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Collapsed haulier returns to the fray
Page 22
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Pawson family gets approval to begin again with a 10-truck, 50-trailer 0-licence.
A FRESH I 0-VEFIECLE 0-licence has been granted to members of a family linked to a failed business that had previously held a licence for 125 vehicles and 200 trailers.
Four of the nine directors Rachel Slade, Michael, Stephen arid Richard Pawson of collapsed company E Pawson & Son are directors of the newly-formed Pawson Transport.
The Pawson family succeeded in winning a licence for their new operation after the North Eastern Traffic Commissioner, Tom Macartney, accepted the directors were unaware that vehicles and trailers sold by the failed E Pawson & Son were still under finance agreements Rotherham-based Pawson Transport, previously operating under interim authority, was granted a licence for 10 vehicles and 50 trailers.
Director Rachel Slade said that • Pawson & Son had gone into liquidation earlier this year. Events leading up to the collapse include: • A major warehousing contract with Coca-Cola, which the firm hoped to win, was lost at the 11th hour; a substantial contract with Cadbury Trebor Bassett was not renewed; and a contract that offered 80% of Mill Transport's (which was owned by E Pawson & Son) work was lost.
• By February 2008, there was only sufficient cash for two fuel deliveries a week. The family injected funds to keep the vehicles moving and to pay the wages at Easter.
• By the end of March 2008, E Pawson was hit with a winding-up order and its bank accounts frozen.
• It went into administration on 10 April 2008.
The directors disputed with the administrators that 31 vehicles and 59 trailers, which had been sold, were still subject to finance. They said they had been told by the then finance director that the vehicles were clear of finance and were OK to be sold. It transpired that they had not been released, or had in some cases been refinanced. The matter was reported to the police after advice from solicitors.
Slade explained that the transport arm had been supporting the warehousing operation and Mill Transport, which it bought in late 2006. The liquidation had a devastating effect on the family; they wanted to return to transport, keeping it small and tightly controlled by the family.
Director Michael Pawson said that 24 vehicles and 59 trailers that had been collateral for a chattels mortgage with Lombard had been sold.
Alec Kokinis, company secretary of truck dealer Keltruck. said that E Pawson had gone into administration with a deficit of £3.2m. Keltruck had purchased a vehicle from E Pawson, which the company had no title to as it had been refinanced by Clydesdale Bank after the original Sarnia finance had been settled.
The Clydesdale agreement listed 10 vehicles, four others having been sold to a firm in Doncaster; these were understood to be no longer in the country.
For Pawson Transport, Gary Hodgson argued the board had had no reason to doubt the finance director's word and had acted in good faith when the vehicles and trailers were sold.