\n<\/p>\n
The family of a former mobile phone store manager who was found drowned days before his new Vodafone franchise was to open its doors is pressing the government to introduce a new franchising law in his name.<\/p>\n
The call comes a week after Vodafone settled a long-running legal claim filed by 62 of its former franchisees who alleged that the company \u201cunjustly enriched\u201d itself at their expense by up to \u00a385m.<\/p>\n
The confidential agreement was reached 19 months after the claim was originally filed at the high court \u201cwithout any admission of liability\u201d, the parties said in a joint statement.<\/p>\n
The plight of the 62 claimants \u2013 who represented almost 40% of the total 167 Vodafone franchisees \u2013 was first reported by the Guardian in December 2024, after which Vodafone apologised to claimants, who blamed pressure from the telecoms group for triggering suicidal thoughts.<\/p>\n
However, their number did not include Adrian Howe, a former Vodafone employee, whose family he say killed himself in 2018 after becoming convinced his new franchising deal with the telecoms group would prove financially ruinous.<\/p>\n
His case was raised in parliament in January, prompting Keir Starmer, then prime minister, to pledge to review laws governing franchising agreements.<\/p>\n
<\/span>\u2018I want justice for Dad,\u2019 said Kirsty-Anne Holmes, Adrian Howe\u2019s daughter.<\/span> Photograph: Mark Waugh\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no protection for franchisees in the UK \u2013 that needs to change,\u201d said Howe\u2019s daughter, Kirsty-Anne Holmes. \u201cThere needs to be some governing body to oversee these contracts. The fact that franchisors \u200blike Vodafone can put anything into a contract, \u200bsuch as personal guarantees, is really bad behaviour. If these protections had been in place previously, my dad taking his own life might not have happened.\u201d<\/p>\n Holmes met a representative of the then Department for Business and Trade earlier this month to discuss her father\u2019s case, and raised the prospect of new franchising regulations under the banner of \u201cAdrian\u2019s law\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want it to be forgotten and brushed under the carpet just because someone else takes over [as prime minister],\u201d she said. \u201cI want justice for Dad.\u201d<\/p>\n Howe\u2019s case, which was revealed by the Guardian in December, raised further questions about how the telecoms company treated its franchisees who, a 2020 survey revealed, were overwhelmingly critical about the effects its actions had had on their mental health.<\/p>\n Howe, 58, had been preparing to open a single Vodafone franchise in Irvine, North Ayrshire, but was then told by the company that he needed to take on a second franchise in Kilmarnock, his family recall being told.<\/p>\n He had previously worked in the Kilmarnock store and knew it had struggled. If its performance could not be turned around, the Howe\u2019s family home would have been put at risk by a personal guarantee given to Vodafone as part of its franchising contracts.<\/p>\n Howe\u2019s youngest son, Nathan, recalled his father telling him \u201cVodafone has me by the balls\u201d when they met for a drink at a local pub shortly before his death. He said his father then added: \u201cThis pint might have saved me.\u201d<\/p>\n The store manager was found drowned a short walk from his home on 27 August 2018, days before his franchising business was to open on 2 September.<\/p>\n That looming date appeared to have prompted an entry in a notepad discovered at his home: \u201c1st September nice to have death,\u201d Howe wrote, according to the postmortem report.<\/p>\n <\/span>Adrian Howe\u2019s death was \u2018consistent with drowning\u2019, the pathologist said. <\/span> Photograph: Mark Waugh\/The Guardian<\/p>\n The pathologist\u2019s document also hinted at other potential factors such as heart disease and stated that Howe had a \u201chistory of anxiety and depression (1995)\u201d, though his relatives said that that specific mental health episode had been short-lived and never recurred. The forensic pathologist went on to state that Howe had \u201cbeen \u2018a bit stressed\u2019 due to setting up a new business\u201d as she concluded that his death was \u201cconsistent with drowning\u201d.<\/p>\n Vodafone did not provide any fresh comment on Howe\u2019s case this week.<\/p>\n The company said last year it \u201cwholly rejects\u201d any suggestion that it had \u201cknowingly or recklessly or negligently\u201d put anybody involved with its franchise stores under unreasonable pressure.<\/p>\n Mental health experts emphasise that suicide is usually complex and can often involve many triggers.<\/p>\n A Vodafone UK spokesperson has said previously: \u201cWhile we are sorry if any partners have had a difficult experience, we reject any suggestion that our franchisees were put under undue pressure. We continue to run a successful franchise operation, and many of our existing franchisees have expanded their business with us by taking on additional stores. We encourage everyone to raise issues, and we will always seek to resolve them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The family of a former mobile phone store manager who was found drowned days before his new Vodafone franchise was to open its doors is pressing the government to introduce a new franchising law in his name. The call comes a week after Vodafone settled a long-running legal claim filed by 62 of its former<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[25067,634,25066,2906,25068,175,8701,4124,25065],"class_list":{"0":"post-51417","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-adrians","9":"tag-call","10":"tag-drowned","11":"tag-family","12":"tag-franchisees","13":"tag-law","14":"tag-manager","15":"tag-protect","16":"tag-vodafone"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}