Fraud Squad in Rom Data probe

THE Serious Fraud Office is to investigate the affairs of Rom Data, the computer firm from Falmouth which once employed almost 200 people and crashed 12 months ago owing more than £1.6 million.

The Devon and Cornwall Police are also to be involved in the enquiries into the company which folded days after its founder John Dawson resigned and later left the country.

Mr Dawson, from Bath, set up Rom Data in 1991 with the help of a huge grant from the Department of Trade and Industry. It also received a bank loan of £250,000.

More than 12 months ago the then still struggling company approached local MP Seb Coe for help and he lobbed the DTI for a further £250,000.

Many of the staff at Rom Data had not been paid and it was not the first time they had found themselves without wages.

When the situation failed to improve Mr Coe said he was concerned about the company but could do little more.

At the end of November Mr Dawson left the company and within a couple of weeks the tax man had been in and taken his share and the company closed down with other creditors counting the cost.

Rom Data employed 100 people at that time and it was just weeks before Christmas. It left many employees bitter and determined to fight for compensation.

Mr Coe said one of the things the fraud office would be looking at was whether Rom Data overstepped the mark in terms of British commercial law.

The plight of ex-Rom Data employees was taken up by Plymouth Devonport MP David Jamieson who has asked a number of questions in the House of Commons over the DTI handling of the affair and he has welcomed the fraud office investigation.

Penryn’s shortlisting for university site welcomed with open arms

THE shortlisting of land at Penryn as a possible site for a University of Cornwall has been welcomed with open arms.

Not least by the mayor of Penryn, Harry Grant, who originally urged his colleagues to lobby for the Enys Estate to be chosen and persuaded them to back council funding for a special report to be prepared.

“I am now hopeful,” he said. “I am delighted we have got through into the last four. We have overcome the first hurdle.”

He said the advantages such a development could bring to Penryn were enormous. A dying town could be put back on its feet. It was well worth fighting for and he was pleased they had gone this far.

The announcement that Enys was on the shortlist of four came on Friday when the University of Exeter made their preliminary findings public.

The steering group established to pursue the chance of a new university campus in Cornwall had 12 sites to choose from. The final four including Enys, is land to the east of Newquay in the possession of the Duchy of Cornwall, part of the Scorrier Estate, Redruth and Trereife, Penzance.

Further investigation will now be carried out into the potential of the sites and a single site announced in the spring of next year.