Neil Wilby Media

An article published earlier this week about the fading fortunes of a well established West Lancashire computer firm certainly created a buzz.

Headlined, ‘Like a dog with a bone’, it drew upon a favoured expression of the controlling business partner, Paul Ponting, who puts himself forward as a rough, tough Liverpudlian of whom the wider world outside his base in Ormskirk should live in fear of physical threats and on-line smearing (read more here).

The headline of this piece is similarly drawn: Crossing Ponting, he claims, is akin to ‘poking a hornets’ nest and his opponents will be defeated, painfully, sooner or later.

But, ‘The Ormskirk Vigilante‘, as Ponting is widely known, has never before come across a battle-hardened investigative journalist prepared to dig deep and bring to public attention the seriously troubling history and character of this vile, aggressive, confrontational bully (read more here).

There is, on any independent view, an overwhelming public interest in doing so. Those railing against it are Ponting himself – deeply resenting the exposure of how despicable an individual he is – and a handful of fellow inhabitants of the hornet’s nest: For the most part, anonymous, fake, similarly obsessive and obnoxious internet trolls who crave attention or approval from Ponting to fill what appear, from their social media output, to be large voids in their lives.

The computer firm that featured centrally in that article, Danoli Solutions Ltd., is controlled by Ponting and appears to be his only source of income. It has come to public attention for two reasons:

Firstly, it is the base used to register a number of outrageous, harassing, trolling websites upon which so much time appears to be spent in his ‘vigilante’ role, rather than repairing laptops.

Secondly, the Ponting finances are under scrutiny by those parties currently litigating against him in the civil courts, in attempts to restrain him and seek remedy over alleged defamation, harassment and malicious falsehoods, and seriously concerned over his ability to meet any court orders over adverse costs that may be awarded against him.

Of particular and public interest, of course, is news of his plans to regularise the position over the late filing of his company’s annual accounts with the statutory regulator. No response from the Danoli directors was forthcoming following that first article, other than a multitude of abusive posts on social media, and the filing defect is still extant eight days after the article about it was published.

Contact has, however, been received from one of his trading estate neighbours, whom asserts that whilst the computer repair premises are still open, and Danoli Solutions Ltd appear to be still operating with their name above the door, there are definitely not six engineers working there as claimed on the company’s website. Upon checking official records, signed off by the Directors, it turns out that Danoli only has one other employee apart from the Pontings and not necessarily an engineer, one might add. Proving that local intelligence to be correct – and the computer firm’s website to be seriously misleading.

Another piece of information to emerge, from someone who claims to know him well, is that the principal Director’s full name is Paul Arthur Ponting. Or, at least it was when he got married around 20 years ago. A simple check of public records confirms that fact. His wife, Anna Ponting, is the other Director listed at Companies House.

It is not an offence to omit middle names when registering a company, but a specialist in the field of company formations and registrations says: ‘It is strongly recommended to do so in order to avoid future problems with such as bank loans and overdrafts that are subject to stringent background and identity checks as part of their compliance procedures’.

Danoli Solutions Ltd will not be looking forward to the post this week as it will contain a £375 fine notice from Companies House whilst the mystery remains as to why its Directors still refuse to file the accounts or re-assure stakeholders as to what is preventing them from complying with the law of the land.

Particularly in the light of Paul Ponting telling a widely read news outlet in September, 2022 that his business was ‘on the brink of collapse’. An ominous prediction that now appears to have more than a ring of truth to it – and raises a further potential regulatory spectre, and another public interest issue, in the form of that same business continuing or appearing to trade whilst insolvent (read more here).

Financial and insolvency experts say that in the event of business collapse, upstanding members of the public usually lose out, substantially, in the form of unpaid taxes by the failed firm. His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs usually being one of the largest creditors. A point borne out in the last published Danoli Solutions Ltd accounts, albeit now almost two years out of date (read here).

The invitation for either of those Directors to take up their right of reply to this article, or the previous one, is still very much open via the Neil Wilby Media contact page at this weblink.

UPDATE: The following replies were received via email from the two Danoli Directors late in the evening of 5th July, 2023:

Paul Ponting: “FUCK OFF STALKING ME. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. IF YOU PERSIST, I WILL BE FORCED TO STOP YOU MYSELF”.

[the capital letters are Ponting’s, presumably to emphasise the threat]

Anna Ponting: “Take my name off your website, you horrible vindictive troll. You are a disgusting old man with nothing better to do. The police have been notified you are not a journalist. You are a malicious blogger, nothing more. My husband may have a restraining order, but I do not. If you continue to harass me and my husband for [name redacted for legal reasons], then I will have to speak out about both of you, and the information I have is devastating to you and [redacted for legal reasons]. I also received the same info from [redacted for legal reasons]. This will be your doing. We can all pretend to be a journalist”.

Paul Ponting also posted another threat of violence on Twitter earlier in the day:

Those threats are presently being risk assessed by Lancashire Constabulary, along with a series of similar others he has made previously, via email or Twitter.

There was no mention in either of the emails from Mr and Mrs Ponting regarding the date upon which they anticipate filing the missing annual accounts. Elsewhere, Paul Ponting has, rather enigmatically, shed a chink of light on why his middle name is not registered at Companies House.

“My middle name has never been intentionally published by me, and there are reasons for this, but you have done your best to dig up anything at all to maliciously blog about me and now my wife”.

Follow Neil Wilby on Twitter (here) and Neil Wilby Media on Facebook (here) for signposts to any updates.

Page last updated: Thursday 6th July, 2023 at 10h25

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