Yorkshire and chairman Lord Patel might face fines for monetary guidelines breach

Yorkshire and their chairman Lord Patel are dealing with fines for breaking monetary guidelines by not disclosing enterprise relationships and potential conflicts of curiosity.

A Sportsmail investigation has found Patel, who promised a brand new period of transparency at Headingley on being appointed chairman final November, did not reveal a number of of his enterprise pursuits to the Monetary Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Home of Lords.

These embrace his directorship of UK Inertia Enterprise and Consulting, who’ve a majority shareholding in media agency Clear Swwipe. That’s a part of Clear Slate group, an Indian movie manufacturing firm who signed a serious sponsorship cope with Yorkshire to turn into their principal industrial accomplice final April.

Yorkshire’s failure to reveal Patel’s enterprise relationship with Clear Slate is a breach of the Co-operative and Group Profit Societies Act, which stipulates that administrators’ ‘shut hyperlinks’ are repeatedly submitted to the FCA.

The FCA have the ability to positive Yorkshire and will take away their registration, though the latter transfer is unlikely. A spokesperson for the FCA stated they don’t touch upon particular person instances.

The ECB even have a Code for Counties which stipulates they need to declare all related conflicts of curiosity. Yorkshire’s failure to take action on this case will embarrass the membership, as Patel has been a champion of higher transparency and governance reforms since taking up at Headingley. 

Furthermore, the Clear Slate sponsorship deal had been extensively seen as considered one of his largest achievements since becoming a member of the membership final November.

That contract helped save Yorkshire from collapse after most of their sponsors dumped them following Azeem Rafiq’s racism allegations final 12 months. As a part of the deal, the pavilion at Headingley is the Clear Slate Pavilion and the corporate’s identify is on Yorkshire’s package. The worth of the contract has by no means been disclosed.

The Clear Slate sponsorship deal had been extensively seen as considered one of Patel’s largest achievements

Patel is linked to Clear Slate by his place as a director of Inertia, a sports activities, media and occasions consultancy agency. Firm paperwork present that Inertia personal greater than 50 per cent of the shares and voting rights of Clear Swwipe. The proprietor of Clear Slate is Karnesh Ssharma, who can be a director of Inertia. Patel shouldn’t be a director of Clear Slate.

A Yorkshire spokesperson stated: ‘All of Lord Patel’s enterprise pursuits can be found on the Home of Lords register of pursuits for most people to see.’

However Sportsmail has established there are vital omissions. Though Patel’s directorship of Inertia is on the Home of Lords register, the corporate’s controlling curiosity in Clear Swwipe shouldn’t be — and Patel has additionally failed to incorporate his place as chair of the advisory board of the India Enterprise Group. There may be additionally no point out of Inertia in Yorkshire’s submission to the FCA.

The FCA require firms to submit particulars of key people’ ‘shut hyperlinks to different companies on a steady foundation’, a stipulation Yorkshire have did not adjust to totally. 

There isn’t a suggestion of any crime being dedicated on this case. Patel additionally did not disclose his possession of KYA International Restricted in Yorkshire’s submission to the FCA, though this was declared to the Home of Lords.

Patel has made a big impact at Yorkshire since being parachuted into the membership after the wholesale resignations that adopted the Rafiq affair. The 62-year-old agreed a £200,000 compensation package deal with Rafiq after which ordered the sacking of Yorkshire’s total teaching and medical group, which the membership have since conceded was procedurally unfair.