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I am Kahlua Cameron, owner of Capri Skies.   The purpose of this statement is to outline definitively who I am, what happened, the perceived reasons for delays in dispatching dresses, what went on with Capri Skies in the build up to its collapse and finally inform the public what is going to happen in the forthcoming weeks. 

I will, I suspect, be declared bankrupt in the next couple of months.  Currently I am not in Glasgow.  I am not on holiday in the sun in Florida as many people think.  I am in hiding following threats on my life and the lives of my children. Police are investigating this matter – Crime Reference number PSPUD00390609.  I do not live in a big house in the Mearns.  It is a three bedroom semi, not even worthy of a photograph in the tabloids.

I am a sole trader – Kahlua Cameron t/a Capri Skies.  What this means is that I am personally liable for any outstanding debts associated with Capri Skies.  I am not a limited company.  The difference is that if I was a Managing Director of a limited company I could have taken substantial wages and dividends and folded the company for a token administration fee.  This is not the case with Capri Skies.  I am personally liable for any debts accrued with Capri Skies and my creditors.  I will, I suspect be made bankrupt in the next couple of months.  My husband may also be made bankrupt as we have no means to pay the joint loans we took out to finance my venture. 

I am not flash and if you speak to anyone in the bridal industry (other than Karen Boyd – I’ll get on to her) I am quite modest.  I am starting from scratch along with my husband.  I have lost everything when Capri Skies failed.  I am sure a large number of brides to be out there are happy and delighted with this fact.  Fair enough, you are entitled to your opinion.   Before finalising your opinion please take time to read the following – it is truthful and honest and outlines the events surrounding the demise of Capri Skies.

I have three children, 4, 2 and 13 weeks.  My life is chaotic at the best of times.  A year and a half ago I employed a manager, Karen Boyd, who is also the national sales agent for Christina Rossi.   Karen came from Roberta Buchan where she systematically tried to put Capri Skies out of business by spreading malicious gossip about my store(but when she came looking for a job I figured she was better on my side than not!)  I have only worked in the Ayr store for 4 days during this time and have not worked in the Glasgow store at all. Karen Boyd has been totally in charge of all aspects of running the day-to-day business.

I am not looking to shift blame for the demise of Capri Skies. I am the owner and take responsibility for its collapse.  It is me who will go to court when I am announced bankrupt.   I am a business and in my eyes the shops did not sell enough and were the victims of the recession.  This is what I thought.  I am human and in reading this I sincerely hope that you see through the villain the tabloids would have you believe I am.  I set up a business five years ago after I got married.  I have a zest for life and I am a go getter if a little hampered by my merry brood!!   I am not dishonest and have not screwed anyone over.  Since the turn of the year I have been down on monthly takings by about 20%. 

Much of the speculation and hatred from customers has come from the perception that I have been swanning around having taken money knowing that the business was going bust.  This is not the case.  I have been paying bills and suppliers continually.  Although it had become increasingly difficult to satisfy everyone I paid thousands to Glasgow city council and all the other utility bills associated in running the business.  I was still paying suppliers even in the days before the shops were closed by Karen Boyd.  At the start of the month the stores had an awful couple of weeks.  Couldn’t have come at a worse time.  Dresses were needed and we knew we had to hit the targets.  The stores were not even slightly meeting these targets and I attempted to get additional funding but no one is lending in this climate.  The government has bailed the banks out but the reality is that they are just keeping this money and not passing it on. On the Friday the stores closed I was not aware of any problems until later in the evening as I was in meetings all afternoon. I was informed by family of the media report speculating that Capri Skies may have gone into administration. This was not true however due to the delicate nature of the bridal industry and all the brides, quite rightly, worrying about their gowns it became quickly apparent that I would no longer be able to trade. No-one has compelled me to stop trading but the nature of the industry dictated that the Saturday after would have been full of brides looking for their gowns and no staff to deal with this.  There was no way we could open the doors on Saturday. There would have been serious public disorder and any staff would have been in danger.  On Friday evening Karen Boyd and her husband Brian emptied my shop of most sample stock and removed paperwork from customer gowns which has made it difficult to trace owners of gowns.

The following media that ensued was for us unbelievable. I could not have comprehended the magnitude of what followed.  I only had my third child three months ago, and maybe I am guilty of being so far removed from my business that I didn’t comprehend what was going on.  My role in the business has been to pay suppliers as and when needed.  I have not worked in the business since Karen started working for us as she said she preferred to be the boss and not have us interfering.  At the time, prior to the recession she was hitting her targets and everyone was happy.  But since the turn of the year we have been seriously down on cash.  Karen Boyd, our manager has only ever reported to us a minimal number of cash sales per month, extremely low compared to last year’s figures.   If you paid in cash please read on.  I need to get your paperwork.

I thought that this was due to the fact that customers were becoming increasingly wary of the fact that if a business went bust then they would be covered if they had paid by card.  Genuinely Karen has only reported to us minimal amounts of cash.   There appears to be huge amounts of cash that has gone missing. I have not been on top of the figures as much as I should have been due to the kiddies.

Saturday the 31st was spent trying to establish, rather unsuccessfully, what to do.  There is a misconception that just because you are in business you know what to do if it goes wrong – yes, you call in the administrators –is that under A in the Yellow pages.  I have no money, who pays for it?  Liquidation?  All of this costs money to get an answer.  By the very nature of going out of business, who pays for it?  Ltd company is easier.  I couldn’t get an answer over the weekend.  No one had forced me to close and I was a sole trader. No one could offer a solution.   That is another reason why there was a delay over the weekend in opening to distribute dresses.  On Saturday night into Sunday morning I received the most horrendous death threats against my family and I and my home address, my place of safety was put out to the public domain. I had angry and aggressive people trying to get into my house so much so that police attended my home for much of the weekend even although I wasn’t there. Have you any idea how that feels? Not only have I lost my livelihood and my business that I have worked so hard at over the past 5 years to build but that people are hating me so much for this? It is truly unbelievable. My family and I went into hiding for our safety with virtually no money.  On Monday my husband contacted citizens’ advice, no fancy lawyers or solicitors.  I was advised to put out a press statement to the media and on my website.  Whilst the person spoken to was helpful and discussed outcomes for me and my family it was very complicated regarding the business.  My short term goal was to get the 200 odd dresses in Glasgow that had been hanging up out to the public.  I wasn’t even sure before speaking to Citizens advice if i was allowed to do this.  The obvious problem was that if I or my husband handed them out we would be in danger.  It was obvious that we had a logistical problem on our hands.  Monday was spent trying to work out how to get things moving.  Also I was surrounded by three kids under 4 who knew something was wrong but couldn’t go to nursery because of the death threats.  On Monday night my parents received death threats and visits to their home and we realised how serious the situation was.   We were at this stage trying desperately to get gowns out to our customers but being hampered by seriously worrying threats. 

On Tuesday morning and after hours on the phone liaising with Strathclyde police we, with the help and support of bridal professionals who respected me, my husband and my parents came up with a solution to dispatch all gowns.  Strathclyde police ensured the protection of an independent group of people who could open the shop on Tuesday and dispatch urgent dresses.  There was no commercial or financial reason for the dispatching of gowns.  I am going bust no matter what.  It would have been easier and safer to just let a trustee several months down the line handle the situation.  The courage of all the persons involved, including my parents, should be applauded.  Also, it would not have been possible without the cooperation of Strathclyde Police who, on realising there was no financial gain for me handing out gowns, committed resources to the policing of the queue outside our shop which was filled with, what turned out to be genuine non aggressive brides to be.

The week that has just been saw dozens of revelations into the circumstances surrounding the demise of Capri Skies. I believe Karen Boyd was instrumental in the demise of Capri Skies.  I believe she collapsed Capri Skies to make room for her bridal business that I have been informed is due to open up at the end of June.  I already have the details of a couple of brides who were told by Karen at the start of the month that they wanted to buy dresses and were told by her to wait until her shop opened in a month.  Is there anyone else out there who was discouraged from buying a dress because of her shop?  I believe she systematically meant to put us out of business.  This sabotaging of a business is a crime.  Maybe the awful two/three weeks at start of the month was due to poor sales or was it due to her putting us out of business.  Her business is due to open in next few weeks, rumour has it around about George Square.  With us out the market she could take over easily.  I believe she is responsible for the hundreds of brides who will not get their dresses.  She is trying to be the hero asking for girls to give her paperwork.  I believe she is trying to cover her actions.  Vital paperwork has been removed from our store.  Brian, her husband tried to get in over the weekend but the lock had been changed by my husband.  He then tried to bully his way past the sales rep of another bridal supplier who was helping us distribute dresses.  His access, much to his annoyance was denied.  Karen Boyd has been planning this for months.  She has been taking her £2200 per month wage after tax from me and been setting up another business in competition at the same time.  At the very least this was deceitful and unprofessional with such a conflict of interest.

Other sources more recently have come forward with details of what is a bigger  and more hurtful betrayal .  Many people have been coming forward over the past few days with paperwork that to us does not make sense and having spoken to staff and customers I am deeply concerned.  I believe Karen who is also the UK agent for Christina Rossi alongside 2 other employees has been systematically stealing money  from Capri Skies. Several members of the public have approached my mother, Margaret Curdy stating they paid cash for gowns and produced receipts for this. These cash amounts have never been recorded by Karen Boyd in our sales books.  Our copies of these receipts have been removed from the shop and Karen has made contact with the media asking girls to get their paperwork to her, perhaps in a bid to cover her tracks. Daily sales books from before December 2008 have been removed from the shop without authorisation. Preliminary research into the books shows that  this stealing has massivley  accelerated over the past month and was the difference between us staying in business and going bust.  The difference between brides getting their gowns and not.   Several members of staff have come forward telling us that they couldn’t believe how Kathleen Sweeney and Diane Donohoe were assisting Karen Boyd in the stealing of money from Capri Skies.  Apparently my staff was informed by Karen to insist on cash as the merchant terminal went straight to our personal account and she needed cash to pay suppliers to ensure they kept their job. This is totally untrue! Were you forced or pressured into paying cash?  Were you told the merchant terminal in Glasgow was broken, were you escorted to an ATM?  Please contact us if this happened to you or if you had any strange credit card issues at the time of purchase. We are currently building a case against all 3 staff members. Karen, if you are reading this I hope you know I will do everything within my power to secure a conviction and truly hope that you go to jail,   you deserve it after screwing me over and all the hundreds of brides over.  Did you think you’d be the hero?  Let leak in a chat room in the next few days that following what happened with Capri Skies you decided you would open up on your own.  I know you have been planning this for months.  Diane and Kathleen if you are reading this I was speechless when I was told you were stealing from me.   I can handle being bankrupt.  I’ll make money again but you guys looked after my kids!  You held them and played with them while stealing from their mother! Karen is ruthless and I am not surprised by her capacity for this, but you guys!  Gutted doesn’t begin to describe how I feel.  Diane I have a photo of you holding my beautiful baby boy and yet you helped steal from my business in a recession.  Threats have been made on his life.  He has spent the last week crying saying he wants to see his best pal at nursery and wants to go home and we can’t because of you!  Who knows what the economy would have caused the business to do but you stole from a business in a recession!  You cost your colleagues a livelihood!  We were profitable!  We could have made it! Did you all seriously screw over the business this month to make some last money in cash before you go and work for Karen in her new place?

If you have bought a dress from Capri Skies and have been unable to track details of the supplier etc please be in touch and we will do our level best to try to resolve the situation for you. My personal email address is jamescameron879@btinternet.com. Karen has blocked the use of my Capri Skies account probably to stop brides contacting me.  Karen is not a representative of Capri Skies and paperwork should not be sent to her.

If you paid by cash, had problems with your card, refunds, done out of sight, (Karen has a credit card terminal at home!) paid by card on which was processed on a Sunday, card receipt not saying Capri Skies, no receipt at all, being told terminal out of paper, terminal not working, being escorted to ATM, asked for cash, discount for cash etc .  Please come forward and contact us on 0141 639 3717 or email my personal email address.  This stealing could reach 10s of thousands of pounds worth- more than enough to have kept Capri Skies in business.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I am truly sorry for all brides who have had to deal with such stress near to their big days and wish you all a very happy wedding day and a peaceful, happy and healthy life together.