Hauliers face £300,000 Eezee bill
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• Up to 400 hauliers were left facing debts of £300,000 when freight clearing house Eezee Euro Services went into liquidation last week.
And the liquidator says it is unlikely that any of them will get a penny because there is not enough money in the kitty to pay preferential creditors.
Now angry hauliers in Nottingham, where Eezee Euro had a depot, are banding together to press for payment, along with the landlord of an industrial estate who is owed £6,000 in rent.
Eezee Euro came to prominence after taking over nine depots from clearing house Transworld, which itself crashed in May owing Elm to 1,000 companies — most of them small haulage firms (CM23-29 May).
At the time Eezee Euro director Roy Vernon told CM: "I'm going to try to run this new business profitably, not just for my benefit but for all the poor buggers who suffered — the Transworld people left behind a load of mess." However, Vernon resigned from Eezee Euro in August (CM 22-28 August) and has set up a new clearing house operation, North Rise Services, based in Nottingham. Vernon has told the Transport Users Group that hauliers working for North Rise are guaranteed payment.
An Eezee Euro creditors' meeting is scheduled for 28 October in the St James Club, Manchester. Liquidator James Gleave of Arthur Andersen will be explaining why the Widnes firm went into liquidation on 14 October. A spokesman for Arthur Andersen says that hauliers contacting its office have been "disgusted and dismayed" by the closure.
According to Arthur Andersen, Eezee Euro has one director, David Allbright. Former executive chairman Bernard O'Brien, who left Eezee Euro shortly before its collapse, is now involved with a new Widnes company, Widnes Export Packing Services.
When CM called Widnes Export Packing Services, we were
told O'Brien was out and the switchboard operator said she was "not sure" what his position in the company was. O'Brien is a former director of Interpac Holdings, which was liquidated in 1989 with debts of £69,721.
This week CM spoke to several Nottingham hauliers who are owed money by Eezee Euro, and to Paul Venners, boss of Leec Developments, which is owed £6,000 rent for the warehouse on Colwick Trading Estate, Nottingham.
Venners' tenants include several hauliers who worked for Eezee Euro, and some are joining forces with him to press for payment.
LPD Garage Services, run by Ron Fearon, is owed £18,500 and has received several cheques which bounced, for amounts up to £1,500. Neil McHugh, who runs 21 trucks, is owed £1,400 and has not been paid anything for his work. McHugh says he cannot understand why Eezee Euro did not pay hauliers when it had been paid for the work it was sub-contracting: "Where has the money gone?" he asks.
RI Transport is owed £1,700 for two months work. Chaworth Storage, run by owner-driver Michael Wood, is still waiting for £2,500. Other creditors include Derek Hart of Square Haulage and Ian Bowley.