Continuing BN's look back at the last week of Hereford United and an article written by Jamie Griffiths published on Sunday December 14th 2014
BULLS HAVE PREVIOUS WITH WINDING UP JUDGE
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.
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].