“not entitled to”! Really?? It’s not an entitlement - it was a charitable donation. I gave, so I say they ARE entitled to it!
I wondered how long it would take for some mean-minded person to start on this “they aren’t entitled to charity” crap. At least it took 14 pages for you to raise your head…
edit to add Of course, losing a loved one is purely a way for people to pocket a few extra quid,isn’t it? 
Tris:
Someone is telling lies, maybe both parties are being economical and/or putting a gloss on their side.
Its why I havnt been getting over worked up over it. Theres always three sides to a story. One sides version, the other sides version and then theres what actually took place.
Im a naturally cynical person but even I find it hard to believe that upon hearing on Pauls death, the first thing they did was go “Oh god, what about the load. Quick, get someone out there for the lorry. Forget the driver, we’re not insured so its not our problem”. Although I do think they have handled it VERY cack handedly and could have done it much more sensitively, I just cant see them being so insensitive they decided to wash their hands of the matter once the lorry was organised.
Maybe the Stanyards are telling the truth, maybe its Matthews. None of us know 100% yet, and may never know. All I know is the stories dont match so “picking sides” and arguing doesnt help anything. Taking the stanyards side (for want of a better phrase) is fine if thats what someone believes but threatening to burn lorries with drivers in it is out of order, whatever the circumstances and definitely when you are not in possession of all the facts
The Sarge:
“not entitled to”! Really?? It’s not an entitlement - it was a charitable donation. I gave, so I say they ARE entitled to it!
I wondered how long it would take for some mean-minded person to start on this “they aren’t entitled to charity” crap. At least it took 14 pages for you to raise your head…edit to add Of course, losing a loved one is purely a way for people to pocket a few extra quid,isn’t it?
I donated too, only a fiver, to repatriate Paul. Not to pay for the funeral. I have money put aside to cover things like that. My parents made provision for it too. I think it’d be a ■■■■■ thing to do to use money that’s been donated to get a freebie for something everyone else has to pay for themselves. As soon as I saw that the donations page wasn’t closed at 10k I thought it was a bit fishy. Now it turns out repatriation costs a quarter of what was donated and there’s 15K they aren’t entitled to. Anything over the cost of repatriation should go to charity.
The-Snowman:
Tris:
Someone is telling lies, maybe both parties are being economical and/or putting a gloss on their side.Its why I havnt been getting over worked up over it. Theres always three sides to a story. One sides version, the other sides version and then theres what actually took place.
Im a naturally cynical person but even I find it hard to believe that upon hearing on Pauls death, the first thing they did was go “Oh god, what about the load. Quick, get someone out there for the lorry. Forget the driver, we’re not insured so its not our problem”. Although I do think they have handled it VERY cack handedly and could have done it much more sensitively, I just cant see them being so insensitive they decided to wash their hands of the matter once the lorry was organised.
Maybe the Stanyards are telling the truth, maybe its Matthews. None of us know 100% yet, and may never know. All I know is the stories dont match so “picking sides” and arguing doesnt help anything. Taking the stanyards side (for want of a better phrase) is fine if thats what someone believes but threatening to burn lorries with drivers in it is out of order, whatever the circumstances and definitely when you are not in possession of all the facts
All this stuff about you can have 5k if you don’t go to the press… I reckon it’s more likely they offered 5k (enough to repatriate) and she then threatened going to the press as she wanted Matthews to cough up more as they had no life insurance. Thereupon she cut any dialogue and started a campaign to smear the company to raise enough to pay for the repatriation AND THE FUNERAL.
Sorry Tris. it is my opinion that you are a bit of an arse.
Tris:
The Sarge:
“not entitled to”! Really?? It’s not an entitlement - it was a charitable donation. I gave, so I say they ARE entitled to it!
I wondered how long it would take for some mean-minded person to start on this “they aren’t entitled to charity” crap. At least it took 14 pages for you to raise your head…edit to add Of course, losing a loved one is purely a way for people to pocket a few extra quid,isn’t it?
I donated too, only a fiver, to repatriate Paul. Not to pay for the funeral. I have money put aside to cover things like that. My parents made provision for it too. I think it’d be a [zb] thing to do to use money that’s been donated to get a freebie for something everyone else has to pay for themselves. As soon as I saw that the donations page wasn’t closed at 10k I thought it was a bit fishy. Now it turns out repatriation costs a quarter of what was donated and there’s 15K they aren’t entitled to. Anything over the cost of repatriation should go to charity.
Tell you what Tris, if you so outraged why do you just contact the family directly and ask for the money back, I’m sure they would love to hear from you. Probably best as you appear to be suggesting that they are on the make so who knows, they might start lying about any charity donations too.
Do us a favour though and post up a copy of your email to them for us all to see.
Better still, if you are so upset and out of pocket go apply for a job with Mathews themselves, they will probably have a few vacancies and I reckon accusing a grieving wife of trying to rip you off ,you will be straight in at director level with the rest of the lowlife scum.
I’d be ■■■■■■■ ashamed if I had posted what you posted above.
Edit: nope, you’re even worse, what an utter ■■■■ you are. Hope you can evidence your accusation of blackmail, if I was a member of the family reading that I would consider action.
It was a fiver from me. £25 Night out money. 10 hours overnight rest on average. I had to sleep for two hours to earn that.
I didn’t give it on condition that I get it back if the fund overshot. Good luck to 'em, I hope they buy a jug of Sangria with it and raise a glass in the guy’s honour.
Norfolkinclue1:
Tris:
The Sarge:
“not entitled to”! Really?? It’s not an entitlement - it was a charitable donation. I gave, so I say they ARE entitled to it!
I wondered how long it would take for some mean-minded person to start on this “they aren’t entitled to charity” crap. At least it took 14 pages for you to raise your head…edit to add Of course, losing a loved one is purely a way for people to pocket a few extra quid,isn’t it?
I donated too, only a fiver, to repatriate Paul. Not to pay for the funeral. I have money put aside to cover things like that. My parents made provision for it too. I think it’d be a [zb] thing to do to use money that’s been donated to get a freebie for something everyone else has to pay for themselves. As soon as I saw that the donations page wasn’t closed at 10k I thought it was a bit fishy. Now it turns out repatriation costs a quarter of what was donated and there’s 15K they aren’t entitled to. Anything over the cost of repatriation should go to charity.
Tell you what Tris, if you so outraged why do you just contact the family directly and ask for the money back, I’m sure they would love to hear from you. Probably best as you appear to be suggesting that they are on the make so who knows, they might start lying about any charity donations too.
Do us a favour though and post up a copy of your email to them for us all to see.
Better still, if you are so upset and out of pocket go apply for a job with Mathews themselves, they will probably have a few vacancies and I reckon accusing a grieving wife of trying to rip you off ,you will be straight in at director level with the rest of the lowlife scum.
I’d be [zb] ashamed if I had posted what you posted above.Edit: nope, you’re even worse, what an utter [zb] you are. Hope you can evidence your accusation of blackmail, if I was a member of the family reading that I would consider action.
So you think Matthews said they could have 5k so long as they don’t go to the press without the family having mentioned going to the press? It doesn’t make any sense for Matthews to even mention this as a condition if it hadn’t been thrown at them in the first place. Furthermore the company had provided the number to contact the owner whereupon matters could have been discussed further. No further contact was made. There now seems to be another side to this and in my judgement Matthews probably aren’t as awful as has been made out.
The-Snowman:
Evil8Beezle:
You wouldn’t want to click a link saying something like “Battered Brownie” and find out it’s not about food!Why do you think im so paranoid in the first place!
Lets just say I clicked an email entitled “dirty ■■■■■■” and I spent 25 minutes watching a game of rugby and I feel cheated
if I clicked on a link saying “battered brownie” then id be thinking they had a new menu in a Glasgow chippy… 
Tris:
Rikki-UK:
Matthews International Transport:
The company was devastated to hear of the death of our employee Paul Stanyard.The circumstances are Paul was driving to Greece via Italy, a run he had done many times. He was having his weekly break in Ancona Italy. On Sunday 31st July, we sent him emails with details of his ferry, and when he did not respond, we tried to phone him twice on the Sunday but unfortunately did not get a response.
On the Monday morning we tried again to contact him; there was no response.
We also tried on several occasions to contact his partner Pam, but we didn’t get a response.
We then contacted the Italian police to check on him, this was Monday afternoon, the Italian police reported back to us that they went to the parking place, had to break into the truck and
unfortunately found our employee Paul deceased.We again phoned his partner Pam several times to inform her, but no answer.
The next morning Pam returned our calls and told us she had been informed overnight by the British Consulate, not via a text message as our ex driver Malcolm Harper claimed.
We subsequently received an email from Pam setting out funeral arrangements, apparently Pam had been advised by the British Consulate (who didn’t speak with us) that the company would sort it out.
On Wednesday we made contact with Paul’s son Carl, who was in Mexico at the time, we Confirmed that the company did not provide life insurance for our employees other than accident injury, and Carl confirmed that Paul also had no life insurance cover.
We have offered to fly the family out to Italy. We have also offered £5000 to assist in repatriation.
We understand that the average cost of repatriation is £3,800 and we have not been supplied with any invoices or documentation setting out the cost of repatriating Paul.
We have asked that the family make contact with our Managing Director and provided them with his direct office line. We have not received a reply.
We are a family run business for 45 years and do not walk away from our responsibilities. We understand Paul has passed through natural causes. We have received threats and intimidation from members of the public which we consider unwarranted and tantamount to blackmail.I’m now in two minds over this. If what Matthews have said is the truth then I can’t see how they can be criticised too much. Someone is telling lies, maybe both parties are being economical and/or putting a gloss on their side. I do think Matthews were wrong to set a figure they would pay. They clearly should have payed whatever it cost to repatriate Paul. From then on though it’s up to the family to pay for the funeral etc. As it stands there’s now 22k in the pot. Not being funny but if repatriation comes to 4k,then that’s 18k that the family are not entitled to in my opinion. If they could afford to retire to Spain then they don’t deserve charity to pay for a funeral and then pocket what’s left over.
why am I thinking of the mcanns cashcow now after reading that…or is it only me again?..it started off me thinking he was on a 45 and snuffed it…now he was on a weekend 45 etc…they still should have just paid to get him home and take the insurance to the ombudsman but where do you draw the line if he went fishing and fell in the river,or drowned swimming on the beach,done in outside a baghouse ■■■■■■■■■ doubt he wasn’t ,but I can now see why the insurance co have the means to wriggle out of paying…he could have went to a hotel for the weekend and fell in the pool…different bucket of eels when you see he was on a weekender…no matter what,matthews should have got him home,then done the doings later once the greif died down for the fam.
dieseldog999:
Tris:
Rikki-UK:
Matthews International Transport:
The company was devastated to hear of the death of our employee Paul Stanyard.The circumstances are Paul was driving to Greece via Italy, a run he had done many times. He was having his weekly break in Ancona Italy. On Sunday 31st July, we sent him emails with details of his ferry, and when he did not respond, we tried to phone him twice on the Sunday but unfortunately did not get a response.
On the Monday morning we tried again to contact him; there was no response.
We also tried on several occasions to contact his partner Pam, but we didn’t get a response.
We then contacted the Italian police to check on him, this was Monday afternoon, the Italian police reported back to us that they went to the parking place, had to break into the truck and
unfortunately found our employee Paul deceased.We again phoned his partner Pam several times to inform her, but no answer.
The next morning Pam returned our calls and told us she had been informed overnight by the British Consulate, not via a text message as our ex driver Malcolm Harper claimed.
We subsequently received an email from Pam setting out funeral arrangements, apparently Pam had been advised by the British Consulate (who didn’t speak with us) that the company would sort it out.
On Wednesday we made contact with Paul’s son Carl, who was in Mexico at the time, we Confirmed that the company did not provide life insurance for our employees other than accident injury, and Carl confirmed that Paul also had no life insurance cover.
We have offered to fly the family out to Italy. We have also offered £5000 to assist in repatriation.
We understand that the average cost of repatriation is £3,800 and we have not been supplied with any invoices or documentation setting out the cost of repatriating Paul.
We have asked that the family make contact with our Managing Director and provided them with his direct office line. We have not received a reply.
We are a family run business for 45 years and do not walk away from our responsibilities. We understand Paul has passed through natural causes. We have received threats and intimidation from members of the public which we consider unwarranted and tantamount to blackmail.I’m now in two minds over this. If what Matthews have said is the truth then I can’t see how they can be criticised too much. Someone is telling lies, maybe both parties are being economical and/or putting a gloss on their side. I do think Matthews were wrong to set a figure they would pay. They clearly should have payed whatever it cost to repatriate Paul. From then on though it’s up to the family to pay for the funeral etc. As it stands there’s now 22k in the pot. Not being funny but if repatriation comes to 4k,then that’s 18k that the family are not entitled to in my opinion. If they could afford to retire to Spain then they don’t deserve charity to pay for a funeral and then pocket what’s left over.
why am I thinking of the mcanns cashcow now after reading that…or is it only me again?..it started off me thinking he was on a 45 and snuffed it…now he was on a weekend 45 etc…they still should have just paid to get him home and take the insurance to the ombudsman but where do you draw the line if he went fishing and fell in the river,or drowned swimming on the beach,done in outside a baghouse ■■■■■■■■■ doubt he wasn’t ,but I can now see why the insurance co have the means to wriggle out of paying…he could have went to a hotel for the weekend and fell in the pool…different bucket of eels when you see he was on a weekender…no matter what,matthews should have got him home,then done the doings later once the greif died down for the fam.
It does seem that Pam was under the impression that Matthews would pay for the funeral as this is how she understood it from the consulate. I doubt very much the consulate would advise this, however it’s understandable that she might have got confused in the circumstances.
The onus was on Matthews to pay to repatriate the body to a funeral directors in the UK, and it seems that they would have done this, and they offered to pay for the family to fly out to Italy.
Now I’ve heard their side of the story I can’t see any fault on their part other than perhaps setting a figure to repatriate regardless of the fact the figure exceeded what it would cost.
The Sarge:
“not entitled to”! Really?? It’s not an entitlement - it was a charitable donation. I gave, so I say they ARE entitled to it!
I wondered how long it would take for some mean-minded person to start on this “they aren’t entitled to charity” crap. At least it took 14 pages for you to raise your head…edit to add Of course, losing a loved one is purely a way for people to pocket a few extra quid,isn’t it?
obviously nobody wants to lose a loved one,and once theyre gone theyre gone…im quite sure theres masses grudge the mc canns every penny since they started a pr excersise to milk it to death as soon as it became a cashcow.if it was me and mine,id just want it to by my business and nobody elses for pride,and dignity reasons alone…only because its hit media coverage has it happened,theres masses of similar tragedies that don’t make news…look at the 2 tramps that are refered to as the peru 2.only because theyre a pair of spunktrumpets and made media interest have they became news…the latin American jails are full of European and white drug mule scumbags having done exactly the same as them,the only difference is that nobody cares as they didn’t make front page news. no doubt theres been plenty of poor souls died abroad this year alone that have been nobodies business but their own.all of a sudden its paul this,and pam that as if we al know them personally when in reality you would pass them in the street without a glance.matthews wont lose a penny in turnover,nobody other than truckies and the lemming faceache masses will care in the slightest,least of all ayone in government for wherever the petition ends up going.j.leave them alone and let them get on with it would be the decent thing to do.once they don’t donate it all to charity etc,then see how public opinion changes or otherwise and it might stop being poor pauland poor pam.
Nasty, nasty mean minded person…
It seems so obvious but why has a large international transport firm that covers Europe and TIR countries NOT used the services of Transmed who with one phone call, got all this sorted out with no problems or drama .
They fly injured drivers home and also cover bringing home a deceased driver .
The clause of being on a break is ludicrous, the driver is still on duty and in charge of his load and lorry .
The Sarge:
Nasty, nasty mean minded person…
And the abuse directed at the Matthews family hasn’t been nasty… and based on their statement not deserved. The bottom line is they can afford to live out in Spain so don’t see why they deserve £15000 over and above the cost of repatriation. Even after the cost of the service, burial and head stone at about £4000 tops that still leaves over £10000.
"According to Saga, the average repatriation claim is for £3,800, although a spokesman said claims could be considerably higher from more remote locations. Cremation claims abroad average £1,700. The most expensive repatriation destinations are China, South America and Japan, where claims can be as high as £17,000. Specialist firms negotiate discounts with local operators to keep costs low.
Steve Rowland of Rowland Brothers said: “It might be possible to pay as much as £7,000 to bring someone back from Spain, but we would hope to do it for under £3,500.”
Therefore the £5000 figure that Matthews suggested was enough, and when you combine that with their offer to fly the family out I can’t see what they’ve done wrong really.
The family initially wanted £10000 so I can only assume they wanted a free funeral and expected Matthews to pay for it.
I hope people now stop hounding the company as they don’t deserve it.
Along with a number of others on here, I am starting to have a few reservations about this incident. Mr Harper appears to have an axe to grind with Matthews. The original target on gofundme was 10k. Mr Harper then urged everyone to ’ bust this out to orbit ’ and achieve 18k to send his mate off in style. The donations were still allowed to roll in past this figure, and have finally been stopped at £23.5k.
If £3800 is an average cost of the repatriation, and we were to take £10k as a cost of the funeral, I would expect the correct thing to do would be to donate the surplus 10k to a charity.
I personally don’t think the company should be financially responsible for Mr Stanyard’s funeral, however if the people who have donated are happy to (and it IS labelled as a FUNERAL fund on gofundme), then obviously that’s fine.
Nobody here has all the facts. It’s conjecture drawn from unsubstantiated emails and a cack handed, wooden, Press Release from Matthews.
The right thing to do was for someone senior at Matthews (not some number crunching, compassion free zone, logistics graduate) to make contact. Not just task a minion make the gaffer’s number available for a call back. When they made contact they should have expressed their shock, offered their condolences and then just said. " If it’s OK with you, we’ll obviously take care of all of the arrangements to get Paul back. It goes without saying that you don’t have to worry about the cost, obviously. I’ll be back to you as soon as I have any more news to keep you updated. If there is anything else I can do to help, please give me a call." All done with genuine sincerity one would hope.
That way, if they had fulfilled their moral obligation, there would be no need for go fund me pages. It isn’t unreasonable to think that the family have other things on their minds than setting up charities right now.
Kerragy:
Nobody here has all the facts. It’s conjecture drawn from unsubstantiated emails and a cack handed, wooden, Press Release from Matthews.The right thing to do was for someone senior at Matthews (not some number crunching, compassion free zone, logistics graduate) to make contact. Not just task a minion make the gaffer’s number available for a call back. When they made contact they should have expressed their shock, offered their condolences and then just said. " If it’s OK with you, we’ll obviously take care of all of the arrangements to get Paul back. It goes without saying that you don’t have to worry about the cost, obviously. I’ll be back to you as soon as I have any more news to keep you updated. If there is anything else I can do to help, please give me a call." All done with genuine sincerity one would hope.
That way, if they had fulfilled their moral obligation, there would be no need for go fund me pages. It isn’t unreasonable to think that the family have other things on their minds than setting up charities right now.
They did try to call, they left a direct line contact number with the owner where things could have been discussed. I think the Matthews family would have been helpful but instead of going down this route it looks like an ex driver from Matthews advised a different way of going on.
Once that donation site was allowed to stack up to 23.5K it struck me as going past the need stage and into the territory of making a few quid. Personally speaking I’d have closed it at 10k because that would have been the right thing to do, especially given the smear campaign towards Matthews for them supposingly not doing the right.
To be honest I feel a bit mugged off.
Tris:
They did try to call, they left a direct line contact number with the owner where things could have been discussed. I think the Matthews family would have been helpful but instead of going down this route it looks like an ex driver from Matthews advised a different way of going on.
I think you have missed the post the family friend and ex Matthews driver put up on the donation page. While it is unverified, it would explain the point you’re trying to make, along with helping the puzzle possibly fit together.
However as others have said, it’s all conjecture pal and probably best now to put this to bed…
Soon after the Matthews press release, the family shut the just giving page, earlier than previously stated, and have pretty much gone to ground. Put that together with the fact that there’s still the origin of the email to establish (which the sun chose not to publish) and it’s starting to look very murky indeed.
I don’t want my fiver back, the family have lost their bread winner, and whatever’s left will soon disappear. But I can understand that some people may feel deceived. Neither party is shining in this matter.
