P&A Partnership ‘cheated creditors out of millions’

The P&A Partnership were appointed as the Pilgrims' administrators in March  2011, with the club in financial meltdown.


Millionaire Jeremy Priestley allegedly billed clients when he was out shooting

One of Britain’s leading insolvency experts has been accused of making up billable hours in order to cheat creditors out of millions of pounds.

A criminal investigation is under way after thousands of documents were passed to the government, which allegedly reveal that P&A Partnership, an insolvency firm run by Jeremy Priestley, conducted a fraud by falsifying its time records in order to claim higher fees.
P&A, which was acquired by the AIM-quoted Begbies Traynor last year, was reported to the police, business department and professional bodies after allegations that the business was engaging in so-called “time-dumping”, a court document related to a separate, civil case reveals.

Time-dumping involves falsely claiming work done on insolvency cases — profiting from insolvent estates at the expense of business owners and creditors, including the taxpayer.
The business department is leading a criminal investigation into the claims.

A November judgment in civil proceedings, in which two former employees of P&A were accused of wrongfully charging excessive fees, reported the government’s preliminary findings. According to the judgment, the government said there was “evidence to show” that Mr Priestley and six other P&A staff had been “claiming money from [companies] in administration or liquidation they have not been entitled to”.

Business department investigators alleged that Mr Priestley, the former managing partner of P&A, “charged time to cases when he was unavailable to do so”, the same judgment reported.

Mr Priestley, who is not a qualified insolvency practitioner having failed his professional exams, is alleged to have charged time against insolvent companies when his diary showed him to be on holiday and even “out on a shooting day”. P&A’s senior staff charged as much as £600 an hour.

Mr Priestley remains employed by Begbies Traynor as a senior consultant. The company’s website boasts that it benefits from his more than “25 years’ experience advising corporate and individual clients in financial distress”.

A spokesman for Begbies said that the company was “very happy with the staff taken on” through its acquisition of P&A “and that the cases taken on are being undertaken under Begbies’ own compliance policies and procedures”. It is not under investigation or party to the civil proceedings.

Mr Priestley said that he was “not aware of any proceedings having been commenced [by the business department]” against him. Mr Priestley is not a party to the civil proceedings.

The civil legal action was brought by liquidators from Grant Thornton on behalf of the government’s Pension Protection Fund.
The liquidators have accused two former P&A employees, Christopher White and Andrew Wood, of fraud and “misfeasance or breach of fiduciary duty” in relation to the administration and liquidation of FW Mason & Sons, a Nottingham-based timber business.
An application from Mr White and Mr Wood for the fraud and misfeasance claims in the civil case to be struck out was rejected in November.

Mr Wood, Mr White and Mr Priestley said the allegations were “groundless”. “These proceedings and allegations will continue to be resisted in the most strenuous terms,” Mr Wood said.
Mr Wood said that work on FW Mason secured recoveries of £6.7 million, full payment to preferential creditors and saved “85 out of 102 jobs”.

Unsecured creditors, including the taxman and the employees’ pension fund, lost more than £27 million.
P&A charged £1.2 million for the FW Mason work, which the liquidators said in court was “extremely high”. There are question marks against £800,000-worth of the fees, with as much as three quarters of the billable hours recorded allegedly “not supported by any narrative at all”.

The liquidators said Mr Priestley had recorded 800 hours against the business, charging £236,000. There were 68 weeks in which Mr Priestley charged time where there were “hardly any documents evidencing his [genuine] involvement,” they claimed. They also alleged that P&A had paid a bribe to accountants in order to win the work in the first place.
Ms Registrar Derrett said that the claims against Mr White and Mr Wood were “reasonably meritorious” and had “at least real prospects of success”.

She said it was “notable that the one thing [Mr White and Mr Wood] have not done is to take this opportunity to demonstrate that the remuneration . . . was properly referable to work actually done by P&A.”

The FW Mason case, which was not acquired by Begbies, is one of scores of P&A insolvency jobs spread over several years subject to the criminal investigation, The Times understands. Several million pounds’ worth of fees are being questioned.

The P&A Partnership was raided twice by police and business department officials in 2014 amid concerns about the company’s fees.
The firm was best known for its often contentious insolvency work on football clubs, including Crystal Palace and Plymouth Argyle, although there is no suggestion these jobs form part of the criminal investigation.

Its work has helped to fund a multimillionaire lifestyle for Mr Priestley, including supercars, regular luxury holidays and travelling by private jet.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/industries/banking/article4666951.ece

Tick tock tick tock......

We can only hope Gulfoyle and Ridsdale are in the frame. Sounds like someone has dobbed P&A in, and not before time. Parasites feeding on dying bodies.

More than likely HMRC, they don't like being so far down the list of creditors and it won't be long before they become THE preferred creditor.

Quote from a post by Graham Clark on the farm

It is perhaps the ultimate irony that P and A Partnership went into administration themselves in October 2015 owing a substantial sum to HMRC amongst others. They were taken over as part of a pre-pack arrangement by their new owners.

THE END OF P&A: Insolvency firm owed £11m to 127 creditors

One of the largest regional insolvency firms in the country – The P&A Partnership – went under owing £11 million, reports reveal.

The Sheffield-based company went into administration owing money to 127 creditors, including £1.28million to the Royal Bank of Scotland and £983,000 to HMRC.

The crash sent shockwaves through the business community – P&A was one of the largest independent insolvency and debt collection firms in the country, acting for multinational PLCs, financial institutions, solicitors, accountants and business advisers across the UK and Europe.

It also had a reputation for handling high-profile cases including the administration of several football clubs.

But it hit trouble last year when the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills raided its premises on Queen Street, twice, and launched a criminal investigation.

In December Grant Thornton launched a £1.2m legal action over alleged unjustified fees after a Nottingham timber merchant went bust. The case has not yet gone to court.

A report by administrators BDO reveals P&A hit problems in June when its bankers, RBS, asked for a review of its cash position.

It showed a net deficit of £1.7m and further potential liabilities of £1.1m from the legal claim.

A BDO report shows P&A owed HMRC £983,000 - of which £543,000 was overdue. And on July 14 HMRC officers visited the premises and took ‘walking possession’ of office equipment worth about £10,000.

The report states P&A fees from work in progress stood at £1.89m but it was not possible to convert this into cash quickly and it was ‘unable to trade out of its financial position without an injection of funds’.

But RBS was unwilling to provide any more money on top of unsecured debt of £1.28m and BDO was asked to find investment or a buyer.

Two buyers were identified, but neither was interested in acquiring the shares of the company – in part because they would become liable for any payout from the Grant Thornton case.

The report adds: ‘Even if funding was available, the nature of the business meant it would almost inevitably have lost all credibility whilst in administration itself’.

In the end ‘certain business and assets’ - including 36 staff - were sold to insolvency firm Begbies Traynor, for £860,000 in a ‘pre-pack’ deal judged by BDO to be a better outcome for creditors than an immediate shut-down of the business.

P&A boss Jeremy Priestley was by far the largest creditor. He was owed £5.9m.

The report states: ‘The majority represented consideration for the sale of goodwill in the original partnership to the company in 2012. We understand that the sale had primarily been driven by tax considerations.’

A Begbies Traynor spokeswoman said: “We can confirm that Jeremy Priestley acts as a consultant to Begbies Traynor (SY) LLP following its acquisition of the trade and certain assets of P&A Partnership Ltd. Begbies Traynor did not acquire the case, or any liabilities relating to the case, which is subject to the Grant Thornton litigation. We understand the legal action is against two former partners of The P&A Partnership who did not join Begbies Traynor.

“As the Grant Thornton litigation and the BIS investigation are ongoing and as we are not party to them, it would be inappropriate for us to provide further comment.”

Read more: http://www.thestar.co.uk/business/the-end-of-p-a-insolvency-firm-owed-11m-to-127-creditors-1-7526888#ixzz3xXlpAZMV

Huge popcorn moment on the horizon.

Here's one for ya...

The irony of everyone getting on the P & A partnerships back.

The simple truth is...  

Without Brenda and Panda, and Heaney's shush money which funded admin...   P&AFC wouldn't exist.

And yet Pasoti would have you believe it was Newell, Webb and most of those that claim themselves to have fought in the war that saved the day - most really did nothing but support the council's  'go to' man (Brent) and scare off anyone else that was interested.


LOL.  The persons almost everyone dislikes the most, are in reality responsible for the saving of the club.


Some people are ungrateful little fuckers.

Heaney got full value for money - and how much did he actually, really, verifiably and unrecoverably put in?

That exclusivity agreement would sure make interesting reading.

I think the truth of it here is that football league clubs are more or less bullet-proof. No matter how bad the situation or how incompetent the administration the eventual outcome will always be survival of a sort.

They are just too high profile for an insolvency practitioner to allow them to go under without leaving a huge blot on their copybook.

Everything else: deadlines, ultimatums (ultimata?), scares and tantrums (tantra?) are all simply theatre while they try to screw the best deal they can for themselves akin to the distraction techniques employed by a sleight-of-hand magician ("... and here's the delightful Debbie McGhee").

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

Heaney got full value for money - and how much did he actually, really, verifiably and unrecoverably put in?

That exclusivity agreement would sure make interesting reading.

I think the truth of it here is that football league clubs are more or less bullet-proof. No matter how bad the situation or how incompetent the administration the eventual outcome will always be survival of a sort.

They are just too high profile for an insolvency practitioner to allow them to go under without leaving a huge blot on their copybook.

Everything else: deadlines, ultimatums (ultimata?), scares and tantrums (tantra?) are all simply theatre while they try to screw the best deal they can for themselves akin to the distraction techniques employed by a sleight-of-hand magician ("... and here's the delightful Debbie McGhee").

How Heaney had full value for money by losing £300k is beyond me.

Because he had months of being the only show in town and he dragged it out as long as he could until we really were right on the precipice at which point Brent's operation probably was the only option that could get it done.

Heaney's bid was quite funny in some ways though: "All he wants to do is build a cinema in the park...".

LOL.

Agree with the Brent bit but I still think he lost £300 by all accounts, that's expensive visibility especially as it ended in very public failiure. I never actually saw the difference between Brent and Heaney other than the support of the WOR pigs, neither of them had a pot to piss in and everybody could have just as easily rattled the buckets for Kev as Jim.

Sir Francis Drake wrote:

Heaney's bid was quite funny in some ways though: "All he wants to do is build a cinema in the park...".

LOL.

I know, I had numerous run ins with the head WOR pig over this point,
Worpig, Heaney is just a property developer!
Me, so is Brent.
Worpig, James Brent is NOT A PROPERTY DEVELOPER!

About the only thing he's ever got right but only after his lord and master failed at developing the biggest gift to ever fall in anybodies lap.

Amsterdamage wrote:

Agree with the Brent bit but I still think he lost £300 by all accounts, that's expensive visibility especially as it ended in very public failiure. I never actually saw the difference between Brent and Heaney other than the support of the WOR pigs, neither of them had a pot to piss in and everybody could have just as easily rattled the buckets for Kev as Jim.

I seem to remember the 300K came from some associate of Stapletons didn't it? Abe. I can also remember during the Wor, Heaney being spotted in the holiday inn by Nool and Peter Ryan.

The exact relationships behind Heaney has never been established but Heaney's bid was registered at Stapleton's accountancy HQ and Koichiro Abe was/is Japanese and was tied into Mastpoint if I recall properly.

All as fishy as a haddock.

The fishiness was never in doubt, closer to Stapes and co than anybody realised so I heard.

I'm not sure how much closer than registered in his building you can get.

Heaney was just a horrible selfish git who saw off loads of people in Truro and Cornwall. Saw him few weeks back - still reminds me of chucky.
Got this clip of his first meeting with the Administrators.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neLGV-ZRvgU

Let's not forget that the club in some shape or form appointed (i.e. chose) P&A. P&A then gave exclusivity to Heaney whose bid was registered at Stapleton's and backed by one of the Mastpoint crew which was more or less the club before the excrement impacted with air-conditioning.

Thinking on this some more by the time you have staff and players working largely unpaid and collections galore going on to, in part - however unintended, keep things that way then matchday income should be more than enough to pay the water, electric and so on because if no wages are being paid then there's no NI or income tax to find, is there?

Which means that the biggest financial pressure is from the administrator itself. Just as long as it gets its wedge it doesn't have any incentive to end the administration process.

Hence the Heaney farce dragging on as long as it did.

In retrospect despite the staff and players sacrificing their incomes with the very best of intentions all they really succeeded in was making things drag on almost indefinitely to the detriment of themselves.

Even with all that you boys could still have paid the St.John Ambulance.

The only differance between kev & jim
Kev wern't offering jobs for the boys

Amsterdamage wrote:

How Heaney had full value for money by losing £300k is beyond me.

Not for one moment did I believe Heaney fronted that money. He was just an instrument through which the money was passed, with the object of the exercise to get everyone working without pay for months and months, while Ridsdale/PA et al got a nice earner. It suited everyone, bar the staff. The Heaney ruse was Ridsdale inspired in my mind, no doubt at all. And Stapleton probably involved in there somewhere.

Talking of orchestrated pre-packs, maybe we should look at the present Argyle board to see if there's any of the previous owners there who took the club into admin.

Rickler wrote:

Here's one for ya...

The irony of everyone getting on the P & A partnerships back.

The simple truth is...  

Without Brenda and Panda, and Heaney's shush money which funded admin...   P&AFC wouldn't exist.

And yet Pasoti would have you believe it was Newell, Webb and most of those that claim themselves to have fought in the war that saved the day - most really did nothing but support the council's  'go to' man (Brent) and scare off anyone else that was interested.


LOL.  The persons almost everyone dislikes the most, are in reality responsible for the saving of the club.


Some people are ungrateful little fuckers.

Heaney the saviour ??????

Hugh Watt wrote:

Amsterdamage wrote:

Agree with the Brent bit but I still think he lost £300 by all accounts, that's expensive visibility especially as it ended in very public failiure. I never actually saw the difference between Brent and Heaney other than the support of the WOR pigs, neither of them had a pot to piss in and everybody could have just as easily rattled the buckets for Kev as Jim.

I seem to remember the 300K came from some associate of Stapletons didn't it? Abe. I can also remember during the Wor, Heaney being spotted in the holiday inn by Nool and Peter Ryan.

I wonder who tipped them off that Heaney was there having breakfast and looking at his dastardly plans for HP?

And I wonder how those plans (and funding) compared to Brent's abomination?