MPs Call To Challenge Creditors' Vote

Last updated : 27 June 2007 By Kevin Markey
Liberal Democrat Phil Willis who, along with Labour's George Mudie and Colin Burgon held a meeting at Westminster with the Treasury minister, Ed Balls, paymaster general, Dawn Primarolo, and sports minister, Richard Caborn, said: "We are trying to get the Treasury and HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs) to challenge the administrator's decision by July 3.

"There was £7.7m owed to the taxman and that is no small matter. We had assurances this morning that the taxman is taking this very seriously and we are optimistic a challenge will be raised before (next Tuesday's) deadline.

"To their credit there was nothing we raised in the meeting that came as news to them. This is important to football, not just Leeds United."

Next Tuesday's deadline relates to the end of the cooling-off period during which disaffected creditors may challenge the decision made by the administrator, KPMG, to approve the bid that saw Bates's consortium take over the club after paying only 1p in the pound to creditors.

The MPs showed evidence of the late declaration of debts to directors and associated companies, the existence of which helped swing the vote in favour of Bates's consortium.

The second case related to Mark Taylor & Company, whose principal, Mark Taylor, is a director of both the club and the takeover consortium.

The company's initial claim rose from £59,756 to £273,615.32 in the final analysis.

"There was no point billing because I knew I wouldn't have got paid," said Taylor. "I knew the club did not have a lot of free cashflow. But the work had been done, so I was perfectly entitled to do that."

A spokesman for the administrator, KPMG, said: "We have taken and conducted this in accordance with normal insolvency procedures and were advised by legal counsel to ensure we were operating in accordance with insolvency law and we always acted in the bounds of that."