AMBULANCE drivers who take Sussex patients to non-urgent hospital appointments have still not been paid since July despite receiving assurances they would be.

The NHS will now pay the privately-employed staff today, and seek to recoup the money from contract holder Coperforma whose chief executive promised last Wednesday to pay staff last Friday.

Meanwhile a union has called for an investigation into any possible links between Coperforma’s chairman and offshore companies.

A total of 20 employees of Docklands Medical Services (DMS), a subcontractor of Coperforma, were assured last week that Coperforma would pay their overdue August wages by Friday. Some are facing eviction having not been able to pay their rent.

The debt is Docklands’, not Coperforma’s, but in a meeting with union and NHS officials on Wednesday, chief executive Michael Clayton promised to make the long-delayed payment.

In a July meeting he also assured DMS staff, many of whom had been made redundant from a previous Coperforma subcontractor V M Langfords, that back-pay owing for overtime and antisocial hours would be honoured.

Payments are still outstanding. The 20 DMS staff have not been paid since July 31, all 70 will be owed their September wages on Friday and many are still also owed back-pay. DMS closed its doors two weeks ago but has not gone into administration.

This weekend a Coperforma spokesperson said they had not made payments because staff were not Coperforma employees.

The Argus understands the company was not happy to make payment via the GMB union and proposed involving conciliatory service ACAS, which would have delayed the payment.

The NHS said yesterday that everything was in place for staff to receive the money - from the NHS via the GMB - today.

A spokeswoman said: “We had every reason to believe Coperforma would pay but we had a back-up plan in case they didn’t.”

Meanwhile the GMB will call today for an investigation into the awarding of the contract to Coperforma, which it understands has ties to offshore banking.

Sixty-three per cent of Coperforma Ltd is owned by Michael and Ella Clayton, but the remaining 36.7 per cent is owned by Seabourn Limited.

There is no Seabourn Limited listed at Companies House, but a Seabourn Limited incorporated in Guernsey lists among its directors a John Robert Camber Porter, resident in Switzerland.

A Mr John Robert Porter, resident in Switzerland is listed as a Director of Coperforma at Companies House and John Porter is listed as chairman on the Coperforma website.

The Argus understands that Paul Maloney, GMB Southern Regional Secretary, will say: “"GMB call for an urgent investigation by CQC into the financial health of Coperforma following information that its chairman could be linked to offshore tax havens.”

Huw Merriman, Conservative MP for Bexhill and Battle, called for Coperforma to be stripped of the contract and service taken back by the NHS.