Karen and Nick Woodall, with the assistance of Philip Lewis Ogden, a property lawyer, set up a duplicate Centre for Separated Families.

The real Centre for Separated Families went through a rapid series of name changes in 2007, which were mirrored by the duplicate Centre for Separated Families.

The Centre for Separated Families sold its property, 21 Priory Street in York, right in the midst of the name changes.

21 Priory Street was sold for half its market value to a purchaser linked to a director of the Centre for Separated Families.

At the end of the financial year, despite the sale of the property, the Centre for Separated Families was still unable to pay its debts to HM Revenue & Customs.

Karen and Nick Woodall repeatedly extracted equity from the property to fund national surveys and conferences to promote themselves.

21 Priory Street is a large building in the historic Micklegate area of York, which belonged to the Centre for Separated Families.

It was purchased for £80,000 in 1996 with a £120,000 National Lottery grant secured by Karen Woodall and Christine Skinner, and sold eleven years later in 2007 for £368,525.

Several highly suspicious things point to a fraudulent conspiracy between the Woodalls and Philip Lewis Ogden. There is no indication that Christine Skinner had any involvement - she ceased being a director in 1998, though she evidently maintained a longstanding friendship with Karen Woodall.

• Between 2005 and 2007 a series of loans were taken out, using 21 Priory Street as security.

• Within a few weeks of the sale of 21 Priory Street in summer 2007, the charity changed its name twice - from its original name of One Parent Families to Centre for Separated Families, and then to The Centre for Separated Families. Simultaneously, a shelf company set up by Philip Lewis Ogden, a local property solicitor and a director of the Centre for Separated Families, changed its name to Centre for Separated Families (UK) Limited and then to The Centre for Separated Families (UK) Limited. The memorandum and articles of association of the dummy company allowed for the transfer of funds between itself and the genuine company. And, just after 21 Priory Street was sold, the genuine company notified Companies House of a resolution to adopt a new memorandum and articles of association which would allow it to dispose of assets.

• The individual who purchased 21 Priory Street raised the mortgage to do so with the assistance of Philip Lewis Ogden.

• Property prices at the time indicate that 21 Priory Street was sold for around half its market value. Somebody made a profit of around £300,000 on the sale.

• Despite the sale of 21 Priory Street, the Centre for Separated Families declared itself unable to pay its mounting debt to HM Revenue & Customs by the end of that financial year.

The acquisition of 21 Priory Street in York

One Parent Families was a tiny charity founded in York in 1973. Karen Woodall, then known by her maiden name of Karen Richardson, joined its paid staff as a development worker in 1990. On 29 March 1996 One Parent Families was incorporated as a company at Companies House by Philip Lewis Ogden, a director of the charity and a local solicitor. This was done as a requirement of the National Lottery Charities Board, to which the charity had made a grant application. On 8 May 1996 One Parent Families was also registered with the Charity Commission as charity number 1055173.

On 17 May 1996 One Parent Families was awarded £120,000 by the National Lottery (now called Big Lottery Fund). The individuals responsible for the successful application were Karen Richardson, who was appointed General Manager that year, and the Vice Chair of Trustees, Christine Skinner, who was then a PhD student at York University. This was the same Christine Skinner who, fifteen years later in 2011, would coach Maria Miller to misrepresent Department for Work and Pensions research in order to claim that most parents would prefer to make “family based arrangements” for child maintenance rather than use the Child Support Agency. The same Christine Skinner who sat on the Expert Steering Group for child maintenance reform and its telephony sub group alongside Karen Woodall in 2011-2012.

The loans taken out against 21 Priory Street

Around 1999, bitterly divorced father of two, Nick Woodall, joined One Parent Families, initially as a volunteer. He and Karen fell in love, and they set about changing the ethos of the charity to one more inclusive of fathers. So pleased were they with their revolutionary new methods that they began to relinquish their local services and promote themselves nationally.

During the financial year 2004-2005, One Parent Families took out an unsecured loan of £80,000 from Charities Aid Foundation Venturesome, to “be repaid on the sale of any property”.

On 29 January 2005 One Parent Families submitted to Companies House accounts made up to 31 March 2004. The accounts were signed off by Fiona Hubbard, but evidently written by Karen Woodall:

One Parent Families aims to provide parents with the support they need to develop the strength to cope and make positive choices in the future.  In short, we try to help parents on their own to thrive rather than simply survive.  So what does that rather simplistic sounding answer really mean?

It means that we start from a place of understanding the real lives of the people that we work with.  This means that we spend a great deal of time gathering information about the law in this country, the welfare system, housing and other issues that affect parents who are caring for children on their own.  We listen to government and respond to any plans that affect parents on their own and we campaign and press for positive change that will enable children and parents to thrive and grow.

Over the past two years we have watched the emergence of fathers groups both those working to improve the rights of separated fathers and those working to support fatherhood in general.  We have been participating at the heart of this social change and have worked with groups supporting fatherhood to establish a more positive future for separated fathers.  We have also addressed the lack of support to fathers in our region by opening up our services to fathers with regular overnight care of their children alone.

This move has been welcomed by parents who recognise that it is not only the parent with care who needs help after family separation.  Our aim is to help both parents to build strong relationships after separation that are framed around the needs of their children.  We want to support children in separated families too and what better way than ensuring that their parents get the help that they need.  Early indications are that our approach is useful and does indeed help parents to overcome the bitter divisions that can occur during divorce and separation.  What we are doing is not difficult but it does require us to set aside our assumptions about separated parents.  Listening to parents helps us to do this as does our programme of research and our continued use of gender analysis tools to understand the real lives of the parents we work with.

The trustees acknowledge that the financial situation of the charity is untenable on any long term basis at the end of the financial year 2004 and therefore, in order to fulfil their responsibilities as set out in the Memorandum and Articles of Association, urgent action is required.  The trustees also acknowledge that the dependency upon grant income over the past year has affected the smooth running of the organisation and have therefore resolved to effect an immediate move away from dependency on grant income for the on-going core costs of the organisations service delivery.  This will be achieved by the realisation of the capital asset that is the building which, due to the large increase in property prices is now valued in the region of £500,000.   The sale proceeds will be unrestricted funds of the charity.  The trustees will ensure that the realisation of the capital asset is used to secure the long term financial security of the organisation’s services by investing some of the capital into a finance and fundraising strategy that is designed to maximise income from sources other than grant income.  In particular, a new Membership Scheme, corporate fundraising strategy and friends of One Parent Families Support and Information Network Scheme will be developed.  New posts will also be created for marketing and accounting purposes both of which are designed to enhance the organisations capacity to fund its own activities.  [The marketing post was for Karen Richardson and the accounting post was for Nick Woodall.]  Average number of employees 9.  No employee earned £50,000 pa or more.  [i.e. Karen Woodall was being paid up to £50,000.]  The loan £30,000 from Venturesome is unsecured but must be repaid on the sale of any property.  Ms Richardson made an interest free loan to the charity during the year of £12,000.  At 31 March 2004 £9,000 was outstanding. This “loan” from Karen Richardson was to form a pattern: when,

Accounts before 31 March 2004 were legible, sober, and signed by Pauline Viola Nelson.  She had resigned or been ousted during that financial year by Karen Richardson at the age of 68.  In the Annual Return up to 1 October 2005, registered at Companies House on 12 December 2005, Karen Richardson wrote that Pauline Viola Nelson had ceased to be a Director on 15 September 2004.

On 24 June 2005 a secured loan for an unspecified amount was taken out against 21 Priory Street from Barclays Bank. The loan was registered at Companies House on 9 July 2005 and authorised by Harrowell Shaftoe Solicitors, the firm for which Philip Lewis Ogden worked.

On 2 February 2006 a second secured loan for an unspecified amount was taken out against 21 Priory Street from Barclays Bank. The loan was registered at Companies House on 10 February 2006 and authorised by Philip Lewis Ogden at Harrowell Shaftoe Solicitors.

On 18 April 2007 a third secured loan of £80,000 was taken out against 21 Priory Street from the Charities Aid Foundation. The loan was registered at Companies House on 25 April 2007 and authorised by Bates Wells Braithwaite Solicitors in London. This was just a couple of weeks before 21 Priory Street was sold on 11 May 2007.

On 21 March 2007 One Parent Families submitted its accounts up to 31 March 2006, signed off by Fiona Hubbard, Board of Trustees, stating:

“The charity was aware that it would have to fund at least fifty percent of its work through liquidating its assets.  This was because its new work with mothers and fathers was untested and not evaluated and because the ideas and strategies contained therein are completely new to the family services sector in the UK.  The charity, however, resolved to finance the testing and evaluation of these through the use of its own funds so that it could offer evidence of success to future funders of this aspect of its work.”

“The major source of funding for the testing and evaluation of the Children in Focus and other national initiatives was a mortgage secured on the building owned by the charity.”

“The Trustees recognise that the current lack of reserves has led to cash flow difficulties and has resolved to remedy this by implementing the stated policy upon the sale of the building.”

All three secured loans were repaid on 2 June 2007, three weeks after the sale of 21 Priory Street on 11 May 2007.

On 3 October 2007 the Yorkshire Post published an article about the Centre for Separated Families, describing “their pokey first floor office behind a nondescript door” - this was the rented premises in Barker Lane into which the charity downsized after the sale of 21 Priory Street. The article profiled Karen Woodall:

“In 1982, she took a job at a feminist publishing co-op and, in 1990, she started working for the one-parent families group, directing its formal name change and shift in direction in 2005.” This shows that the impetus for the name change came from Karen Woodall.

Philip Lewis Ogden’s many shelf companies

Philip Lewis Ogden works to this day for Harrowells Solicitors in York, and has incorporated over two hundred numbered shelf or shell companies. The first shelf company was incorporated in 1994 as Harrowell Shaftoe (No. 2), company number 2940350. The companies were numbered up to Harrowell Shaftoe (No. 149), company number 6302776, incorporated in 2007. When Harrowell Shaftoe changed its name to Harrowells in 2008, subsequent shelf companies were named Harrowells, starting with Harrowells (NO 150), company number 6563617, going all the way up to Harrowells (NO 219), company number 08626817, incorporated in 2013. Many of these shelf companies subsequently became property companies.

Businessdictionary.com defines a shelf company as a “ready made 'paper company' that has fulfilled all requirements for legal registration, and may be bought by anyone to bypass the lengthy registration or incorporation process. Shelf companies are formed and sold usually by accounting or law firms. Also called blank check company. See also shell company: a non-trading firm formed (and often listed on a stock exchange) as a vehicle to (1) raise funds before starting operations, (2) attempt a takeover, (3) for going public, or (4) as a front for an illegal business.”

Oxford Dictionary defines a shell company as “an inactive company used as a vehicle for various financial manoeuvres or kept dormant for future use in some other capacity”.

Wikipedia defines a shelf company as:  “a company or corporation that has had no activity. It was created and left with no activity – metaphorically put on the "shelf" to "age". The company can then be sold to a person or group of persons who wish to start a company without going through all the procedures of creating a new one.  Common reasons for buying a shelf corporation include:

• To save the time involved in taking the steps to create a new corporation.

• To gain the opportunity to bid on contracts. Some jurisdictions require that a company be in business for a certain length of time to have this ability.

• To show corporate longevity in order to attract consumers or investors.

• To gain access to corporate credit.”

It seems likely that Philip Lewis Ogden and the Woodalls wanted to create the illusion that the dummy company had been established for a couple of years so that fewer checks and restrictions would be imposed when setting up business bank accounts. Then, when it suddenly changed its name to mimic the genuine Centre for Separated Families, proceeds of the sale of 21 Priory Street could be diverted or transferred to it. The flurry of name changes to both the dummy company and the real company were probably done for the purpose of confusing the bank over transfers of funds between the two. Any query over a disparity between names could be brushed off with an explanation that the company was in the midst of a bodged name change with Companies House. The rapid name change adding the definite article “the” happened in quick succession with both the dummy company and the real company.

Note: Documents for the dummy company (5125231) were purchased from Companies House. The company does not appear on the Companies House beta site, in operation since 22 June 2015, as older records for defunct companies have not all been transferred.

The dummy Centre for Separated Families

21 Priory Street was sold at half its market value

The accounts up to 31 March 2004 for One Parent Families state that 21 Priory Street was valued by a surveyor at £500,000 during the financial year 2003-2004. As I do not know the month the survey was carried out, I have picked September 2003, as this was halfway through the financial year.

In September 2003 the average house price was £132,727. By May 2007, four years later, the average house price had risen by 39% to £184,330.

As 21 Priory Street was valued at £500,000 in 2003, it should have sold for around 39% more - £695,000 - in May 2007.

Yet 21 Priory Street was sold for £368,525 on 11 May 2007: 26% less than its value in 2003, and just half (53%) of what it should have fetched.

The buyer of 21 Priory Street

Peter David Mortimer is a property developer, who incorporated his first company, P D Mortimer Developments, on 1 May 2007, just ten days before he purchased 21 Priory Street for half its value.

On 27 July 2007 his firm, P D Mortimer Developments, took out a mortgage presented by Harrowell Shaftoe (before it changed its name), followed by two more mortgages presented by Harrowells on 16 January 2008 and 6 March 2008. Harrowells is the law firm where Philip Lewis Ogden has worked since at least 1995.

After the sale of 21 Priory Street

In her managerial report in 1997, Karen Woodall rejoiced in the charity’s move “From cramped and uncomfortable surroundings to our beautiful new premises in a building which is light and airy and well equipped”. Eleven years later, having sold those “beautiful new premises”, the Centre for Separated Families moved into a “pokey first floor office” in nearby Barker Lane.

In the two years preceding the sale, Karen Woodall, with the collusion of solicitor, Philip Lewis Ogden, had extracted unspecified large sums of money from the charity, via loans secured against 21 Priory Street, in order to further her ambition to be a national leader in a new way of working with separated families. In the accounts up to 31 March 2008, she reported that:

“Despite the sale of the building, the Charity posted a deficit of £23,501 on the Balance Sheet. This was due in large part to a net loss of £60,756 during the year together with a large creditor to HMRC.”

And what of 21 Priory Street? The building was very quickly sold on, and converted into seven leasehold flats.

On 11 September 2007 the Daily Mail published a piece entitled “British family under threat as one in three lives affected by divorce”, outlining a speech by Conservative leader David Cameron on the importance of marriage, underpinned by research promoted by Fathers Direct (now the Fatherhood Institute) and commissioned by Karen Woodall of the Centre for Separated Families.

On 3 October 2007 Karen and Nick Woodall proudly gave an interview to the Yorkshire Post about how they continued to live in separate homes for years in order to ensure stability for their children. Running two homes is expensive, but the couple could afford to do so using the money they had extracted from the Centre for Separated Families. It is clear that Karen Woodall, as the long time General Manager of the charity, was the driving force behind the sale of 21 Priory Street and the sequence of name changes of both the genuine charity and its doppelganger. The Yorkshire Post article states that “in 1990 she started working for the one-parent families group, directing its formal name change and shift in direction in 2005.”

The couple promoted themselves relentlessly as national and international pioneers of “a new way of working with separated families”. Having “secured the major part of a DWP tender to train the new Child Maintenance Options service”, on 16 October 2008 they hired Dexter House opposite the Tower of London to host a one day national conference, “Putting Children First” which “showcased the work done by CSF with Options and the whole family model of support being delivered” and presented the results of a survey of a thousand children, commissioned from One Poll. Iain Duncan Smith and the heads of CAFCASS and the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission were headline speakers alongside Karen Woodall herself, and one participant described the catering as “the best catering I’ve ever had”.

On 8 May 2009 the Centre for Separated Families hosted their first international conference of the “Putting Children First European Forum”, and planned a further conference in Stockholm.

Meanwhile, the Centre for Separated Families was shedding staff and local services. Accounts for the year ending March 2009 reported:

“The Trustees have reviewed the risk posed by the failure to match funding to expenditure and the potential for creditors to seek the winding up of the Charity. In order to manage these risks it has significantly reduced its staff bill and overheads. It has also entered into an agreement with HMRC for the repayment of outstanding PAYE and NIC and has sought to clear the remaining trade creditors. A recovery package is in place with spending being tied strictly to income.” The charity owed £118,398 to HMRC by this point.

“The crisis of funding has meant that two members of staff have been transferred to other agencies and two have been made redundant immediately. The remaining three members of staff have agreed to be retained on nil hours contracts, working at much reduced rates, and only for the hours that existing funding can cover.” The remaining three members of staff were Karen and Nick Woodall, who were busy setting themselves up in London, and a part time administrator called Louise Burke.

“The charity has relinquished its lease on the premises at 3 Barker Lane.” Karen and Nick Woodall had rented serviced office space in London to develop their parental alienation business using the name Centre for Separated Families, but diverting income away from the charity.

By the time that Karen and Nick Woodall became the official darlings of Iain Duncan Smith and Maria Miller in 2011, spearheading the controversial child maintenance reforms, this “national charity” was down to three employees - Karen and Nick Woodall themselves, plus an administrator, Louise Burke, and was officially running from the Woodalls’ rented home in a village outside Richmond - though in fact the couple had effectively abandoned the charity’s Yorkshire incarnation and had set up shop in London. See Separated Families (Europe) Ltd.

Note: One Parent Families was informally known as One Parent Families Advice and Support Information Network (OPFSIN) at some point before its name was formally changed to the Centre for Separated Families. OPFSIN was the name used by Karen Richardson (before her marriage to Nick Woodall) when she authored an Oxfam pamphlet, “See Both Sides: practical guide to gender analysis for quality service delivery” in 2004. The charity runs a legacy website which explains that:

“The Centre for Separated Families began life in 1973 as One Parent Families (later One Parent Families Support & Information Network), based in York.”

The legacy website continues to claim that:

“Today, the Centre for Separated Families is a national organisation and one of the most influential charities in the sector.”