jonathan dabbs
New user
Could you please assist me in finding him as he has one of my cars
Thank you
CARS America, Hailsham
- Thread starter phild
- Start date
Thank you
phild
CCCUK Member
Please PM me your e mail address and I'll give you all his personal details. I had to get a detective agency to recover my car after several failed attempts.
Unfortunately as with some others my car came back in a dreadful state with some original parts missing, parts I'd paid for missing, work paid for not carried out and what work he did do was discovered to a very poor standard requiring redoing.
I know I'm not alone in this situation. We now know he has previous form for this in a previous premises and owes money several suppliers as well as customers. For me, and my sanity, I've just drawn a line under this debacle and cut my losses and moved on.
As for Simmons he tried to bad mouth me and make out all this was my fault. Unfortunately, for him, the person he spoke to is a good friend and he got very short shrift. The mans just total garbage in my opinion.
Squicker
New user
Sorry for the necro but I just stumbled across this thread and am reading it with some horror, shock, and sadness.
I knew Simmons for years and he worked on my '73 Stingray both when at his Bluebell premises and the Hailsham one, and he was diligent and honest. Over the years, we became friends, well, I thought we had but now I feel like I never knew the guy. And I'd pop by just to chat sometimes as we both love music (he plays bass, I play guitar), and I collect cars, so often would drop by to show him my latest new toy.
After COVID, I went by Hailsham to see how he was doing and found him gone, like the rest of you, and part of me was wondering if he had become a 'COVID statistic', but this outcome seems even worse.
What happened in the end, did people get their cars back? Did John face any legal repercussions at all? Is he in business in any form now, that we have to watch out for? I could not find the South East Vehicle Repairs mentioned earlier.
I knew Simmons for years and he worked on my '73 Stingray both when at his Bluebell premises and the Hailsham one, and he was diligent and honest. Over the years, we became friends, well, I thought we had but now I feel like I never knew the guy. And I'd pop by just to chat sometimes as we both love music (he plays bass, I play guitar), and I collect cars, so often would drop by to show him my latest new toy.
After COVID, I went by Hailsham to see how he was doing and found him gone, like the rest of you, and part of me was wondering if he had become a 'COVID statistic', but this outcome seems even worse.
What happened in the end, did people get their cars back? Did John face any legal repercussions at all? Is he in business in any form now, that we have to watch out for? I could not find the South East Vehicle Repairs mentioned earlier.
phild
CCCUK Member
I eventually got my car back but in a pretty poor state, much worse than when he received it so much so I didn't have the means to complete it, given what I had spent with Simmons, so I reluctantly sold it for a considerable loss. An honest Corvette specialist in Kent provided me with support and assistance all through this and he is a complete star in my opinion. I recommend CCM absolutely.
Having said that there are those who did not get their vehicles and/or parts back so were worse off than me.
The local Police did nothing except provide a crime number and so we hired a firm of private investigators who, ironically, were run by ex police officers. who traced him and their intervention caused the return of my vehicle. We were going to take out a private prosecution for recovery of my financial loss but a search of Simmons showed he had no assets to seize, or he had hidden any assets he had. Either way a court case would have achieved nothing other than more cost for me and so I let it go.
I know, from those that contacted me, that there were a few folks of a less accommodating nature than I who were after Simmons but I have no knowledge of any outcome.
A very unfortunate situation but one that I chose to put behind me. As an aside, from the investigations into his affairs', it appeared there was a strong chance he had for some years failed to declare his true VaT and tax status but again I have no idea if the authorities got him.
Roscobbc
Moderator
Unfortunately there are always a few dubious types out there spoiling things for everyone. I can think of a couple of names........
Some are on an 'industrial' scale - read-up about the classic specialist who was based in Maldon - JD Classics and their various identities. Took people for 10's, 100's of thousands of pounds and more. There were peopel who took legal action against the outfit but it didn't stop the activities - they just changed the trading name a few times......ultimately to Woodham Mortimer ltd and just carried on trading and fleecing. They were finally closed down and assets auctioned a month or two ago. A very long and involved scenario involving hi-end classic and race vehicles that continued over many years.........its fascinating reading the sequence of events. Millions involved - https://auction.gjwisdom.co.uk/auctions/catalog/id/298?order=lot_num
Some are on an 'industrial' scale - read-up about the classic specialist who was based in Maldon - JD Classics and their various identities. Took people for 10's, 100's of thousands of pounds and more. There were peopel who took legal action against the outfit but it didn't stop the activities - they just changed the trading name a few times......ultimately to Woodham Mortimer ltd and just carried on trading and fleecing. They were finally closed down and assets auctioned a month or two ago. A very long and involved scenario involving hi-end classic and race vehicles that continued over many years.........its fascinating reading the sequence of events. Millions involved - https://auction.gjwisdom.co.uk/auctions/catalog/id/298?order=lot_num
phild
CCCUK Member
Wow, Simmons was very junior league compared to that lot. I'd heard of JD Classics but read only the tip of a very large iceberg previously.
Squicker
New user
I think Simmons was initially not gaming the customers and that's probably why he was junior league compared to a specifically operated con-effort. I got my '73 big block in 2011 and Simmons looked after it from then until COVID, and in that period he was highly diligent and honest. I am scrupulous about my cars so always double-check any work done, and I am highly challenging on costs, and nothing ever arose.
He was absolutely terrible at communication, the reason being he was essentially a technophobe. I looked at how he was running his email and so on and, being a solution architect, came out in cold sweats! I offered to get him sorted with O365 so he could get mail on his phone and wherever, but the issue was he was so busy working on cars at that time that he never had time to address those things. At one point, his AOL email box was so full of unanswered emails that he ended up buying another plan, but he did not link that to his website, so it essentially was useless in business terms! And if I called him, he invariably had his head in an engine so would not pick up. I often swung by to get his attention, I was OK with this because he did good work at that time.
I know when the lease expired on the Bluebell place it impacted his business, I assume when COVID hit it added to that and he ended up going down this dark path towards the end of his business, perhaps compounded by tax bills catching up with him, as alluded to above, if true (don't know either way). I was concerned at what might have happened to him when I went to Hailsham post-COVID to say hello and found he'd shut up shop, which is why I started searching online to see if he had setup elsewhere, and eventually found this thread.
Sorry for everyone who lost their vehicles and/or parts. A really sad tale all round. I now have one good, super reliable guy, who looks after my cars including the Vette, such people are worth their weight in gold when you find them.
phild
CCCUK Member
In my experience things were going wrong at least since 2018, probably, just for those of us that were in for longer term projects rather than day to day servicing since any shortcomings would have been immediately obvious
.
There was a whole litany of people paying for work/parts which never materialised. In my case when we got the car back it was discovered,, by comparing paid invoices with work done, that work and parts that had been billed and paid for had never been touched. We're talking of many thousand here and that's just my car as there were around another dozen or more folks adversely affected. To this day I am not sure everyone got there cars back.
I remember being contacted by a third party gearbox specialist who had worked on a Mustang box and the specialist was desperately trying to find out who the actual owner was and there were many other similar tales of woe.
Anyhow, that's all history now and my hope is that Simmons got his just desserts from someone/somewhere. But I have no interest in any of this now its a lesson learned albeit the hard way.
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There was a whole litany of people paying for work/parts which never materialised. In my case when we got the car back it was discovered,, by comparing paid invoices with work done, that work and parts that had been billed and paid for had never been touched. We're talking of many thousand here and that's just my car as there were around another dozen or more folks adversely affected. To this day I am not sure everyone got there cars back.
I remember being contacted by a third party gearbox specialist who had worked on a Mustang box and the specialist was desperately trying to find out who the actual owner was and there were many other similar tales of woe.
Anyhow, that's all history now and my hope is that Simmons got his just desserts from someone/somewhere. But I have no interest in any of this now its a lesson learned albeit the hard way.
Chuffer
CCCUK Member
I have been following the JD Classics saga ever since it hit the media ages ago . A so called ` prestige` outfit too . Just shows that people without any scruples get everywhere .
Chuffer
CCCUK Member
Time to move on from PI`s and find some `well handy heavies` to take him for a paddle down the nearest canal with a pair of cement slippers !! My pet hate in life is `wrong `uns ` getting away without just deserves !!!
Squicker
New user
Just read up on the entire JD Classics saga, unbelievable. Even PwC got dragged in! And apparently, the business - under new owners - went bust again last month. Perhaps inevitable when reviving the old name with the preceding rep damage, "a perception takes a moment to make, and a lifetime to break".