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back to article Rock Group goes titsup

Rock Group PLC is in the hands of administrators who are trying to sell the UK notebook maker as a going concern. The Warwick-based firm said yesterday that it had effectively ceased trading prior to the appointment of administrators, Dominic Wong and David Langton, of Deloitte & Touche LLP. Rock Group, which has been in …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    How much stuff did he nick?

    "stock misappropriation by a former employee"

    I guess thats not taking the occasional ketlle lead that all IT staff think breed in the stock room...

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    I heard it was more than reported...

    http://www.leamingtoncourier.co.uk/news/Gambler-blew-200000-of-his.3967688.jp

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Kettle leads do breed

    The same as screws - have you ever wondered why when you take something apart and put it back together there are leftover screws?

    When your not looking they are at it like rabbits producing offspring screws.

    Mine's the one with the rubber chicken in the pocket.....

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Goes up to 11

    On my desk at work I have a large collection of biro pentops, but no biros, because someone - some people - keep stealing them. There is something about a plain black biro that acts as a magnet for thieves. Perhaps that's what happened to this company. Over time, the stationary budget gradually increased until it outweighed the company's revenues, and they were slowly bled dry by a persistent biro thief. Damn you, biro thieves.

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  5. Tom

    I hope..

    they now take into consideration that his actions may have been the direct cause of the closure of the company with the loss of peoples jobs.

    I vote that Dell will buy them!

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  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    >the stationary budget gradually increased

    Surely a stationary budget couldn't move at all?

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Biros

    Biros aren't stolen. They emigrate.

    First, they change colour. Blue biros turn into green ones, and black into red. Then they slowly gravitate into the corners of the darkest places in your desk (because you never *use* red or green biros...) and when they get there, they teleport themselves to another dimension, having shed their earthly caps.

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  8. Ze Stuart

    @JonB

    Heh heh: the stationary budget couldn't move, but it could increase, unless all aspects of the stationery are stationery. Is that implied?

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  9. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Not the brightest bulb in the box

    From AC's link, above:

    "In 2005 he became the main contact for CFA Trading who found him "helpful and always willing to assist" with their purchase of computer parts and equipment.

    The company paid by credit card and in 2006 they became concerned their payments were going through the accounts of forecourt garages rather than into Rock's account.

    They noticed Bicknell was driving prestigious cars such as Aston Martins and Porsches but accepted his explanation that the Rock system was down."

    Didn't *any* alarm bells start to ring at this?

    Paris, because even she would have realised something was wrong, here.

    P.S. Where did the thief get his idea from? Superman 3?

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  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Ze Stuart

    What is required there is a stationery station, the stationary stationery station would control the movement of stationery.

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  11. Risky
    Joke

    Along the same lines

    of the "movement of stationery" above you have to consider that Fixed Costs are always increasing and Static Data always needs changing.

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  12. Nick Drew
    Flame

    So this fire at the battery factory...

    Now they can't even get them out the door without them exploding/ igniting/ generally not being suitable for putting in a laptop. Probably not a funny occurence, but reading that made me chuckle...

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  13. Andus McCoatover

    If his dad's name's Tim...

    ...I went to school with the perps dad. Leamington College for Boys (Now, Binswood Hall)

    Small world

    Andy, Oulu, Finland

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  14. Bob Gender
    Thumb Up

    @Ashley

    I have around 25 biros on/in my desk, but I haven't seen a cap for any of them in months... Fancy a trade?

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  15. Bob Gender

    Gambling sites

    If I buy a used car and it turns out to have been stolen, I lose the car.

    So when are the gambling sites going to be refunding Rock's creditors?

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  16. mcnicholas
    Pirate

    Shame

    that one person brings down a company. Toe rag.

    But where where the financial controls inside Rock???? A fool and his money....

    Jolly Roger for obvious reasons...

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  17. Bo Pedersen

    typical

    any other company would have had insurances against fraud.

    was the owner too busy racing his Gumball car?

    I reckon novatech would be a good buyer for the company, especially since they already manufacture some of the same notebooks, (and at a better price I might add!)

    unless I win the Euro Lottery tonight, in which case the company would be mine, and we would have something to compete with xotic in the states! :)

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  18. heystoopid
    Coat

    Not quite as bad as this gambler

    He stole more and longer too

    http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/04/22/1019441221198.html

    by the way the company is still trading and being run by it's founder too !

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  19. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    omg the wife will kill me

    bought one of these for the wife's 40th.....thank god for online insurence.

    they could have told me there going under ...oh well lets see what alienware has to offer

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  20. Bo Pedersen
    Stop

    @AC noooooo not Alienware

    I had an m15x on order with them for a Month

    then they told me it would be at least another Month before they shipped it

    in the end some people waited nearly 2.5 months for a notebook! boooo!

    so I got a Novatech (thats why i am biased) it took them 2 days to deliver btw! :)

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  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Gutted

    I just got left out of pocket to the tune of 1800 quid by this; I ordered their Xtreme 770 in mid April and it never arrived. The guys I spoke to on the phone there said they were short of wireless cards to fit into these machines, and it was really causing them big problems. BIg problems alright ... so they have folded now. I should have just bought the novatech machine ... dammit!

    Hopefully I can claim it off my card once the letters from the administrators comes through.

    Does anyone know if/who is going to buy them?

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  22. Juliette Martens

    Someone's bitch in gaol I hope

    What a fucking twat - with a bit of luck the soap on a rope is permanently "out of stock" in his prison. A waste of a fine company (not to mention its now jobless employees).

    I agree that they screwed up on their controls and should have copped this much earlier, but it's still no excuse for some undeserving, greedy loser to paw what isn't fucking his.

    If I seem a little hysterical, it's because we've two Rocks which are the best laptops we've ever had. Grrr.

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  23. Ishkandar
    Boffin

    Re. - Along the same lines

    Not if you've done a proper business and system analysis, mate !! If the database is properly designed, the static data should hardly change at all. How often do you change your name (unless you are a felon wanted by all the police forces of this world) ?? And "sex" allows one change per decade at most !!

    On the other hand, "address" could change from lock-up to prison to another prison...

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  24. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    "sex" allows one change per decade at most !!

    It does with my social life at any rate..

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  25. Peter Capstick

    Rock goes Bust & for what.

    Paul Bicknell, 24, admitted stealing £200,000 of equipment from Rock to fund an extravagant lifestyle,& gets 3years.

    Hang on a minute. Rock has gone bust, the owners have lost 16 years of hard graft. God knows how many employees are now on the dole, little income, mortgages, young mouths to feed. This man has destroyed peoples lives, just so he could be selfish & calous, & for what?. So he could have the time of his life.

    And what does it cost him?. 3 years oops! sorry 18 months with good behavour.

    An 18 month holiday at HMS all expenses paid. The prize for this £200.000.

    Has this country gone bonkers. He has not been punished, his bosses & fellow workmates & their families are the one's who have been punished. He should have got minimum 5 years & made to see each of the bosses & families in person & apologise to them. Also when he pays his weekly £1 for a TV out of his prison pocket money. Take the TV away from him, let him feel what it's like to be deprived of something. Little punishment for such a big crime.

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  26. John Dougald McCallum
    Flame

    Re the 200k loss

    IF this has brought down Rock,then they must have been living on borrowed time.No company should go into liquidation because of such a small debt something tells me there is more to this tale than the reported story.

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  27. Philip

    "You Rock"

    Not quite like a Chinese earthquake but some things do... particularly if you're a British co. with Rock in your name and have flawed business models. Oh yet another business shaken by a failure to consider the robustness of their processes.

    Management egos eh!

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