After the latest police intervention, the controversial kitchen maker staged a dramatic escape from custody at his Maple Mill headquarters in Cardwell Street and fled the country. Later (May 29th), he issued this statement to explain his disappearance.
WHY I AM ON THE RUN
Maple Industries is the world's largest privately owned kitchen company. Its success doesn't rely on a board of directors or a team of advisers. I make the decisions and I deliver affordable kitchens to the public.
But along with its unique success, the company has some unique problems that other businesses simply do not have to deal with. Unfortunately for me, the law is not equal. As well as one law for the good and one law for the bad, it's clear from what you can see in the press and media that there is also one system of law just for me.
Over the last few months I have reported over 40 crimes against me and my business, including armed robbery, attempts of fraud that run into the millions, arson attacks and violent crimes against my employees. Not once have the police investigated these crimes or even taken as much as a single statement from me.
So, when I got wind of yet another armed robbery being planned against one of my kitchen delivery vehicles prior to its execution, I decided that this was not going to be crime number 41 and I would have to put a stop to it myself. It seemed to me that the police had left me with no choice but to give the law a helping hand.
After getting a tip-off that the robbery was about to be carried out, I waited with some volunteer employees and we caught the criminals in the act. I performed a citizen’s arrest and gave the robbers the option of being handed over to the police immediately, or revealing to me who was behind these robberies. They chose to come clean and made statements that led directly back to individuals within Maple Industries. All the Police had to do then was follow up on the information and arrest the 'masterminds'. I made the call to Oldham Police and explained the situation. They responded by dispatching a force of no less than 30 officers. But they were not, as you might suppose, intent on tracking down the people behind the attempted robbery. Amazingly, they were on their way to arrest me for kidnap.
I was preparing to leave for a very important business trip in China and I couldn’t believe that they were serious about coming to arrest me. The first chance I got, I slipped the police and made a run for it, leaving all 30 of them out of breath and way behind.
A trusted friend then took me to France by boat and I made my way to Amsterdam where I boarded a plane to China to conclude my business.
Such clear and repeated displays of a lack of integrity and bias on the part of the police have sent out a clear signal to the whole criminal fraternity in this area. The message is that Maple Industries and Vance Miller are easy targets because the law will turn a blind eye to anything that's done against them.
That leaves me as a sitting duck. It's impossible to fend off hardened criminals with the threat of police action when the police won't take any action. They have already refused to do anything about armed robbers, arsonists and fraudsters and that poses a danger against me and my business.
Well, I won't be a sitting duck. I will protect the welfare of my business and my employees to the best of my ability, even if the police, Oldham Council, and the Trading Standards people continue to pump out yet more negative PR and spin about me.
It's tough to fight back against the propoganda that comes from these supposedly unbiased sources. But with continued pressure, and using the Freedom of Information Act, we have recently forced Oldham Council to drop their blatant lie about there having been 50,000 customer complaints against Maple industries. They admit now that the true figure is just 1,900. And of those, only 73 were confirmed complaints. Only 73, ever! The other 1,827 were a direct result of the Trading Standards Raid ‘Operation Church’ when over 270,000 files and records were seized, leaving our customer base in total limbo, and the advice given to worried customers by Trading Standards was to avoid any further contact with Maple industries. Once again, we did what we had to for the welfare of our customers, and opened our own channels of communication. I have been personally dealing with the mess that Oldham Council and Trading Standards left behind ever since.
I am proud to be one of the largest employers in Oldham and I will do my best to make sure my staff remain safe. Without trying to be cocky, I just have to say that I know - and have evidence to prove - that Oldham Council, via the Trading Standards office, have a clear agenda of their own prepared for me and my Maple Mill premises, and that is the 'real story' behind their campaign against the business. It's an agenda that involves the spending of £116m of tax payers' money. It seems there is no need in Oldham for more dentists, doctors, or teachers and that the NHS already has all the funds it needs.
I am not a criminal, nor am I a kidnapper. I have abided by the law and I have accepted its penalties on occasion. But this time I did what unjust circumstances forced me to do for the protection of my business and my staff - and I would gladly do it again.
I will be back in the UK and calling the police soon.
They can come and bring me back to Oldham whenever they're ready.
Vance Miller - 29/05/07
Previously...
Flat-pack kitchens company boss Vance Miller says it's "business as usual" - and puts his contact details online for puzzled customers.
130 police and trading standards officers raided three homes and the 'Kitchens' company offices and warehouse at Maple Mill in Oldham during the early hours of Wednesday, 29/11/06, arresting Vance Miller, 41, and three others "on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud". Computer equipment and filing cabinets were taken away for examination.
In spite of the disruption, which a company representative described as "an unwarranted and misguided intrusion aimed at a legitimate business concern", Vance Miller maintained that kitchen deliveries would be continuing from Maple Mill and "every single example" of the customer complaints that were said to be behind the surprise raids on his home and offices would be resolved.
The Office of Fair Trading admitted through the local office which had called for the raid that it had yet to see any evidence gathered from the surprise operation and confirmed that Vance Miller was fully entitled to carry on trading as usual.
Deliberately misleading reports leaked by police that "firearms and a quantity of ammunition" had been found at the premises were later explained as "mistakes" that had followed the discovery of a child's toy Spud Gun and a potato in a desk drawer.
In a statement as he returned to work after the 5am raid, Vance Miller said, "It must be difficult for anyone to understand how the staging of this dramatic invasion in the small hours of the morning by such a ridiculously large force can be in any way justified.
"It has to be seen as a pointless over-reaction if there is nothing more behind it than the tiny minority of customer complaints that are unavoidable for any company running an operation of this size.
"It is certainly no help to our customers. It disrupts everything that we have been trying to do to resolve complaints and it is obviously worrying for anyone who has placed an order recently that we are still dealing with.
"Maple Mill sends out hundreds of kitchens every week at very low prices to completely satisfied customers and I want to reassure all our clients that we will be working hard over the next few days to meet all the company's immediate order commitments and that it will be 'business as usual' at Maple Mill in the coming months. The bottom line is that we have what the public wants - unbeatable kitchens at unbeatable prices - and that's what we will continue to deliver".
In a later statement (11/12/06), Vance Miller said:
"First of all, we would like to apologise to our customers for this disruption.
"Contrary to what Trading Standards have to say, we would like to inform all our customers that if anyone still has unresolved issues - they can contact me directly and be assured that any outstanding problems will be dealt with as quickly as humanly possible.
Vance Miller
Kitchens
Maple Mill
Cardwell Street
Oldham
Fax: 01706 821 991
E-mail: kitchensoldham@hotmail.co.uk
"Oldham Tradings Standards have continously refused to work with us to help resolve the complaints they say they have received, yet we have always offered to work with them.
"If they are as fair as they claim to be, they will open a line of communication with us immediately, as we have always requested.
"Once again, we urge Trading Standards to open communications, so that we can work together for the best interests of customers. Let us resolve these complaints!
"And lastly, if you are a competitor, or anyone else with an interest in running down our business, we say this: It's easy kicking us whilst we are trying our best to resolve these issues at Maple Mill. But we have been improving month on month and have brought our complaints at Cardwell Street down a significant amount over the last year".