Experiences raise questions about how telecoms firm treated small business owners, whose commission it cutWhen Adrian Howe drowned in August 2018, his family found some solace in the support of his longtime employer.The bond between the 58-year-old and Vodafone – the multinational mobile phone group for which Howe had worked for 20 years – was so tight that his funeral featured a wreath shaped like the company’s speech mark brand.Meanwhile, his widow was paid the equivalent of a death-in-service benefit, even though Howe had left the company weeks earlier.“I was reassured that Dad would be ‘reinstated’ back into Vodafone as if he had never actually left,” recalls daughter Kirsty-Anne Holmes.“He had [left] in order to open [Vodafone] stores as a franchise.

”Yet, when the family began to investigate the circumstances of Howe’s death, his personnel file was not the only record they felt needed adjusting.Vodafone’s narrative around its benevolent gesture towards the Howe family was also interrogated, with the family beginning to suspect that there might have been serious problems with Howe’s plan to run a pair of the telecoms group’s franchise stores.These feelings were exacerbated as it emerged last year that the £18bn company was fighting a high court claim brought by 62 of its former franchisees who allege Vodafone “unjustly enriched” itself by slashing commissions – a case MPs have compared to the Post Office Horizon IT scandal.Vodafone says the legal claim is a “commercial dispute” but has apologised to claimants who blamed pressure from the telecoms group for triggering suicidal thoughts.A survey of franchisees during September 2020 resulted in 78 out of 119 respondents leaving overwhelmingly critical comments about the effects Vodafone’s actions had had on their mental health.

“At the time [of Howe’s death] it looked like [Vodafone was] being generous and helpful, but then you get to thinking the complete opposite,” Holmes says now,“To me, that has guilty conscience written all over it,”In July 2018, Howe had seemed excited,A year earlier Vodafone had begun to free itself from running its own retail network by transferring shops to franchisees – many of whom were former staff members,The policy resulted in almost all of Vodafone’s 400-plus UK retail estate being converted into franchises – where individuals set up small businesses, with their own profit and loss accounts, to sell Vodafone products and services in return for commission payments.

But the thrills for Howe of starting a new company were also tinged with anxiety, his relatives recall.The shopkeeper fretted he lacked the savings to fund his new venture, leaving his pension savings as the only buffer for costs such as salaries and rent.He also felt he had no option other than to become a franchisee, as the alternative was taking a less secure role working for whatever other startup franchise took on the store where he worked.As he prepared for his new career in the summer of 2018, these fears were raised in family conversations and with Vodafone – but furtively, as Howe opened up only to a single relative at a time.His sister Gillian knew her brother’s house would be on the line as part of a personal guarantee he was giving to Vodafone to seal the franchise deal.

But she was unaware that Howe had failed to mention this detail to his wife, Tracey,Meanwhile, family members were becoming aware that Howe felt cornered,His eldest son, Dan, says he was told by his father in August 2018 that “Vodafone has me by the balls”,Youngest son, Nathan, recalls days later marking his 18th birthday at a local pub with his father, and being told: “This pint might have saved me”,Odd as Howe’s siloed comments seemed, they did not appear overly concerning at the time.

Then, the day after Nathan’s birthday celebrations, Howe took a bicycle ride and veered into oncoming traffic.“To me, that was his first attempt,” Dan says.Having been discharged from hospital after the cycling incident, Howe began opening up about the pressures he was feeling.He only wanted to operate a single shop in Irvine, but he had been told by Vodafone that he needed to take on a second in Kilmarnock, his family recall being told.But Howe had worked in that Kilmarnock store and knew it struggled.

If he couldn’t turn the performance around, his personal guarantee risked proving ruinous,Vodafone denies it ever put pressure on anybody into taking challenging shops, although others have different memories of that time,“Vodafone [was] making it impossible to have only one store,” Holmes suggests,The stores were to open on 2 September 2018 and the clock was running down,In the early hours of 27 August, with wife Tracey working a night shift, Howe left the house on foot, despite having severe bruising and seven stitches in his left calf caused by his cycling incident.

The father of five’s body was found at about 8am by a local dog walker in a lake, a 24-minute walk from his home.There was no suicide note, but Howe’s family is certain that the pressure he felt from becoming a franchisee drove him to take his own life.They point to the gentle incline leading down to the water where his body was discovered, plus Howe’s jacket and keys found nearby, all of which seems to rule out a fall.An impromptu swim appears far-fetched, given the hour, an outside temperature of no more than 15C (59F) and the fact Howe was wearing most of his clothes.Vodafone “wholly rejects” any suggestion that it “knowingly or recklessly or negligently” put anybody involved with its franchise stores under unreasonable pressure, while mental health experts emphasise that suicide is usually complex and can often involve many triggers.

The postmortem report hinted at other potential factors such as heart disease and stated that Howe had a “history of anxiety and depression (1995)”.But his relatives say that specific mental health episode was short-lived and never recurred.The forensic pathologist went on to state Howe had “been ‘a bit stressed’ due to setting up a new business” as she concluded his death was “consistent with drowning”.Whatever drove Howe to enter the water that morning, the official documents seem to make clear that Howe’s mind was preoccupied with much more than the normal strains of opening a new business.That looming deadline appeared to be weighing heavily enough to prompt a foreboding entry in a notepad discovered at his home: “1st September nice to have death,” the postmortem report stated Howe wrote, in an apparent reference to the stores’ scheduled opening the following day.

“Only now do I realise what he’s done and the enormity of what he’s done,” said Tracey, who has come to the view that her husband took his own life as he became convinced he risked financial devastation as a franchisee.“It’s atrocious to see what happened to all the 62 [high court claimants].They can hopefully rebuild.We’ll never be able to rebuild.He’s gone forever”.

The 62 high court claimants allege Vodafone “unjustly enriched itself” at their expense when the company suddenly slashed their sales commissions in 2020.Depending on which side’s figures you believe, the legal battle is being fought over the franchisees’ claim of between £78m and £85m in compensation, down from an initial filing seeking £120m.Among them is Rachael Beddow-Davison, a 44-year-old single mother of three who ran a trio of the brand’s franchise stores in the east of England.One of those, Lincoln, was profitable.But her portfolio was swamped by the losses of two other struggling outlets, Beddow-Davison says from the home she built just a 30-minute stroll from Skegness’ seafront, where her second shop was only ever financially viable during the summer season.

And, then, there was her third store.“Gainsborough, it never made a penny.It was in a loss every single month.So whatever profit you’re making in [Lincoln] it’s actually been reduced, so it’s untenable.”In echoes of the Howe case, Beddow-Davison says she only agreed to take the struggling Gainsborough store because Vodafone pledged to underwrite its losses, but soon felt those promises had been forgotten and that Vodafone relied on inaccurate data used to measure franchisees’ performance.

The cuts to sales commissions in the summer of 2020 – which the high court claimants allege slashed their key revenue streams “by over 40%” while leaving them with fixed costs such as rent and salaries – compounded Beddow-Davison’s financial woes.She also feared the company was plotting to strip her of her financial crutch: the profitable store in Lincoln.It was all getting too much.“Who I was in 2018 to who I was in ‘22 [was] two totally different people.I was paranoid.

”Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotion“They used to slag all the partners off to me [saying]: ‘We’re going to take their stores,’” she recalls,“I didn’t know who I could trust,My worst fear was losing the children’s home,It’s [on] my family land,At that point, I thought, well, it’d be easier if I was gone.

”On the evening of 1 November 2022, Beddow-Davison asked her mother to look after her children, before returning home with the intention of taking her own life.But a call from her concerned sister to their mother saved her.“[My mother] came over and thank God she did … It just wasn’t a great night.”Beddow-Davison contacted her Vodafone managers shortly after 7am the next day saying she desperately needed to leave.Writing with an eerie calm, her email outlined how Vodafone’s promises relating to the Gainsborough store had “never been upheld”, that her franchise business had lost more than £80,000 in the previous 10 months and that she had to “exit Vodafone immediately”.

“This is causing me severe stress and anxiety to the point where I attempted to take my own life last night,” she wrote matter-of-factly,She signed off: “I am a true advocate for Vodafone,”Beddow-Davison then waited for a response,And then she waited some more,Almost three hours later, Vodafone had still not replied.

“Can you confirm that the below email was received please?” she asked, almost apologetically.When Vodafone did reply, it was not to let her go.Beddow-Davison says the company persuaded her to stay as a franchisee – only to then threaten to terminate their agreement a year later citing “poor performance”.She is adamant that she has had no previous mental health issues – while Vodafone insists it put no undue pressure on anybody running its stores.“I used to tell [a succession of Vodafone area managers] that somebody is going to kill themselves.

I was really lucky, but somebody will die,And I said, ‘I want you to know that [a colleague] Dan is in hospital because of the stress, but you’re choosing to do nothing about it’,”Dan Attwal was a Vodafone star,He had joined the company in 2014 running the brand’s Birmingham city centre stores before being transferred to take a similar role in Sheffield’s Meadowhall shopping centre and then becoming a franchisee,“In 2019 I was stood in the middle of the NEC at the Franchise Roadshow encouraging people to join [Vodafone’s programme],” he says.

“I’ve championed the brand significantly, I’ve been part of the franchise magazine.I met my wife at Vodafone [but] I could feel something was changing.”Attwal ran Vodafone’s franchise stores in Cannock and Burton but – just like with Howe and Beddow-Davison – he soon felt pressure to take on some more.He describes the circumstances whereby he felt encouraged to take on a third store in his home town of Derby in December 2020.“At that time I was in hospital, having a pacemaker fitted.

There was not a chance I’d have taken Derby without promises that I’d have been looked after.”Like Beddow-Davison, Attwal says that Vodafone’s data on the Derby store was incorrect and that these were not the only numbers coming out of the company that looked questionable.He claims that minor transgressions or deviations from operating procedures were harshly penalised.“We appeared on a report and the cost of [our administrative mistake] to Vodafone was £7.08.

I [then] sent an email to my [manager] … just to clarify that I was being fined £10,000.And I got an email back to say: ‘Yes, as per policies and procedures, this is the fine that you’ll get.’”Vodafone has said it was not its intention to profit from fines and that it has regulatory obligations in relation to the finances of franchisees, including imposing penalties.For Attwal, it only intensified feelings his business was falling apart.He talks of the moments he imagined taking his own life.

But it seems he went further than considering a possible method: peeling back his clothing, he reveals the scar of what appears to have been an actual attempt.“I still can’t believe I’ve done it and what happened,” he says.“Mind-blowing.”“I lost about £250,000, bounceback loans and everything.I was thinking it’s just me [struggling] … they made me believe that.

”However, it was not only Attwal or, even just the 62 high court claimants.In September, Vodafone commenced offering financial settlements to a selection of former franchisees who are outside the group of claimants currently suing the business – as it launched its fourth investigation into the historical conduct within its franchising division.The €37bn (£33bn) turnover FTSE 100 company did not say how many former franchisees had accepted payments, nor if they had signed non-disclosure agreements as part of those deals, although some cost details have been disclosed.In December 2024, the company admitted to paying £4m of “goodwill” payments, while it also wrote to MPs in October this year and told them a separate £17m of “goodwill” payments had been made to its former partners since the commission rate changes in 2020, covering fixed costs such as high rent and increased energy costs.A Vodafone UK spokesperson said: “While 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, and we remain open to further discussions with claimants to resolve the commercial dispute.”The company added that the payment to the Howe family was “simply trying to do the right thing”.Holmes, whose father died before becoming a franchisee and so is not part of the high court claim, sees things differently.“In the end, when [my dad, Adrian Howe] really needed their help, he was merely a number to them,” she says