so £100k just to file papers then
Apprentice candidate admits fraud!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-12060100
Sadly it's not 'Stuart Baggs - the brand', but wow, I wonder if Lord Sugar was aware he had court proceedings pending while he was on the show?
another forum said:Originally Posted by The Brando
interesting thread, good to find a measured discussion about this on the internet. i have a few things to add:
1. Stuart started BlueWave when he was 14, then incorporated on his 18th birthday. Therefore I would suspect his dad registered the company for him initially, because he wasn't old enough. When he turned 18, they would have dissolved that one and started another BlueWave under his name.
2. If you look at www.gov.im you can find reports and reviews about the isle of man licensing procedures and telecoms industry. these reports do indeed mention BlueWave by name, as one of about 5 or 6 licensed ISPs. BlueWave is talked about in particular because unlike the other it doesn't rely on Manx Telecom's infrastructure - they set up their own wireless WAN
http://www.gov.im/lib/docs/governmen...inalreport.pdf
3. there is no disputing that BlueWave is/was a 'fully licensed telecommunications company.' they are a legitimate business with legal permission to provide all the services they offer. yes they don't have licence that covers cell phones etc. but that's different. do a google search for 'fully licensed' - it's a very common phrase which just means 'we are legit.' it's like saying you're a 'fully qualified' surgeon. the word 'fully' is a bit redundant but you're just reassuring people that you have the proper credentials, not saying you can perform brain-surgery. furthermore, if you pause the episode (approx 29 mins in on iPlayer) you can read the rest of the page on his CV - it's perfectly clear what services he provides - ie. IP-based services. there's even a paragraph at the bottom saying they have plans to enter the mobile market currently sitting before the telecoms commision. there is no deception.
now, let's remember that BlueWave is stuart's REAL-LIFE business, not some hypothetical padding on a CV. they had absolutely no right to insinuate on national TV that his company wasn't the real-deal. you cannot blame him for defending it - i mean what are his business customers going to do if they hear he doesn't have a license.
4. have a look at the Viglen website. it's terrible, by 2001 standards. i think there is a streak of actual incompetence at play here - Sugar and Bordan don't really understand IT like stuart does, they probably don't realize how the internet is revolutionizing telecommunications. it's very plausible that the just made a huge gaff over the license issue.
5. he said he lied about a competitor going bust. ok, bad. the thing is, HE PUT THIS ON HIS INITIAL APPLICATION. they knew all along, he was upfront about it because he cleverly realized they would have dug it up anyway, but if they accepted his application then they couldn't really complain later. that';s why Sugar never made a big deal over that bit
6. Baggs was on Radio 5 yesterday morning with Jo and Jamie. he comes across brighter and more humble in an unedited context (he still boasts but it's usually in jest). anyway he didn't sound like he had anything to hide. he even let mr Internet Service Protocol off the hook saying it was probably just a slip of the tongue (generous. i think the guy was thinking of VoIP and thought you needed to do phones to be a telecoms company)
7. why he was fired without so much as a 'thanks for your effort, good luck'. as has been stated, even if he was wrong about the license, that's still hardly grounds for sacking. this is what i reckon happened: Stuart was one of the very few candidates who actually got what Alan Sugar was about and had a CV to reinforce the point. Therefore Sugar let him stay on the show. But here's the thing, Sugar's not ultimately looking for the next entrepreneurial genius. He's looking for a glorified project manager. What Stuart was offering - to start new companies, to play with millions in venture capital, etc. was in theory exactly what the Apprentice is about but in practice not what the winner would actually be doing, not remotely (although they don't like to let on). therefore Stuart just wasn't a fit for the role, and would need to be let go. Sugar planned to fire him in the normal fashion at this stage, but in the back of his mind he knew it was exposing the show as bull****. when it got in the boardroom, Stuart didn't budge an inch, and flat out contradicted Sugar (not even trying to make a plea, just flat out 'not the case, you're wrong' which you don't hear often), at which point he snapped. so it was a combination of
- Sugar having already decided to fire him for unrelated reasons
- Sugar knowing in his heart of hearts that this was bull**** and feeling guilty
- Stuart standing up to him in the boardroom instead of going quietly
that made him lose his temper
Thing is The Brand is better off not having the job. He really is a 'brand' now with offers to do television shows and stuff. He may have been overly cocky and bullish throughout the series (although he was surrounded by prats), but the injustice of his departure has won him the sympathy card and made him the plucky underdog all of a sudden. In this respect, it's the ideal outcome for Baggs
8. What's all the fuss about Liz, honestly. She's just a bright girl with a business degree. She'll make a good business woman for a big corporation one day (wait, who am i kidding, she'll end up doing a crap TV show), but she's hardly set the world alight so far. yeah she got a big order for the baby vest thing, but to be honest Louise Woodward could have got a big order for that particular product. She had common sense and the energy to get things moving and a pleasant personality but demonstrated absolutely zero business insight. The pricing cockup on the bus episode, the blame was shared with Stewart but he HAD made some impressive business decisions/deals up to that point, Liz had just coasted by on general competence and now she'd made a fatal error the first time she was really tested (actually she had made a few errors on numbers before but managed to shift the blame). Don't get me wrong, good candidate, but she's not Jesus.
