Hereford United head to the Royal Courts of Justice again tomorrow morning, topping the list of companies facing Winding Up petitions, with HMRC leading the petition against the club.
It is the ninth time in the current run of adjournments that The Bulls will appear before the Courts, and the third time that Mr Registrar Baister has been in charge.
The first time Mr Baister presided over this run of hearings was at the start of June, when he granted Hereford United an adjournment to the petition bought by former manager Martin Foyle.
Lawyers representing the club had successfully pleaded that the owners had only recently arrived, and that they needed more time, with the Hereford Times reporting “club lawyers said that it had been purchased the previous week and the new owners were investigating options including administration and a creditors voluntary arrangement (CVA)”.
The club did indeed go down the route of of a CVA, and as readers will no doubt remember, that CVA was rejected, largely on the basis that the figures proposed were unrealistic.
In October Mr Baister presided over The Bulls’ seventh appearance at the High Courts, and again gave Hereford United an adjournment, this time due to a promise of £1.5million worth of investment. This time he was far less forgiving, and was reported to have warned the club that failure to pay off all of those companies attached to the petition would result in them being wound up on 1st December.
Reporting on the hearing, BBC Hereford & Worcester Political reporter, Matthew Bone tweeted the following:
As we know, the investment hasn’t been forthcoming, and as we know, it wasn’t the final adjournment, with another judge taking the last hearing on 1st December, and eventually adjourning after being handed a guarantee that Andy Lonsdale would be able to personally finance the club in order for them to settle the outstanding debts.
What has become clear is that at the last two court appearances, both judges have been far less forgiving than they were during the early hearings. In October both HMRC and Herefordshire Council urged Mr Baister to wind the club up there and then. It appeared as though he would, until a barrister representing a former majority shareholder stood up to report the potential investment. This didn’t materialise.
The last court hearing on 1st December was only adjourned after the judge had pushed the hearing back to later in the day, in order to receive guarantees that the club had the money available to satisfy the creditors.
As reported elsewhere [Bulls News] [Save Edgar Street Blog] there are big questions as to the validity of the guarantee letter.
What is certain is that if Hereford United attend court having failed to pay at the very least, the lead creditor (HMRC) then it is expected that they will be asked some serious questions by Mr Baister, who has been the Chief bankruptcy registrar since 2004, and is President of the Institute of Credit Management, the worlds second largest credit management organisation who say that ‘delivering on promises and displaying honesty and integrity’ is one of their values [ICM Website].