I say to him that if I am being kicked out, then I will be needing to remove the rest of the equipment belonging to GRIDL from the cafe. He replies, prove you own it.. In fact, where is all of the other stuff from the cafe?

It is at this point he is referring to the fact that Baylor asked us if there was anything we needed for the cafe. I gave him a list of things we needed. Baylor brought in his credit card to me and I purchased the equipment we needed using his card for the payment. Baylor then invoiced me that exact amount the following day and the amount was added to my statement, and then that amount was paid off by August 2021.

He is, at this point under the impression that because he has the invoices for the equiptment, he thinks he can falsely claim ownership. At this point, what he did not realise is that I purchased all of the equipment, in GRIDL’s name and the invoices were sent to GRIDL which I then forwarded on to Baylor.. This is the only reason they have them but the point is, he thought he could use this to get hold of all of GRIDL’s belongings and then add them to the lease for the next person and so on…

Anyway, he asked if I had the invoices for them and I said I did, his response was to give a wry smile and asks “Are you sure Danny?”..

We then have about 5 mins of discussion about everything and I end it by asking Glen, how about I call the police and ask them to come and help me get my stuff to which glen retorts and its is clear at this point that I was on the right track. He starts walking back to the office whilst saying he will “Get me his way if I want to play the game”. I think back to when he said to me personally that the owner of Mays Thai, Shaun was a dead man walking and that Glen would find him… I am not there to be threatened so I turned and then went back to the van. I said to Jodie that it appears as though I can call the police to get my stuff but to be honest, I cannot be bothered with the drama right now. I am on 100mph and it would probably do more harm than good so we will deal with it tomorrow. We then leave Prow Park.

I am absolutely broken at this point, knowing that I am going to be up against it with Prow Park but to be honest, their reaction to everything took me by complete surprise.

On Thursday the 05th of May we were all driving to the beach and I get blue lighted by an officer. I pull over and remove my keys from the ignition. I open my door and ask if everything is ok and the officer replies, Danny? I say yes, and he continues on to tell me that I have been reported by Baylor Julian and been accused of theft from Prow Park of equipment that is owned by them. I become agitated at this point and obviously deny the allegation as I had only removed belongings from the cafe that GRIDL owned and that GRIDL had paid off.

The officer asked me where all of the equiptment from the cafe is and I stated that they were not getting equiptment that I own, that I paid off and that I worked damn hard for. He said that Baylor had called in the theft and they had gone up to speak with them and see the cctv. The officer stated that Baylor has said that I owe them 11k in rent and that I removed items belonging to Prow Park, namely 4 x induction hobs, a serving fridge, a square POS system and more.

The officer then proceeded to tell me that If I didnt tell them where the equiptment in question was, then I would be arrested and taken to the station to help them deal with their enquiries..

I couldnt believe it. I asked the poice officer straight out wether this is standard practice for a civil matter? Business 1 is alleging business 2 has removed items from the property that Business 2 leases from business one. Its a civil matter. That being said, I do hold all of the required evidence here on my laptop but I do not have access to the internert right now to show you. He asked what evidence i had and I told him that I have the original invoices for the equiptment, an invoice from baylor for the full amount contained within those invoices as well as statements showing that amount being added and incrementally decreasing due to payments being made against that amount. I can also show later statements with the invoice and amount removed due to it being paid in full.

The police officer said that all he was interested in is was where the stuff is.

I then asked if threatening a person with arrest when they have their pregnant partner and 22 month old child in the passenger seats was standard practice? Especially when you could simply ask me to come to the station at a more convienient time with the evidence to prove that I own the equiptment, to which, I would have happily agreed. I could show you the evidence on my laptop right now if I had internet..I therefore ask that we arrange a time so I can come to the station to discuss this matter further when I am prepared.

The officer at this point backed off a bit and said that this would be fine and if he could take a phone number for me and he would call me tomorrow to arrange a meeting at the police station.

I asked the police officer if that, if, when I prove that the equipment in question is mine, could he escort me up to the cafe to get the rest of my belongings that I can also prove is mine and he said that is fine and he would do that.

He then said he was off to Prow Park to tell Baylor Julian what I had said to him.

As soon as the police officer had left, Jodie received a phone call from a friend asking us if we were ok and that the police had just been around to their place looking for me as I have stolen equipment from Prow Park.. Jodie then explained the situation and that was that.

I then spent time going through all of the emails and invoices and collated everything together into a folder and waited for the call from the police that never came.

Then on the evening of Friday 6th, I called 101 to see what the situation was and after 1 hour and 30 mins I gave up and realised that there was no point until Monday as it stated on the phone call that they are understaffed.

I then call 101 on Monday 9th and finally get through to them. After a lot of digging, everything came up blank and she said there were no notes of anything against my name. She said that it may be due to it not being logged on the national computer yet and that I should try going to Newquay police station. Later on Monday, I went to the police station and asked her if she could tell me the officer in charge of the multi officer operation to find me yesterday and after some looking through, she said there was absolutely nothing on the system relating to me at all. She said it was very strange and to let her do some digging and she would email me.

Two days later, I go back into the police station, go through the same stuff and say that I need them to sort this quick or I will lose my equipment due to the conditions of the lease and I was greeted by a Police Officer who basically told me it was tough and I had to wait for the police officer to call me. It is now the 16th and I have lost it all by now. The situation was deliberatly made as such.

This is everything that has gone on, as I expected it too. I needed to discuss my lease with Baylor and I knew what type of levels he will go down to make sure a business leaves with nothing so I preemptively cleared the cafe of as much as GRIDL owns as I could. It turns out that I was right to do so as if I had not have held my ground, I would have turned over the equipment and then it would have been taken to Prow Park and locked into a civil matter that I would have no chance of fighting, with me likely abandoning all of the equipment. Lucky enough, I knew that I could prove at that point my ownership of the equipment, only due to a mistake in Baylor's usual practices where I would never usually have access to any invoices relating to dealings with Baylor as they keep them as an insurance policy and you can expect to lose it all, paid for or not…..

I have not got anything to hide. Of the 11k that Baylor says I owe as rent (nonsense btw), there is an invoice from Baylor for £4,481.23. This is described as ‘FIT OUT COSTS’.. This charge relates to the extension of the kitchen of the cafe using ply board, the installation of a dishwasher stand for a dishwasher owned by GRIDL LTD. On the initial lease, there was a dishwasher but that was removed so I had to purchase my own. A replacement hot water tank that was fit for purpose as the cafe had a little hand boiler installed and was actually unfit for purpose for the type of business ran from the premises. The pipes were rusty and after a few months, they burst. We asked for a replacement and even though the water header was on the lease, so it should have been Baylor's problem, we were still charged for the replacement boiler and associated labour. There was also an oven on this invoice which I left in the cafe. This invoice is actually unpayable by me at this point die to the constructive eviction of my lease by that being said, the work that was initially carried out by Baylor's workforce was of a sub standard and not fit for purpose. We had a food hygiene visit and all of the work that was undertaken was not finished and to standard. As a result of this, we had to close GRIDL for 3 days to decorate the works undertaken by them and make right damage to the ceiling due to placement of the steam oven. I asked for a pipe to be installed to divert the steam away from the roof just as the work was done and I was told “I will find a pipe”.. It never happened and low and behold the paint started flaking on the roof as I said it would..

The fact of the matter is, contained within my lease is a clause stating that I am not allowed to undertake works on the interior of the property so we had to use Baylor. Baylor then provided substandard work that then gets me closed down. I have to put right that work, at both financial cost and financial loss due to having to close the business for three days.

Baylor then locks me out of GRIDL without even allowing me to talk to him, tries to charge me for all of the work left in the cafe, that is of a higher standard than when it was finished, then, lies to the police to get them to come after me for equipment we own, whilst illegally retaining more than 1k’s worth of equipment owned by GRIDL.

All in all, over the last few days Baylor has perverted the course of justice by claiming false accusations of theft against me.

Baylor knowingly misrepresented documents as evidence to try to get me falsely arrested and gain ownership of equipment not belonging to them.

Baylor unlawfully attempted to use the police as a vehicle to receive and withhold items owned by GRIDL LTD.

Baylor is unlawfully withholding equipment owned by GRIDL in the cafe lease that GRIDL has been constructively evicted from.

GRIDL will be pursuing a full damages claim against Prow Park in excess of £100k for the constructive eviction of GRIDL from Prow Park as well as personal damages for everything that has materialised since.

Watch this space as I will probably have Baylors ‘Heavies’ on my doorstep pretty soonish.