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Kent firm faces probe
Page 16
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The Insolvency Service is to launch an investigation into Whitefriar's
directors. Chris Tindall reports.
THE HIGH COURT has hammered the final nail in the coffin for Whitefriar International, the Kent-based haulage firm that failed to pay its subcontractors almost £200,000, by ordering the firm into compulsory liquidation.
An investigation into the trading activity of the Canterbury company by the Companies Investigation Branch (CI B) of the Insolvency Service has revealed a litany of failures by directors Michael and Stephen Thompson.
The official receiver will now look at the directors' conduct for the three years before the firm became insolvent.
An Insolvency Service spokeswoman says one outcome could be that they are disqualified for between two and 15 years.
The CIB investigation revealed that the company: • failed to file any accounts • maintained inadequate accounting records • was insolvent,with total liabilities in the region of £250,000 (including 11 county court judgments which amounted to f90,481) • failed to pay its subcontractors, many of them owner-drivers,more than £190,000.
In addition, both Michael and Stephen Thompson had made unaccounted cash withdrawals of some £60,000.
The official receiver will contact creditors within 12 weeks to say whether there will be enough money to pay them. The Insolvency Service spokeswoman adds: "Because it has been put into compulsory liquidation there might not be enough assets to give creditors a return."
Stephen Walker of Redditchbased S Walker Transport says he has written off its £11,000 debt after taking the company to court (CM 29 July 2004): "I couldn't get hold of [the directorsj, and I wouldn't want to. The thing that annoys me about this is! sat down the other week and did some rough figures. I've been in business for 17 years and in that time I've lost £250,000 as a result of companies going bust on me."