Makes me wonder at what stage they contacted the insurance co I think my first priority would have been my driver and would have argued it out with my insurance co later.As I see it he was on company business and doing no wrong therefore he should be covered when he is on a legal break
■■ sake,wish admin would close/delete this thread some on here have gone full circle from feeling sorry for Paul’s family to now virtually accusing them of being fraudsters and using Pauls death to “cash in”.
Admin,this thread has run its course now!
xichrisxi:
some on here have gone full circle from feeling sorry for Paul’s family to now virtually accusing them of being fraudsters and using Pauls death to “cash in”.
Its not illegal to change your mind about something and certainly isnt grounds to close a thread just because facts are emerging to make people question the original “facts” the family released. Whether anyone likes to admit it or not, holes are appearing in the story
My two pence worth is that the family were not looking to cash in but I do think they massaged the facts of what actually happened in the hours/days after Pauls death (which to be fair is human nature and everyone does it) and it spun out of control. Ive always thought there was more to the story than met the eye.
That, however, is just my own humble opinion. As I said earlier, no one knows the full facts but I dont think the thread should be locked or deleted just because it isnt a Matthews hatefest any more with people questioning the families version. A lot of money was donated and people have a right to question things if they feel they have been “had”, or point out inconsistancies they have noticed.
As long as everything stays civil(ish) and stays within forum rules then it should be allowed to run to its natural conclusion. All thread die eventually (except “pictures of your truck” apparently!) so let it run I say
It looks to me as if the family were steered in a particular direction by the friend that happens to be a disgruntled ex employee of Matthews.
All of a sudden it’s turned into a social media frenzy. Now we’re at the point where serious questions need answering and this thread has to stay running until the FACTS are produced and blame can be apportioned to the correct party.
Sent from my SM-G900W8 using Tapatalk
Dont forget there are people in this world that sedated their own daughter and hid her at a relatives in order to try and get money similar to the McCanns. Shannon Matthews I think was the kids name. So don’t go thinking people in this world would try to take advantage of a situation for free money. Not saying it’s what they HAVE done, but people will go to extremes for money.
suppose a driver weekended somewhere for a 45 who is persuing doing whatever he likes in his free time,i.e emptying his clakkerbags in la jon,bois de bolougne,(or just name your favourite hunting ground) gets done in crawling back to the truck,or in it.where do you draw the line that he is working. fair game on a 45,or having a 9 or 11 confined to the locale of the truck,but where does the line get drawn if your abroad,and decide to go and crash a jet ski when your ■■■■■■ ? i can see how an insurance co might shrug responsibilty in that respect.i personally dont have any but id be looking at a personal repatriation policy of my corpse if i was a truckie that was concerned irrespective of who i worked for.i reckon id be so unlucky that if i came home in an urn,they would need to scatter my ashes under the wheels of the hearse to get it up the hill to the cemetery.
This has followed the usual trajectory of a social media witch-hunt so closely it’d be hilarious if it wasn’t about a death. They have found once you open that bottle the genie will never go back in, and sooner or later people WILL start dredging up your past, questioning everything you say etc etc.
I don’t think anyone should be attacking (via social media) the family. I personally think in a dark time they were manipulated and driven into this course of action by this ‘friend’, who if you look at some of his Facebook posts (why do people leave their Facebook pages open to everyone?!) isn’t a very savory character.
I curated the www.twitter.com/Ireland account for a week last year, I used the term ‘Illegal immigrants’ in a well meaning way as I tried to explain what I’d seen as a lorry driver but that blinded so many. I was relentlessly attacked by strangers over and over and over again because of the words I used. So bear in mind next time there’s a bandwagon to jump upon- how will people take it, will it harm them, do they deserve this etc because my brush with it left me feeling terrible, stupid and pathetic and I didn’t deserve it.
switchlogic:
This has followed the usual trajectory of a social media witch-hunt so closely it’d be hilarious if it wasn’t about a death. They have found once you open that bottle the genie will never go back in, and sooner or later people WILL start dredging up your past, questioning everything you say etc etc.I don’t think anyone should be attacking (via social media) the family. I personally think in a dark time they were manipulated and driven into this course of action by this ‘friend’, who if you look at some of his Facebook posts (why do people leave their Facebook pages open to everyone?!) isn’t a very savory character.
I curated the twitter.com/Ireland account for a week last year, I used the term ‘Illegal immigrants’ in a well meaning way as I tried to explain what I’d seen as a lorry driver but that blinded so many. I was relentlessly attacked by strangers over and over and over again because of the words I used. So bear in mind next time there’s a bandwagon to jump upon- how will people take it, will it harm them, do they deserve this etc because my brush with it left me feeling terrible, stupid and pathetic and I didn’t deserve it.
i would have thought "illegal immigrants " was exactly what they are using the most politest of discriptions…theyre not here legally,and now theyre here,there not going back,hence they are immigrants…your only calling them that because thats what they are.and faceache/twitter is really for women and fannies once jeremy kyle finishes and before loose women starts for the vast majority i would have thought,
For the record, my husband is not a disgruntled ex employee; in all media communications he has spoken of his previous great respect for the Matthews family and parted on good terms with them (although it was not always broadcast as you would expect) - he had an exemplary reference from Matthews when he left. Furthermore there was a perfectly amiable telephone call received from Matthews on the day after Paul’s passing asking for family contact details. My husband actually advised Pam to contact Matthews and that they would ‘sort everything out for her’ as he genuinely thought the firm would do the right thing. He has not steered the family in any direction, everything that has been suggested or decided has been in agreement with all parties i.e. all of Paul’s immediate family members and those concerned with Paul’s repatriation.
Regarding facts… it has been omitted from Matthew’s communications in the press that the family were basically offered the £5000 at a later date with a key clause attached. After the Stanyard family were told by the firm that no help whatsoever was forthcoming, one of Pam’s sons said he would contact a solicitor to see if there was any legal redress regarding the position they found themselves in. Matthew’s offered the aforementioned sum of money subject to a condition of no legal or media involvement under any circumstances or the offer would be withdrawn (whether this fact was referred to in interviews and not broadcast - please make up your own mind). The £5000 was for flying the family out to Italy and burying Paul (although at that time Paul’s family still believed the cost to be nearer to £17000, as they had been told this originally by Matthews). This sum of money would still not have been enough to put Paul in a named grave in Italy, a course of action the family did not want to do but had to seriously consider. Subsequently, Matthew’s then revised the estimate for his repatriation - the sum now being £3800 apparently so it seems the ‘offer’ was now enough to ‘cover things’…
For clarification the text (a copy of which my husband put on one of the updates on the Gofundme page) - I gather there is some debate earlier in this thread as to whether it is genuine of not. This text was sent to Pam from a Matthew’s employee, end of; she forwarded the text to my husband who copied and pasted it onto the fundraising page. In our mind Matthew’s are found wanting by omission of this important fact. We all agree however that the whole episode could have been handled better by Matthew’s but in our mind’s at the key point when Pam needed the firm’s support - they walked away; they have more than enough resources in terms of money, man hours and know how to repatriate Paul (let alone a moral obligation to him) so why on earth did it come to this?
Katherine Harper
Hi Katherine and thank you for taking the time to post.
The facts from your point of view are similar to how I understand them, in that the original figure of £15 to £17000 for repatriation presented by Matthews was either grossly inflated or shows they did very little research into the true cost. Matthews own words of saying they offered £5000 towards this backs that up.
Malcolm Harper:
For clarification the text (a copy of which my husband put on one of the updates on the Gofundme page) - I gather there is some debate earlier in this thread as to whether it is genuine of not. This text was sent to Pam from a Matthew’s employee, end of; she forwarded the text to my husband who copied and pasted it onto the fundraising page.Katherine Harper
If you hold proof that the texts emails etc from Matthews actually came from Matthews and the £5000 can be shown as being hushmoney then I would presume legal proceedings are on the cards.
Anyway hope Paul is now back in the UK and the family can to some degree grieve and lay Paul to rest with the dignity he deserves.
Unfortunately Paul is still not on UK soil. Delays in the immediate days after Paul’s death in terms of people setting things in motion as Pam did not know what to do, nor was she in a fit state to contemplate what to do, not knowing how to cover any costs plus having to wait for instructions from the British and Italian consulates (who are now on holiday) and who all initially assumed that the firm would liaise with them. I am afraid it is a case of red tape, time of year and time taken to raise funds to cover costs (whatever they eventually turn out to be). A steep learning curve for the family and one that has ultimately robbed them of a proper time to mourn Paul’s sudden death - a dreadful situation.
Whatever the nitty gritty details of this saga might be i doubt we’ll ever know for certain if we’ve had a fair summing up.
The lad died at work far as i’m concerned (not interested what mode the spy in the cab happened to be on), apparently he didn’t have life insurance which is daft because you never know when your time might be up and you leave your loved ones up a bloody creek without a paddle.
We’ve helped out due to the facts as they were told to us.
If everything is genuine than as fellow lorry drivers we’ve done our bit, if things are not as they were portrayed then anyone who benefits from generosity willingly given under false pretences will have to live with what they have done for the rest of their lives.
However i suspect there will be many decent people out there in Trucknet land who will think twice about helping out again quite so quickly, i for one am charity’d out and give only to certain British causes, so was happy to help this family.
Far as i’m concerned the cause is genuine until someone shows me conclusive proof otherwise.
Hope the family get over this loss in time and put their lives back together.
I second Dipper Dave’s words!