The Media Leader Podcast
Consultancy in some form may become part of a media practitioner’s career at some point, but how does it work in reality?
Rachel Forde and Marco Bertozzi, co-founders of consultants’ collective The Zoo.London, join Ella Sagar to talk about founding a company, misconceptions about consultancy and the senior brain drain in media.
For Forde, the days when consulting was seen as “something to do in-between jobs” are gone and consultants have “a really super smart way to work”, focusing on projects they enjoy doing without the politics of a full-time role.
At the same time, Bertozzi believes companies choosing the right consultant is “more important than ever”.
He adds: “It is a tough market. And I think that all points to the fact that companies, whether it’s consultancy or full time, they’re evaluating way more carefully every pound they’re spending on their business. So this all ties together for us. It’s like, yes, consultancy might be an easier step for them rather than hiring.”
Listen below or hit “subscribe” to play the episode on your choice of podcast player:
Highlights
02:41: How TheZoo.London started
06:10: How TheZoo.London is going
12:00: The rise of the fractional CMO
15:41: Misconceptions about consultancy
21:50: Advice for founders
25:05: Advice for consultants
30:31: Media needs to change its attitude to senior talent
32:53: Forde and Bertozzi’s animal psychology results
35:03: Why are you passionate about media?
This episode was edited by our production partner Trisonic.
The Media Leader Podcast is a twice weekly show in which our journalists interview some of the most influential people in advertising and media, as well as the next generation of future leaders and rising stars. We also review the biggest stories in media and discuss our featured columnists’ latest opinion pieces.
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IT looked like the window of any other student letting agency.
But the houses and flats for rent in businessman Jeremy Southgate’s firm were fake images and pictures cut from magazines.
The modest agency was the front for a multi-million pound cannabis empire, which the trained solicitor ran with the help of Albanians smuggled into Britain in the back of trucks.
One of Britain’s most brazen criminals, Southgate was so cocky that he got government grants to insulate houses where foreign ‘gardeners’ looked after his cannabis farms.
He managed to get £100,000 worth of Covid loans to help keep his dummy business open during the pandemic.
Southgate, 63, also created ghost tenants to cover council tax bills despite raking in as much as £11.4million a year from his drugs enterprise.
He was so confident he’d never be caught that he stole electricity from dozens of neighbours – and once sent in a team to dig up a road to bypass a meter.
Cops in Hull who caught up with Southgate – whose astonishing double life is more reminiscent of a character from the drug-fuelled TV drama Breaking Bad – labelled him “arrogant and greedy”.
DC Karen Smith, who arrested him, said: “He was a very wealthy man who owned 72 properties outright, a boat and assets including a nursing home.
“None of this was done for need, but for greed.
“I’ve never met anyone quite like Southgate. In interviews he was evasive, arrogant and wouldn’t answer questions, often going off on tangents.
“This was a major drugs operation and the cannabis would have been disseminated into kilos and distributed nationally.”
Stashed thousands on boat
The story of Southgate’s illicit empire comes as new figures laid bare the drug crisis gripping the nation.
A record 69 tons of cannabis were seized last year – equivalent to a street value of £2billion.
Illustrating the sheer amount of money drug lords can turn over, cops found more than £50,000 in cash on a £140,000 boat Southgate owned called Billy Blue on Hull’s marina.
They also found £324,000 in notes hidden under a bed in the house where his girlfriend lived – and discovered Southgate had just banked £125,000.
He even owned a dilapidated hotel called The Pines in the city where police found £307,000 worth of cannabis growing in several rooms.
Twelve Albanians caught growing, distributing and selling Southgate’s cannabis have since been deported – but only after vain attempts to remain in the UK.
They claimed to be living in fear after being trafficked into the UK but police revealed they had been free to visit prostitutes, while one went on holiday to Milan.
DC Smith, of Humberside Police, said: “They told me they had willingly come into the UK, smuggled into the country in trucks.
“They then tried to claim they were victims of slavery but I was able to prove they had voluntarily made their way into Britain and were here willingly.
“They were drinking Hennessy on Hull marina, using the services of prostitutes, driving cars and going about their business. One even took a holiday to Milan so they were hardly locked into modern day slavery.
“We don’t want to discourage any genuine victims from reporting, but in this case these men were trying to manipulate the system.”
Detectives launched Operation Swale following a 2021 drugs bust in a house in Hull where a receipt for extension leads, galvanised steel, electrical tape and plug sockets was found – items used to set up cannabis farms.
When officers checked CCTV at the hardware store where the goods were bought, they discovered Albanian cousins Dardan Mrishaj and Evris Mirshaj travelling in and out of Hull from their homes in Peterborough.
Cops started trailing the pair who were meeting with Southgate and other associates, sitting outside coffee shops for ‘daily briefings’ after the first Covid lockdown in the summer of 2021.
Estate agents fraud
It wasn’t long before detectives realised Southgate’s letting agency, called Anderson Estates, was a total fraud. It was being run by another criminal called Florjan Kasaj, 41, who would occasionally open it.
He told police he was never paid by Southgate and was helping people with universal credit and asylum claims.
But Kasaj was really managing Southgate’s properties and instructing the cousins to build cannabis farms.
The now-deported team of illegal Albanians were hired to look after the plants, which made the gang up to £2.4million each crop.
But the cash wasn’t enough for Southgate, who applied for government grants to insulate his run-down properties and received £100,000 in fraudulent Covid loans to run his property business, called Amazing Lets, and a care home he owned in East Riding.
It emerged in court that he deliberately bought houses with poor energy ratings to apply for grants.
Cannabis seizures hit record high
BORDER cops seized 69 tonnes of marijuana last year – the highest amount ever.
The extent of Britain’s drug epidemic was laid bare after the Home Office also revealed that 3.3 tonnes of cocaine was blocked from coming into the UK.
The amount of weed seized by police and Border force officers doubled year-on-year from 35 tonnes in 2022.
Around a third of people in England and Wales aged between 16 and 59 have admitted to using cannabis at least one point in their lives, according to Statistica.
Authorities discovered 92 tonnes of illegal drugs in total – the largest amount for 18 years.
It’s a crime to possess, grow, distribute or sell cannabis and being caught comes with a maximum sentence of five years in prison, an unlimited fine, or both.
Being convicted of producing and supplying the Class B drug carries a jail term of up to 14 years.
Police can issue a warning or on-the-spot fine if you’re caught with small amounts – generally less than one ounce.
Many forces take a relaxed view to personal use but prosecution rates vary across the country. Durham Police say they will no longer target recreational users while Cornwall and Devon have a prosecution rate of 15 per cent.
Cannabis products said to aid sleep or relaxation can be bought over the counter but they do not contain the part of the plant that makes you high, THC.
Doctors can prescribe medical cannabis, with higher amounts of cannabidiol for sufferers of epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and cancer patients sick with chemotherapy.
Police searched 25 of Southgate’s property and found cannabis in 19.
They also discovered fake ID papers for unemployed tenants who never existed so the local authority would foot the bill for council tax.
Incredibly, he sent a team of ‘workmen’ to one property to drill into the road outside and bypass the electricity supply, before laying the tarmac back down.
Southgate trained as a solicitor in 1994 but found himself on the other side of the legal fence when was convicted at Hull Crown Court earlier this month.
He was found guilty of two counts to produce Class B drugs, money laundering and two counts of fraud by false representation.
Evris Mrishaj, 25, of Peterborough, and cousin Dardan Mrishaf, 37, of Hull, and Florjan Kasaj, 41, also of Hull, were convicted of conspiracy to produce class B drugs.
All four will be sentenced in February.
Southgate, originally from Brighton, has never revealed his real home address – even in court.
DC Smith said he engaged in “Albanian gang tactics” to hide his tracks, failing to register his modest 2009 plate Astra.
She said: “We knew he owned a lot of properties, but it took hard work to connect them to him through police records and tenuous links.
“He did everything he could to evade the law at every step of the way. The case didn’t feature a lot of text messages you’d usually find in this sort of conspiracy because he had daily briefings outside coffee houses.”
She revealed that even after his arrest in December 2022, the kingpin bought another house and tried to set up a new cannabis farm before cops shut him down.
Now the man who once set up a fake estate agents will soon find himself a tenant – of a prison cell.
Q: My sister and I inherited our father’s townhouse when he recently passed away. We get along OK, but not great. I think it would be a good idea to rent it out, but she is still not sure and may want to sell it instead. Do you have any advice on how to proceed? — Robert
A: You have several paths ahead of you. The best options involve you working together with your sister.
You can decide to cooperate to sell the property, or she may agree to rent it out. In either case, sit down together and work out a game plan.
If you are going to sell it, agree on the significant terms in advance. Decide who will take the lead with the real estate agent and deal with prospective buyers. Discuss how you will deal with expenses when selling the property, such as ongoing association dues and necessary repairs. The townhome will likely need to be spiffed up to get the best price, so decide who will work on that, too.
If you decide to keep and rent the property, you should agree to many of the same issues. Talking through the plan is a great start, but it is best to write things down. A lawyer can help you prepare a “joint-ownership agreement” and help you agree on how you will deal with owning a home together.
Besides dealing with the tenant and making repairs, try to work through the money issues like how rent will be collected and shared and how much to hold in reserve for maintenance. You should also discuss what will happen if one of you does not want to be a landlord anymore.
If more than one person owns real estate, any owner can force its sale even if the other owner wants to keep it. The easiest way to deal with this would be to buy your sister’s half from her. If necessary, you should be able to get a mortgage to buy her out.
If you cannot do this, cooperating with the process is likely in your best interest.
Push comes to shove, she can force the property’s sale by filing a “partition” lawsuit, causing legal expenses to eat up some of the proceeds.
Gary M. Singer is a Florida attorney and board-certified as an expert in real estate law by the Florida Bar. He practices real estate, business litigation and contract law from his office in Sunrise, Fla. He is the chairman of the Real Estate Section of the Broward County Bar Association and is a co-host of the weekly radio show Legal News and Review. He frequently consults on general real estate matters and trends in Florida with various companies across the nation. Send him questions online at www.sunsentinel.com/askpro or follow him on Twitter @GarySingerLaw.