I’ve just launched a new WordPress website for a Thai Angels, a massage parlour in Maida Hill, North West London. After significant feature creep, instigated by Richard Horwell, from the “basic” version to a realistic presence for a salon – it includes chat, a Covid-19 registration form and allows for more complex bookings with payments, the final result is ready.
13th August 2020 non-payment update
Unfortunately, just a few days after its launch, Richard Horwell, the director of Brand Relations decided to simply not pay me for any of the work. So the new website has been taken offline until the debt is settled. Court action is likely as I will need to force Richard to pay for the involved in creating a new website for his wife’s business. I’ll add updates here when they are available. When this is settled, I’ll provide a link to the new design.
26th July 2021 won case against Richard Horwell
Almost a year after the issue with payment, I’ve had the opportunity to put my grievance to a judge for this small website payment, a debt still owed by Richard Horwell of Brand Relations. In the meantime, he issued a counter-claim for over £9,000 for his alleged “loss of business”.
He routinely mentioned that “he wouldn’t be here” if I hadn’t done something wrong (apparently I took down their main business website). However, the statistics and a correspondence over the “down-time” period showed that it was highly unlikely there were the problems he described. I think the judge couldn’t believe what a poor grasp Richard had over his own business. He seemed completely out of touch and there were so many face palm moments when he stated he “didn’t know what his staff were doing” with excuses such as “he was too busy to deal with that”.
Due to lack of evidence on his part – almost across the board – the judge found in my favour on all counts and now Richard has 14 days to pay up for the original Thai Angels work.
I am glad this is over – it was such a small amount for a small website, but so satisfying to bring down such an entitled and unpleasant man.
To cap it off, he stormed out before the hearing ended, shouting “biased” at the judge. He then came back telling his colleague who was still sitting down: “we’re leaving!” Richard proved to be just self-entitled man that I expected. Is he so important that he has no time or inclination to manage his own staff or run his business effectively?
3rd August 2021 added a Google review
Added a review on Google covering the case with a couple key images from the cache of evidence used in the hearing. Richard repeated some of his erroneous arguments in his reply with a threat of further action. I wonder if he’ll remember to actually provide some evidence if he tries again?
10th July 2022 and another of Richard’s unsatisified contacts
Since the incident with Richard Horwell, I’ve received messages from three separate ex-staff and clients contact me about his awful behaviour. The last of which was today through LinkedIn.
12th May 2023 and yet another unsatisified customer makes contact
Today I received some messages from yet another customer who has felt ripped off by Richard. I gave him some advice about his options and recommended that he proceed with further action as the outlay would be minimal and the potential return substantial.
Always leave a review
Each time I give the same advice, leave reviews at Google, Trustpilot and, if applicable, Glass Door. It all helps inform others of his intimidation and bullying behaviour. Naturally, he will send emails about being sued for any bad reviews, but threats are easy for him and he will never follow through with anything involving the legal profession. As he demonstrated in the small claims court, he has no experience in this area and falls back on intimidation and contrived hearsay rather than actual evidence.
So, if you are affected by Richard Horwell – just do what I did: leave some reviews!
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