Om debt bosses try again
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• The directors of a company that crashed owing almost 22m have had their bid for a new licence put back until January. KDC Contractors was seeking a new national licence for 10 vehicles and two trail ers based at Egerton Street, Denton, Manchester. The directors—Martin O'Donnell, Barry Kilroe and his wife Christine—were previously directors of Kilbar Group, which went into liquidation in November. In February KDC was granted interim authority to operate six vehicles. North Western Deputy Traffic Commissioner Alan Cottell said that apart from financial standing, he also had to be satisfied the new company was of good repute. To that end he would be considering the conduct of the directors in relation to the previous company. In reply to the DTC, O'Donnell said he was unable to produce audited accounts as their first year of trading did not end until October. Realistically, he felt that it would be January before audited accounts were available. He agreed that at the end of May the company had used 2111,000 of its £175,000 overdraft facility, and that this limit would be reduced to £125,000 in August. Cattell said the Kilbar credi tors' meeting showed funds were unlikely to be available to pay preferential creditors who were owed 2433,000 and non-preferential creditors who were owec 21,400,000.
O'Donnell said there was no personal liability on any of the three directors for that money. KDC operated from the same premises as Kilbor. It had acquired some of the old company's contracts, plant, machinery and vehicles through the transfer of hire purchase agreements. The new company operated on a much smaller scale, said O'Donnell. They looked very carefully at who they worked for now. As of today the company was trading profitably and the order book was looking healthy. The bank was happy to support the operation but he did not know off-hand how much the new company had paid for Kilbar's assets and contracts.
Adjourning the proceedings until January when audited accounts for the first year would be available, and extending the company's interim authority, CatteII said he was not prepared to make a decision at present. Decision over licence will be made in January.