How is Adam doing?

11 minutes ago, pooley said:

Hopefully, I can clarify a few points raised regarding the legalities here and which is the best route for the aggrieved parties to take.

I am a UK police officer, and work as a custody sergeant which means I often have to make decisions on whether a person is sent to court for criminal offences or not. 

I have no affiliation to Wetpixel other than being a forum member, I have never met or spoken to Adam other than messages on these boards, I have not booked any of the affected trips and I have not seen the updates from Alex. 

People are getting confused over whether to take civil action, or to try the criminal route. the simple answer is with the limited information provided so far in these threads it could yet be either. Although there are lots of grey areas and interpretations, let me provide a couple of examples. 

Example 1. Adam has businesses and uses the cash flow generated from the trips in his businesses. His intention was to fulfil his obligations and everyone gets to do the trips. However, due to business or heath reasons the cash gets tied up elsewhere and his businesses crash owing money - this needs to be challenged down the civil route. 

Example 2. Adam wants a new Mercedes but doesn't have the money. He sells the trips with the intention to buy a car and never return the money, making up excuses as to where the money has gone. He has a new car, you have no dive trip - this is then a criminal fraud case and the police should take the lead. 

Obviously there are numerous other possibilities but hopefully this helps distinguish. 

Should the case be criminal then I believe Adam lives in the Lancashire constabulary area, so if this is where the correspondence is sent from then they would take the lead. Contacting Scotland Yard would achieve nothing as they are London based. 

Regardless of criminal / civil then I would strongly advise going down the civil route for money recovery, as in my experience, the chances of full reimbursement following a criminal conviction are practically zero. 

Go with your credit card issuer, insurer etc to get your refunds if at all possible. 

I don't want to get further involved in this as I have no dog in this fight, and don't intend on advising further on specifics, but hopefully this might point people in the right direction

 

Mike

I agree, definitely more a case for Judge Rinder than Luther 

Although not impacted personally (having booked and taken a Red Sea trip w/Adam last summer, 2022), I get why people are upset and why they want to share/warn others about the situation. 

The thing I keep coming back to is - this has happened in the dive industry numerous times before. Boats/dive resorts go out of business all the time, leaving customers with little/no recourse (because the boat is foreign flagged/resided in another country, etc.).

Without specifically disparaging any company, one of, if not the largest liveaboard company (really just a marketng company for individually owned boats) has gone through this on several occasions. Other, smaller entities have ceased to exist almost overnight, leaving customers with money owed...

Adam (given his relationship to this board) was (is?) a trusted individual, so many thought that a trip booked through WetPixel had a high chance of actually occuring (similar to one of Alex's trips). Lots of liveaboards have misplaced this kind of trust at times as well.

I'm sorry to hear that people have been left out in the cold... 

I'm still waiting to hear what the situation is w/Adam.

@interceptor121

I do think this is getting out of hand - Your last series of comments are a bit off the mark. You  mention a systematic hijack of the forum, spam and bombardment. Let us put that in perspective - 2 additional people came forward to vindicate that what has been said by others regarding a situation that is of great concern for any follower of this forum. Ok in fairness maybe one posted on two forums, which has been called out I believe. I do  t think it is right to imply there was some sinister motive to hijack the forums. 

Clearly there are differences of opinion - that is healthy. But let's not put down the people with genuine grievances, it just adds to the injury. Enough said.

To address some of the other matters raised objectively:

If there was a financial avalanche that Adam was unable to deal with then all he had to do is communicate, very easy to do and if too sick then have somebody do it for him. Then it could be handled with empathy by all and without the need to resort to legal avenues. I have lost count of how many times I have tried. Of course if a proposal were put forward it could be met with kindness, we can only hope. In saying all this nobody has come forward with all this previously because there was a genuine concern for Adam - the cancellation of the Red Sea trips clearly caused this bubble to burst.

Yes operators go belly up, charters do not honour their commitments etc etc. --- it happens all the time, especially after covid. Again though - put in perspective, this is happening in the Company that owns this forum, the company that sells itself as an industry leader, a company trusted by the members of this forum, and the diving and underwater photography industry. Contacting the company representative, completing a contact us form etc etc makes no difference - it does not get answered. Friends and associates are equally ignored.

I am happy with any direction given by the moderators of this group . Like everyone says let's hope this can be resolved, but if not Civil action will surely follow.

Regards and no hard feelings

John

On 8/2/2023 at 10:20 PM, Ministryofgiraffes said:

Yes, I agree with this, but as trips are still advertised on the site and some individuals may not be aware that the Red Sea workshops have been cancelled by the boat for non payment of funds, I think it is a pertinent topic to hilighting. 
 

Does Adam own the wetpixel copyright etc? To whom is the sponsorship and advertising revenue paid for the website/forums etc?

obviously it would be an ideal situation if there was no connection to jeopardize this platform.  
 

when you reference ‘last owner’ does that mean he is not the current owner of wetpixel? Because the business registration in the UK cites him as the sole owner in 2023.  

thank you for rising this issue, I am new to this forum and I was about to think to book Red Sea trip as I was there in July and loved it.. to test my new uwp purchase..well now I will just book on my own as I did in July, thank you and I hope you can get back your money soon.

For continuity’s sake, I have personally not lost any money. I have commented on these events to hilight the issue, inform others in open discussion and attempt to protect this forum &  the community from any further fallout.

21 hours ago, JohnVila said:

@interceptor121

I do think this is getting out of hand - Your last series of comments are a bit off the mark. You  mention a systematic hijack of the forum, spam and bombardment. Let us put that in perspective - 2 additional people came forward to vindicate that what has been said by others regarding a situation that is of great concern for any follower of this forum. Ok in fairness maybe one posted on two forums, which has been called out I believe. I do  t think it is right to imply there was some sinister motive to hijack the forums. 

Clearly there are differences of opinion - that is healthy. But let's not put down the people with genuine grievances, it just adds to the injury. Enough said.

To address some of the other matters raised objectively:

If there was a financial avalanche that Adam was unable to deal with then all he had to do is communicate, very easy to do and if too sick then have somebody do it for him. Then it could be handled with empathy by all and without the need to resort to legal avenues. I have lost count of how many times I have tried. Of course if a proposal were put forward it could be met with kindness, we can only hope. In saying all this nobody has come forward with all this previously because there was a genuine concern for Adam - the cancellation of the Red Sea trips clearly caused this bubble to burst.

Yes operators go belly up, charters do not honour their commitments etc etc. --- it happens all the time, especially after covid. Again though - put in perspective, this is happening in the Company that owns this forum, the company that sells itself as an industry leader, a company trusted by the members of this forum, and the diving and underwater photography industry. Contacting the company representative, completing a contact us form etc etc makes no difference - it does not get answered. Friends and associates are equally ignored.

I am happy with any direction given by the moderators of this group . Like everyone says let's hope this can be resolved, but if not Civil action will surely follow.

Regards and no hard feelings

John

 

One user here has posted 7 messages on totally unrelated threads one was Nikon D810 another one was a scammer on the buy and sell which the moderators have taken care of

Shouting here is not gonna get your money back. Let's face it you had direct contact with the person and has gone on the missing list why all of a sudden you would get a reaction?

Also the fact that there is no reaction or deletion of posts for me this means he has gone dark entirely which brings me to the point that when hosting comes for renewal this forum dies

Folks

This thread now contains so many different issues.

Please keep this thread for news of Adam's well-being.

For other issues covered in this thread,, please follow this guidance: