Inside the disturbing world of a street sales guru who exploited young people
In harrowing detail, former employees speak to our investigations editor Conor Gogarty
LUKE Walker liked to impress people with stories about his lifestyle. In one social media video titled “CEO Life” he presented a series of images of himself in glamorous locations – smiling beside a Porsche in a showroom or squinting broodily towards the sun for a selfie on a yacht.
Young sales reps who worked for Mr Walker were enticed by his speeches on how such a lifestyle would come from being “promoted” to run their own direct sales company, joining a huge global network of offices. They recall him constantly repeating the mantra, “You either get promoted to an owner or demoted to a customer”. The dream of becoming an “owner” saw reps work up to 15 hours a day, six or even seven days a week, while barely making enough money to live – in some cases losing years to the “cult-like” operation.
In 2023, we went undercover at another direct sales office in Cardiff. Our hidden camera revealed appalling treatment both of door-to-door reps and the people they attempted to sign up for charity payments. That office, which closed immediately after our exposé, was part of a direct sales network. Now we have investigated a different, much larger network that included Mr Walker’s company and other sales offices that exploited people.
After we approached Mr Walker for comment he shut down his Cardiff office and deleted its website. But the network of offices he traded among is still active, with more than 700 sales reps across the UK and links to a global firm that makes tens of millions of pounds a year.
Our investigation can reveal:
Charities and big-name brands linked to exploitation – repeatedly so, in the case of a charity called the National Deaf Children’s Society (NDCS);
An 18-year-old started her time at a sales office with £10,000 in her account and ended it with nothing;
Another rep was branded “selfish” for not working the day after being hospitalised with a heart condition;
Misleading job adverts that offer a salary where there is none;
Humiliating forfeits for reps who missed sales targets;
A “bogus” self-employment loophole to deny sales reps a minimum wage; and,
Two regulators have now launched investigations in light of our evidence.
I would often be in the office at 6am and leave at 9pm, Monday to Saturday. There was always pressure from Luke to do that
How does the system work?
Mr Walker’s company and other firms in the network hired people as “independent sales agents” – meaning they are self-employed and not entitled to rights like the minimum wage or sick pay. Each company is owned by someone who started off as a sales rep somewhere in the network. When an owner nurtures a rep to open their own company, the first owner receives commission for the sales of the new owner’s office. And when the new owner nurtures someone else to start a company, the first owner gets “second
generation” commission. As the process continues they can get “third generation” commission and so on, building up a large network of offices providing them with income. We have seen a court record showing one man in the network was linked to as many as 19 companies in this way. All of the companies in this network are linked to a global firm called Credico.
Mr Walker’s office was above a betting shop on Duke Street, opposite Cardiff Castle. In the stairwell up to the office, artificial leaves hung over a wallpaper message printed in bold capitals:
“FASTER, STRONGER, HARDER, BETTER.” Photos of senior figures from the sales network adorned the walls, green mood lighting over their triumphant faces as they held awards.
Some people told us they did not understand what Mr Walker’s company actually did until they started the job. The firm, which launched in 2014,
was most recently known as Bmgroup. Its website billed it as the “number one event sales and promotions company” in Wales, declaring: “Bmgroup as a brand means Creation, Perfection, On Fire”. Despite this, and Mr Walker’s social media depictions of a lavish lifestyle, the company accounts showed modest profits (£9,529 last year, £15,276 the year before). Bmgroup reps would pitch to passers-by in high streets or shopping centres, attempting to sign them up to direct debits. Many of its clients were charities, including NDCS, the RSPCA and the RNIB. The reps had answered job adverts for titles such as “sportsminded sales assistant” or “business development associate”, showing a “base salary” of up to £26,000 a year. In reality there was no salary at all. Only towards the bottom of a long text section did the adverts mention the role was “totally uncapped performance-based commission only”.
Mr Walker told us he had thought the phrase “base salary” had to be included in job adverts on the Linkedin website. It did not. We also found online job adverts from other companies in the same network that falsely stated a “salary”.
‘I would often be in the office at 6am and leave at 9pm’
Some of the former reps we interviewed worked at Bmgroup in 2023, others longer ago. Robyn Steel, 27, was just 18 when she started a job with Mr Walker. She spent four years at his company, beginning with £10,000 in her account and leaving with nothing. At the start she was inspired by Mr Walker’s speeches about how she could run her own office.
“Every other job in the world was presented as completely sub-par,” she said.
Her contract stated she was an independent sales agent, but there was very little of the flexibility that should come with self-employment. She was working six days a week and the hours, she claims, were not optional. We have seen one Christmastime Whatsapp chat in which Mr Walker demands “everyone will be back” by December 27 and describes the following Sunday as a “mandatory day”.
Robyn said: “I would often be in the office at 6am and leave at 9pm, Monday to Saturday. There was always pressure from Luke to do that.”
On one occasion Robyn was hospitalised with pneumonia after spending hours trying to sell under heavy snow.
Each shift would start in the office with blaring dance music and motivational speeches. Reps would be taught techniques including the “Turn and Break”, which involved stopping a passer-by on the street, opening a pitch, then suddenly turning around and walking quickly to the sales team’s pop-up gazebo. The theory was that if the passer-by followed, it meant they had “greed” and a sign-up was more likely.
After the morning training session, reps would be split into groups and sent out “in the field” to sell in a shopping area, before ending their shift with an evening debrief in the office. Groups would frequently be sent on “road trips” for a week of street sales in far-flung areas of the UK, paying for their own travel and accommodation at overcrowded Airbnbs, and visiting offices with shared habits of blasting repetitive beats each morning.
Every six months or so the team would travel to a “regional conference”. Robyn says thousands of people from offices across Credico’s network would gather at a Hilton hotel in London. The event gave reps an opportunity to “network” with people who had just become owners.
As the months and years passed, Mr Walker gave Robyn the title of “team leader”, then “campaign manager”, then “assistant owner”. She took on more responsibilities, like conducting job interviews, but still her only income was from the sign-ups she got. For each one she would get around £30 in commission, but she would lose it if the direct debit was cancelled within a few weeks.
Mr Walker would hold Robyn responsible if members of her team missed their sales target. In one Whatsapp rant he called her “pathetic” and told her to “grow up” as her team struggled for sign-ups. The pressure allegedly led Robyn to credit thousands of pounds’ worth of her own sales to other reps, creating an illusion they were hitting their targets. She claims there was also “huge pressure” on her to buy smart clothing for reps if they could not afford it, further draining her savings.
In 2018, Mr Walker moved the company from Maidstone to Cardiff. Robyn says she was chosen by Mr Walker to stay in Maidstone and take over
Despite Mr Walker’s social media depictions of a lavish lifestyle, the company accounts showed modest profits
the office there. She was allegedly told she had been promoted to “owner”, and that for every sign-up made by a rep from her office she would receive the same amount as the rep. But she claimed: “I never saw a penny of ownership money. I didn’t deal with the finances. It all went through Luke. I was told by Luke that my business wasn’t profitable enough for me to simply run it. I was told the money was going towards the office rent, recruitment fees. So I was still going into the field and I was only getting paid for the sales I did myself.”
Robyn quit the industry as she was about to get into debt. She says some less fortunate reps ended up in “severe” debt in pursuit of the ownership dream. One man, she recalls, would avoid going home because he couldn’t afford to keep the electricity on, instead spending time at pubs and asking for tap water.
‘If you leave, you will be a loser like everyone else’
Another former rep Simon (not his real name) told us he was “sucked into a cult mentality”. He had been a mechanic before spotting a job advert from Mr Walker’s company and leaving his home country, Ireland, to join the firm. We have seen the full log of Whatsapp messages between Simon and Mr Walker, which reveal a disturbing level of control over the rep’s life.
Simon, then 31, moved in with Mr Walker and paid him rent of £300 a month, allegedly sleeping on a small mattress on the floor. At one point Mr Walker took rent directly out of his pay. Simon would work 12-15 hours a day, sometimes seven days a week. When Mr Walker questioned why he was not out selling on a Sunday, Simon vowed it would be his last Sunday off. In a good week he would make about £200, in a bad one nothing.
On one occasion, when Simon took a day off and posted some pictures on social media, Mr Walker warned him in a message: “Wouldn’t be posting your day on Instagram that’s dumb! It’s not meant to be a good thing having taken the day off.” Another time, Mr Walker messaged him: “I wouldn’t be going to the gym with [another rep] each evening anymore unless you fix yourself... You should be spending your evenings learning, networking...”
Mr Walker demanded Simon hit his targets “without fail” and often swore at him when they were missed. He called Simon a “complete waste of time” and ranted about “negs”. The term, meaning people who bring “negativity”, was familiar to all the reps we spoke with across the network.
One evening, after Simon had failed to hit target, Mr Walker ordered him to join an 8pm training call with the owner of another firm in the network, adding: “Fix your s***.” Months later, following another missed target, Mr Walker removed Simon from a “leaders” chat on Whatsapp. Simon then messaged: “Been walking around Cardiff bawling my eyes out I’m a disappointment.” Mr Walker replied he should “put the emotions to bed and suck it up”.
At one point Simon fainted due to his heart condition and had to go to hospital. The next day Mr Walker called him “selfish” for failing to attend an evening meeting. On another occasion Simon had tests on his heart and the hospital advised him not to go to work for a week. Two days after being told this, Mr Walker asked Simon to take part in training sessions and ordered he learn a pitch “without fail”.
Not long before Simon quit, Mr Walker messaged him suggesting he was being “distracted” by his girlfriend. By this point Simon had moved out of Luke’s house and, after two years of pushing himself to the limit, his eyes had “started to open”. He stopped replying to Mr Walker’s messages, which prompted the Bmgroup owner to bombard him with a stream of question marks, warning he would “keep at it every day”. It took weeks for the question marks to stop.
In hindsight, Simon feels angry at himself but also thinks he understands how he bought in so fully.
“Luke tried to delete everybody around you, so you’re constantly filled with the same messages. Negative thoughts were considered evil. You weren’t allowed to talk to people who’d left the business in case they tried to put you off. Luke would say, ‘This is the only job – if you leave, you will be a loser like everyone else’.”
‘I needed that money to pay rent’
Amarbir Sihota was 21 when she became a rep at Mr Walker’s office in 2021. Having just finished a business degree at Cardiff University, she was drawn in by an advert for the “graduate” job. Wearing a suit and smart shoes she had bought to fit the company’s dress code, Amarbir worked from around 8am to 8pm each day.
Managers took her through a script, which contained what Amarbir feels was “manipulative” language designed to “guilt-trip” people into donating to NDCS, such as: “So I’m sure, like everyone else today, we can count on your support then, right?” Her managers told her this line was intended to achieve the “Jones Effect”, based on the idea that everyone wants to “keep up with the Joneses”.
One day Amarbir was in the office when another team of reps had failed to hit their sales target. They were given a “forfeit” of whipped cream being squirted over their heads. Other former reps in the network have told us forfeits were common, including the downing of vomit-inducing amounts of fish oil.
Exhausted, Amarbir quit after just over a week. But despite allegedly making three sign-ups during her time at Bmgroup, she says she was never paid the £82 commission. Mr Walker messaged asking her to send an invoice, which she did. He then appeared to ignore her messages.
“I needed that money to pay rent,” she told us. “It’s really sad because when you’re that age you’re so excited to get a job. People that age might not know their rights, and I think the company benefits from that.”
‘You’re bragging to people who make £100 a week’
Morgan Runnalls, 23, started at Bmgroup in March 2023, working 8am to around 8pm from Monday to Saturday. His managers would send him motivation in the form of “Sigma Grindset” memes – a Tiktok trend that praises “capitalist hustlers”, idolising the Wolf of Wall Street.
In his five weeks on the team, Morgan represented NDCS and made a total of £110.
“Luke would brag about his six-figure income, his watch, his ties, his 35 suits, how much they cost,” said Morgan. “He’d say things like, ‘Because I’ve worked hard I’m now able to see the Lion King in London’. I just thought, ‘You’re bragging to people who make £100 a week, if that’.”
Working hours, according to Morgan, were not optional.
“You’d turn up to the office and they’d say, ‘You’re going here, you’re gonna work however many hours’. If you said no, they would try to make you feel like a social outcast, so you just went with it. There was one person who wanted to leave early for church, and Luke was like, ‘No, you have to stay’.
“Sometimes when we finished work we were told to join a networking call at 10.30pm with about 100 people from other offices. You’d be told someone was earning £1,500 in a week and you’d think, ‘Oh my God, that’s amazing, why can’t I do that?’ Eventually I ran out of money and just couldn’t stand it any longer.”
‘Friends and family can hold you back’
It’s really sad because when you’re that age you’re so excited to get a job. People that age might not know their rights, and I think the company benefits from that
Nadia (not her real name) was in a “desperate” financial situation in February 2023 when she answered a Bmgroup job advert. During her interview the 21-year-old mentioned that her partner was cautious about the job. Mr Walker allegedly then “went on a 10-minute ramble about how friends and family can hold you back if they think something’s too good to be true”.
On her first day Nadia felt uneasy about the “culty” spectacle of reps shouting “juice!” (meaning “join us in creating excitement”) in unison. Later, Nadia was in a group heading to a supermarket to represent NDCS. The young rep driving the car was coughing so heavily that he nearly crashed, but a manager coldly told him illness should not stop him working, claims Nadia.
A few days in, Nadia was struggling to make sign-ups and had a sit-down with Mr Walker in which he allegedly called her “lazy”. She went home in tears. During her week at Bmgroup she made one sign-up, and we have seen a message showing Mr Walker congratulate her for that NDCS “sale”, but Nadia claims she was never paid.
We first approached Mr Walker in July, and he told us “it is unsurprising that you have found a handful of people who have struggled to perform and chose to leave the industry, but I strongly deny that independent sales agents aren’t clear about what the role involves or how they will be paid”.
Within weeks he closed the office. Later, we asked him to comment on more evidence we had gathered, including his abusive messages to Simon. He did not reply. Shortly afterwards he deleted Bmgroup’s social media, which had outlined a vision of “opening 10 locations in 2024”.
We understand he is no longer trading with Credico.
‘I was the perfect vulnerable person to be exploited’
Some of Bmgroup’s practices were also allegedly experienced by reps from other companies that were, at the time, in Credico’s network. James (not his real name) was 21 when he worked for a Birmingham office in 2017. The “flash” company owner would tell recruits they could have a BMW i8 like him one day.
“There’d be loud grime music or EDM in the office from 8am,” said James. “The floor was astroturf because there’d been noise complaints from underneath. Every other week the leaders would do a talk about how it wasn’t a pyramid
scheme. They’d say, ‘Most companies have the shape of a pyramid, you’ve got the CEO, then the board, etc, etc’.”
James, who represented charities including NDCS and Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, claims reps were told to be in the office for 8am and leave at around 9pm. Working Saturdays, he says, was “recommended for progression”. Despite the gruelling hours, James found himself losing money. On one occasion he paid for a flight to Glasgow to visit another office in the network.
“I would have lost about £200 that week. If I’d talked about that, I’d have been a ‘neg’, as they called it.”
James ran out of savings and quit after 10 months.
“I quite often see comments about these companies, saying the people who fall for it are stupid and gullible,” he said. “A lot of the time they’re not. I lost my dad in my last year of uni, and wanted to do something that would make him proud. I was the perfect vulnerable person to be exploited.”
Another rep, Alex, was 21 when he spent time in 2022 working for a Manchester office in the same network. The job advert had listed pay as “£26,000 per annum, plus on-target earnings”. In reality, he earned just £720 in a stint lasting nearly two months. During a disastrous trip to Preston, where he worked 12-hour days and shared a bed with a rep in an Airbnb, he made a £10 loss.
The job title in the advert had been “sports marketing assistant”, yet the role had nothing to do with sports – Alex was going door-to-door selling BT deals. At one point BT held a meeting with reps, warning them not to knock on doors with “no cold-calling” signs and not to pressure-sell or go into people’s homes. But the following day, Alex claims, it was “business as usual”. He alleges that his managers said he could persist even after a potential customer said no.
Alex added: “They told me, ‘Two nos, you go’. And they would boast, ‘Do you know how many no cold-callers I’ve signed up?’ These guys were literally telling me to ignore BT.”
While selling BT deals, reps wore badges with the branding of Money Expert, a comparison firm owned by Credico. It has nothing to do with Martin Lewis’ well-known website Moneysavingexpert. In fact, Mr Lewis has warned in the past about door-to-door salespeople misleadingly dropping his name into their pitches. But Alex claims that is exactly what his fellow reps would do, using Martin Lewis’ fame as an “in”. The office that hired Alex is no longer in Credico’s network.
Lewis Hindley, now 26, was 19 when he worked at another Manchester office in the same network, selling Talktalk deals in shopping areas.
He said: “After selling all day you had to ‘network’ with people who were doing well. You were made to feel like this was your life. The crew leaders would ask to borrow a tenner for food, and four of them were sharing a two-bedroom apartment, but they were all saying, ‘In the future I’m gonna be making this much’.”
Working 12 hours a day Monday to Friday, Lewis was playing semi-professional football on weekends. Once the football season started, he told one of the office managers he could not work Saturdays and they allegedly replied: “Maybe this job isn’t for you then.” He left after a month, having earned around £800.
Serious questions for charities
This piece is the third time the Western Mail has revealed evidence of NDCS reps being exploited. As well as using Credico’s network, the deaf children’s charity also outsourced fundraising to a different sales network where our undercover reporter revealed grim treatment of workers. And with NDCS benefiting from rich streams of donations, there are questions over how much will it has to protect the vulnerable people at the bottom of the chains.
When people make a donation, they might wonder how much of the money will actually be spent on charity. It was revealed by the Mirror last year that NDCS was one of the charities using a fundraising consortium that made far more money for marketing firms than for the charities themselves.
Although the deaf children’s charity spent £15.4m on charitable activities last year, it also put a massive £12.4m towards raising funds. For all the good the charitable spending may do, there are serious concerns over the kind of operations NDCS is pouring money into with its outsourcing of fundraising.
One of the companies benefiting is Credico, which launched in 1991 in Canada. The firm has expanded into 16 countries and in its latest accounts revealed a gross profit of £46.6m globally. It says there are more than 700 selfemployed reps working at “independent sales offices” in its UK network.
Two years ago Credico was involved in a court case. The dispute itself wasn’t about the rights of reps but the judge, Mr Justice Cavanagh, gave a fascinating breakdown of the “layers” of the system. He explained that at the top are the clients, like NDCS. The charity commissions Credico, which then outsources fundraising to smaller companies like Bmgroup.
Credico pays the smaller companies commission for each sign-up made by selfemployed reps, and those companies then pay the reps a share of the commission. The judge said the network is “held together” by the fact that owners can nurture reps to set up their own company and then get “override commission” on the sales of the new company.
After selling all day you had to ‘network’ with people who were doing well. You were made to feel like this was your life
The judge explained that the smaller companies are not meant to instruct reps to “go to particular streets or locations to do the direct marketing” because this could “create an employment relationship”. Yet the former reps we interviewed all said that was exactly what happened. The judge said that in theory the sales reps have “complete autonomy” but he added: “The practice is different... If they choose to ignore the guidance that they were given and act truly independently, they will not last long.”
Mr Justice Cavanagh also spoke about a potential issue with the contract signed by reps. The contract stated they could arrange for substitutes to do their sales work. This would help avoid the reps being classed as employees. But the judge described it as “wholly unrealistic” and said he would be “astonished if this happens in practice”. None of the ex-reps we spoke with believed using substitutes would have been a realistic possibility.
The judge pointed out that the owners of companies in the network act as a “buffer” between Credico and sales reps, allowing Credico to “disavow responsibility for any dubious practices within a marketing company”. However, we have seen a template for a manipulative pitch that was used by Bmgroup reps – and the template’s branding was the same as a company owned by Credico itself. Credico denies that company produced the template.
What a lawyer and an MP said
James Watkins, an employment lawyer at Howells in Cardiff, told us the allegations by former reps suggested they should have had employee or worker status, rather than selfemployed. He was particularly concerned by the experiences of ex-bmgroup rep Simon.
“This is a working relationship based on control,” he said. “From what I have seen, the true nature of the relationship is more akin to one of employment, which would bring with it certain employment rights.”
Mr Watkins said there appeared to be various expectations on the reps we interviewed – including following “prescriptive” scripts, using materials from the sales office, and working at certain hours and locations – as opposed to the flexibility of self-employment. But he added that if a rep was to bring an employment tribunal claim, it would likely need to be against the sales company they directly contracted with – not Credico.
Cardiff Central MP Jo Stevens believes the reps at Bmgroup were “bogus self-employed” and should have been entitled to rights such as the minimum wage and paid holiday. She said our findings will affect the reputation of the charities involved – particularly NDCS, given its repeated links to exploitation – and called on the Fundraising Regulator to investigate the manipulative language used in the charity pitches.
The Labour MP criticised the UK Government’s “very poor record” on enforcing against companies involved in minimum wage breaches.
“Make them pay the money owed and fine them, because otherwise there’s no deterrent,” she said.
Part of the solution, Ms Stevens believes, lies in forming a single enforcement agency rather than sharing responsibilities across various agencies. She also wants legislation to make a single category of worker, giving more rights to “all but the genuinely self-employed”.
Regulators tell us they’ve launched investigations
A Fundraising Regulator spokesman said: “The Fundraising Regulator is engaging with NDCS and SOS Children’s Villages regarding the fundraising concerns raised in [the Mail’s sister website] Walesonline’s previous investigation, and is unable to comment further while that process is ongoing. At present, the Fundraising Regulator is conducting a market inquiry into the use of subcontracting in the fundraising sector. The Fundraising Regulator is also assessing the new evidence shared with us by Walesonline. Walesonline has shared evidence of concerning employment practices – the Fundraising Regulator is assessing these insofar as they relate to poor fundraising practice.” This is the first-ever market inquiry by the Fundraising Regulator.
And a Charity Commission spokeswoman said: “We can confirm that we have an open compliance case into the National Deaf Children’s Society in relation to concerns about third-party fundraising, and are working closely with the Fundraising Regulator to determine any next steps. We are currently assessing new information brought to us relating to third-party fundraising by charities, to see if there is a role for us as regulators.”
SOS Children’s Villages, a charity that vowed to make changes after our investigation in August, has now told us it will no longer work with fundraising companies that are “part of a network of companies, or who share office space with other fundraising companies”. But NDCS has made no such commitment, even after the new evidence we’ve provided.
A spokeswoman for NDCS said: “We are upset and very concerned to read about these personal accounts. The experiences shared fall way short of what anyone should expect when working on our behalf and we commend the courage of those who have come forward. We continue to take this issue extremely seriously and our commercial relationships are under constant review.”
She added that NDCS has “contractual obligations” with Credico until the end of the financial year and will “act on any recommendations” made by regulators.
“We’ve shared the latest information provided to us by Walesonline with Credico and expressed our grave concerns. We are visiting all the Credicolinked offices we work with as a matter of urgency to check their practices and ensure that any fundraising done by them on our behalf is being conducted in an appropriate way. We believe most Credico-linked agencies are well-run.
“However, should we find evidence of failure to adhere to our strengthened code of conduct and strict protocols, we will review any future contracts with them and any associated partners.”
Following a story by the BBC in 2022, BT said it would be “reviewing its relationship with Credico”. But the telecoms company has refused to tell us the outcome of that review, or whether it will investigate the evidence provided by the Western Mail and its sister website Walesonline. BT did say the sales agents are “audited regularly by BT to make sure they follow agreed good practice”.
An RNIB spokeswoman said the charity indirectly worked with Credico between 2015 and 2019 – and was “not aware of any issues” then – but no longer does so.
The RSPCA told us it stopped using Credico’s services five years ago and has no plans to work with the company again.
Battersea says it has never worked directly with Credico and has no intention of working with the firm in the future.
And Talktalk says it has not had a relationship with Credico since 2017.
A spokeswoman for Credico said the firm “supports a network of hundreds of independent sales offices” across the world.
She added: “Ensuring that we represent our customers to the highest standard and that their future customers or supporters have a positive experience is of paramount importance.
“This is why we operate an independent contact centre, where the agents do not receive a monetary incentive for sales, to speak to all charity supporters to ensure that they understand that they are making an ongoing donation to charity.
“Job satisfaction and the health and wellbeing of independent contractors in the Credico network is extremely important to us. We are proud of the significant number of sales representatives who have used their time with us to build their own individual businesses.
“Many of these continue to trade with Credico over the years because of the opportunities created and the environment they operate in.
“Most importantly, though, we operate a
From what I have seen, the true nature of the relationship is more akin to one of employment, which would bring with it certain employment rights
whistleblowing programme to ensure that if an independent contractor (or indeed anyone working with or providing services to Credico) has a concern, it can be brought to our attention and investigated. This is precisely because we want to root out and address any conduct that is not appropriate.
“Individuals are all engaged as independent contractors directly by independent sales offices, using a contract that is written using plain language to make it very clear that the individual will be self-employed. We operate using standard remuneration and contracting models that are typical of outsourced field services businesses and
include commission models and, more frequently, day rate models.
“Contractors enjoy the flexibility that selfemployment brings, as they are free to work the hours and days they choose, with many working fewer hours than a standard five-day week. There is no obligation for an individual to provide services, neither are they required to give notice if they want to stop providing the services.
“We are committed to maintaining high standards and quality services to ensure that the people within the network, whether they be contractors, customers or employees, are proud to be part of it.”
Before he closed the Bmgroup office, Mr Walker told us: “I have run a successful sales and marketing business for almost 10 years, training and developing young people who often have no work experience into skilled sales agents. Many have progressed into management roles either with me or other organisations... The job adverts I post are clear that these roles are self-employed and commission-only.
“My business centres around communication and continued learning, so I encourage ISAS to talk to all the people around them to gain knowledge and get advice, including family and friends. I am fortunate that I have, and continue, to work with a large number of successful ISAS who enjoy what they do.”
Mr Walker did not respond to follow-up inquiries about the experiences of Simon, Amarbir, Morgan and Nadia.
A UK Government spokesman said: “Under no circumstances can any business opt out of paying staff the correct minimum wage by defining workers as self-employed.
“We will enforce robust action against employers who do not pay their staff correctly, including significant financial penalties, and in the most serious cases involving deliberate underpayment or reckless pay practices, guilty businesses are criminally prosecuted.”
In the Cardiff building that once housed Bmgroup, we spoke with a man from an unrelated business on another floor. He told us Mr Walker gave him the furniture from the Bmgroup office when it closed.
The man had always been puzzled by the goings-on at Mr Walker’s operation.
“You’d see these kiddies in their sharp suits going out early in the morning and you’d think, ‘I hope you’re getting paid’.”
We will enforce robust action against employers who do not pay their staff correctly
ON SOCIAL media earlier this week, I said I was glad I’m retired now. Quite simply, it’s getting to the point where I’m scratching my head – not always at how some refereeing decisions are being arrived at but the citing and disciplinary process that follows.
A lot of rugby fans understand the laws of the game very well, but if I’m struggling to understand decisions, as someone who has refereed at all levels in the game, I can’t imagine what it must be like for players, coaches and spectators as well.
I’ve felt this way for a while but two major talking points from last weekend’s games in particular have left me puzzled.
The first involves the new Wales captain, Dafydd Jenkins, who was shown a yellow card during Exeter’s win over Bayonne for a high tackle. Honestly, I’m not sure what he could have done any different – there was nothing more he could do. I will be the first to support being strong on foul play and player safety but I just can’t see how this one reaches the foul play threshold, let alone a yellow card.
He’s a big guy, 6ft 7in, and he’s going down as low as anybody that height can, while the ball carrier is actually falling down into him. He couldn’t have done anything to change what was going to happen at the last minute. For me, while there is head contact, there’s no foul play there, no recklessness, it’s purely a rugby collision.
It’s nobody’s fault, and it should be played on – but the referee and TMO came to the conclusion that it should be a yellow card, leaving me scratching my head at how they arrived at that decision.
The second incident occurred in Bristol Bears’ defeat to Connacht, when Bristol prop Josh Caulfield trod on the head of Finlay Bealham. The incident divided rugby, with some people thinking that it was reckless and warranted the red card he was shown, while plenty of others argued there was no foul play. If you’re looking at that and thinking he did nothing wrong, he’s come in to ruck out and at the last minute something’s happened, then you would view it as an accident, no recklessness, no foul play and therefore no sanction.
I would disagree with that opinion myself – I thought Caulfield’s clearing out motion was very unnatural – but it would at least make sense.
But what has left me scratching my head is not the referee’s decision, but the judiciary process deciding there was foul play yet still overturning the red card that was shown. How can that happen? If they believe that it was reckless and it was foul play, how can they arrive at any other decision than upholding the red card?
At the moment, these sort of decisions are really confusing for everyone who is tuning in to watch a game of rugby.
Even as a referee, I’m watching games and seeing decisions given or not given that are not going the way I would expect from the way the game should be refereed and the laws that should be applied.
Of course, there are always going to be incidents that are in that grey area, where some will think it deserves a red and others argue it is only worthy of a yellow card. Those are open to interpretation and that’s fine, there’s nothing wrong with that.
But if you’re agreeing that an incident is foul play, how the hell you can land at that not being worthy of a red card is beyond me.
That is not a refereeing issue, that is a judicial process issue.
The game is at a crossroads when it comes to these sort of decisions, which are proving confusing for spectators and could also endanger player welfare.
You’ve got to look at the whole process, not just refereeing sanctions, which are mostly correct, but the judiciary and citing process that follows.
At the moment, it’s spoiling the game because people just don’t know what decisions are going to be given.
The issue, I believe, is that there are simply too many people involved in these decisions.
If a group of 10 Wales fans all sat down to pick their starting XV for the Scotland game, there may be one or two identical line-ups but chances are there would be some differences between them all. Refereeing is no different. You have the referees, assistant referees, TMO, referee coach, referee performance reviewer and referee manager, while you have several other people involved in the judiciary process too.
For me, particularly at the professional end of the game, it all needs to be streamlined.
Of course, it shouldn’t be the case that there becomes a dictatorship making these decisions. But that streamlining needs to happen sooner rather than later for consistency reasons.
More people involved means more inconsistency – and it’s that inconsistency that’s spoiling our game. Something has to be done.