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E&C end sought by furious fuel creditor
Page 8
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CM INVESTIGATION
• by Chris Tindall E&C Transport and Forwarding, the debt-ridden freight forwarding firm sold to a Gibraltar-based company, has finally been served with a winding up order by one of its many angry creditors.
A CM investigation revealed that company director Matt Elliott sold E&C Transport and Forwarding and E&C Transport & Forwarding (UK) to management company Ecomtech in January this year. This followed hauliers' complaints that they were not being paid (CM 3-9 April).
Elliott then wrote to hauliers to say the new owners were intending to continue freightforwarding operations in West Yorkshire, But Ecomtech failed to get in touch with any subbies.
To add further confusion, Ecorntech's management company In Gibraltar says it has no links with Ecomtech in West Yorkshire, even though both E&C Transport and Forwarding and E&C Transport & Forwarding (UK) share the same address as Ecomtech's registered office in Cleckheaton. This software firm is due to be struck off the Companies House register within weeks for not providing up-to-date accounts.
But now fuel company CPL Petroleum has begun winding up proceedings to prevent E&C Transport and Forwarding ever trading again. CPUs solicitors, Walker Morris, confirms the hearing at Leeds District Registry has been adjourned until 6 May,
CM has also received confirmation by an Ecomtech spokesman in Gibraltar that the firm is no longer trading. It is understood that Ecomtech planned to continue trading the freight forwarder, but as the scale of debts at both E&C Transport and Forwarding and E&C Transport & Forwarding (UK) became apparent, it was clear that this was impossible.
"What we heard wasn't the reality of the nature of the business," says the spokesman. "What we weren't aware of was the extent of the debts." He says he knows some of the creditors who are owed money, but admits that the situation could now leave subbies unable to recover outstanding payments.
"I have to put my hands up to that and I suppose the buck stops here," he concedes. "We extend an apology to our creditors for not dealing with them all along. Heads have rolled. It's painful, to be honest, but we should have been aware of what we were dealing with all along.'
But Elliott, who is now a director for Scunthorpe-based MRS Services, rejects Ecomtech's spokesman's claims: "I believe that to be untrue, they were fully aware of the extent of the debts," he complains. They were given a breakdown of creditor lists and records of profit and tosses."