JD Classics, what have they been up to?
Discussion
Not anything to do with this lot....
http://www.mortimersprestige.co.uk/
Or, there again.. perhaps it wasn't just a "name".. perhaps.. lots of conjecture. After all, this is PH. BS Matters.
http://www.mortimersprestige.co.uk/
Or, there again.. perhaps it wasn't just a "name".. perhaps.. lots of conjecture. After all, this is PH. BS Matters.
Woodham Mortimer is the name of a village just outside Maldon. Most visitors to JD Classics would drive through it on their way.
When I saw the new company name, it seemed obvious that was the reason, rather than any other company or a Mr Mortimer being involved. I could be wrong, but it would be a pretty big coincidence!
When I saw the new company name, it seemed obvious that was the reason, rather than any other company or a Mr Mortimer being involved. I could be wrong, but it would be a pretty big coincidence!
TJS10 said:
Small world?
In those circles, absolutely.This rather appears to be a pre-pack trying not to look like a pre-pack...or alternatively someone got tapped-up right at the start of the game.
To be fair though, Administrators usually like to have a buyer lined-up as it makes life a lot easier - trying to run a company in administration for any length of time is usually self-defeating as both customers and suppliers go elsewhere, so a quick turnaround is seen as preserving value.
For the lenders, staff and general business it looks to have worked out as best as possible. The speed at which it has happened suggests that the bringing in of Gales was part of the whole plan as a key figure will have been essential in getting it all pulled together and signed off.
It looks like Tuke, Hood and any others who were contemplating joining the fray have been wholly sidelined and the general business can carry on as before.
As far as the market is concerned it has also lifted some stock out of the market that was clearly proving impossible to find buyers for at suitable prices so this saves the associated risks to everyone of assets being dumped at auction.
Tuke now has to press on against Hood if he wants anything but it reads like the lenders and Charme are also going to go for what’s left and I suspect that means Tuke will end up behind them and will probably only get the garden furniture and half share in a cat?
It looks like Tuke, Hood and any others who were contemplating joining the fray have been wholly sidelined and the general business can carry on as before.
As far as the market is concerned it has also lifted some stock out of the market that was clearly proving impossible to find buyers for at suitable prices so this saves the associated risks to everyone of assets being dumped at auction.
Tuke now has to press on against Hood if he wants anything but it reads like the lenders and Charme are also going to go for what’s left and I suspect that means Tuke will end up behind them and will probably only get the garden furniture and half share in a cat?
lowdrag said:
Out of curiosity, why will Tuke be left hanging out to dry? He started his action long before anyone else. Or is there a system of prioritising the debts?
He started his action, sure, but he's not had a judgement or an award as yet.All unsecured creditors (which is what he'll be when he gets an award) are at the back of the queue behind charge-holders, HMRC, secured creditors...
TooMany2cvs said:
He started his action, sure, but he's not had a judgement or an award as yet.
All unsecured creditors (which is what he'll be when he gets an award) are at the back of the queue behind charge-holders, HMRC, secured creditors...
Ahem - HMRC haven't been secured or preferential for a while. This is a useful link...All unsecured creditors (which is what he'll be when he gets an award) are at the back of the queue behind charge-holders, HMRC, secured creditors...
https://www.begbies-traynorgroup.com/articles/inso...
If Tuke's solicitor was on the ball, they'll have sought joint and several liability in the case between JD Classics the company and Hood personally as the Director (given that fraudulent conduct was claimed). So whatever one can't cover will be (in an ideal world) taken from the other party.
I worded my question badly. I am sure I read that Michael Tuke had started his action jointly and severally because his "contract" was with Derek Hood as his agent and not JD Classics. If, as I assume, his case still stands against Hood then I assume there will not be others who would get preference.
TooMany2cvs said:
He started his action, sure, but he's not had a judgement or an award as yet.
All unsecured creditors (which is what he'll be when he gets an award) are at the back of the queue behind charge-holders, HMRC, secured creditors...
How, realistically, will that work for Tuke?All unsecured creditors (which is what he'll be when he gets an award) are at the back of the queue behind charge-holders, HMRC, secured creditors...
If he'd won a claim already, he'd be an unsecured creditor. As he hasn't, surely the administrator just divvies up whatever's left over between the today's unsecured creditors and winds up the company - and Tuke just has to jog on? Whatever's left of JD is unlikely to have money to pay lawyers to fight the cases, let alone pay any award.
I know it's probably academic, but in the link posted above, shareholders are bottom of the list for payouts. As a 'contingent creditor' would the administrator have to ring-fence money for Tuke/legal costs before paying anything out to shareholders?
TJS10 said:
Yesterdays Sunday Times.
"Vintage car crash hooked by squid
The vintage car dealership JD Classics crashed into insolvency this month after the discovery of what administrators politely called “financial irregularities”.
The company had been run by Derek Hood, 58, a former dentist from Essex who started out in 1986 when he sold a Jaguar Mk2 to a passer-by who spotted it on his drive. Earlier this year, Hood and JD were sued for £9m by a wealthy customer who accused Hood of being a “serial fraudster”.
Before it went bust, JD was owned for two years by Charme Capital, a private equity firm run by former Goldman Sachs banker Matteo di Montezemolo — whose father, Luca, chaired Ferrari. It has now been taken out of administration by HPS Investment Partners through a debt-for-equity swap. HPS’s chief executive is Scott Kapnick, who previously held numerous senior roles at the Vampire Squid. Small world?
“It’s very arm’s length, it was done via the administrator and Scott doesn’t know the guy,” clarifies an HPS spinner."
Debt-equity? Whose debt? Did HPS buy the bank’s debt?"Vintage car crash hooked by squid
The vintage car dealership JD Classics crashed into insolvency this month after the discovery of what administrators politely called “financial irregularities”.
The company had been run by Derek Hood, 58, a former dentist from Essex who started out in 1986 when he sold a Jaguar Mk2 to a passer-by who spotted it on his drive. Earlier this year, Hood and JD were sued for £9m by a wealthy customer who accused Hood of being a “serial fraudster”.
Before it went bust, JD was owned for two years by Charme Capital, a private equity firm run by former Goldman Sachs banker Matteo di Montezemolo — whose father, Luca, chaired Ferrari. It has now been taken out of administration by HPS Investment Partners through a debt-for-equity swap. HPS’s chief executive is Scott Kapnick, who previously held numerous senior roles at the Vampire Squid. Small world?
“It’s very arm’s length, it was done via the administrator and Scott doesn’t know the guy,” clarifies an HPS spinner."
Having kept in touch with the lawyers involved on both sides, Tuke's side seems to have been quite Machiavellian.
Hood was always the target, as it was known that JDC would almost certainly go bust if sued for the £50m that Tuke lost, Hood having pocketed most of the money and become a very rich man.
However it was JDC which had the records and information that would hang Hood. Tuke therefore started the first action to declare JDC as Tuke's agent which, if true, would mean that Tuke was entitled to see every scrap of information relating to the cars bought and sold on his behalf.
Hood realised that if that happened it would be curtains for him which is why he spent £1million of the company's money defending the agency claim, and lost, not least because he didn't dare appear in court to defend the fraud allegations.
Charme, who knew nothing of the court case, then stepped in, as did Lloyds who realised that all was not entirely well, but not before JDC were compelled to provide all the information amounting to tens of thousands of documents. It then obligingly went into administration thereby removing its unwelcome distraction in the proceedings.
Apparently the documents have proved to be a treasure trove for Tuke against Hood who is now being sued for tens of millions of pounds more than when the action was started.
Hood was always the target, as it was known that JDC would almost certainly go bust if sued for the £50m that Tuke lost, Hood having pocketed most of the money and become a very rich man.
However it was JDC which had the records and information that would hang Hood. Tuke therefore started the first action to declare JDC as Tuke's agent which, if true, would mean that Tuke was entitled to see every scrap of information relating to the cars bought and sold on his behalf.
Hood realised that if that happened it would be curtains for him which is why he spent £1million of the company's money defending the agency claim, and lost, not least because he didn't dare appear in court to defend the fraud allegations.
Charme, who knew nothing of the court case, then stepped in, as did Lloyds who realised that all was not entirely well, but not before JDC were compelled to provide all the information amounting to tens of thousands of documents. It then obligingly went into administration thereby removing its unwelcome distraction in the proceedings.
Apparently the documents have proved to be a treasure trove for Tuke against Hood who is now being sued for tens of millions of pounds more than when the action was started.
DonkeyApple said:
Sorry but that makes no sense at all.
IANAL so can't comment on the legal propriety of that, but there is a strong chain of logic through it:-- Hood is the one who chose to defraud Tuke. Presumably Tuke took it personally.
- JDC, as a Ltd co, could always choose to go into administration and phoenix-out as a way of avoiding liabilities (including any court-mandated compensation) - suing such a company would be 'winning the court case, losing the war'.
- Hood, as a rich individual, would have no such escape route IF he could be found liable.
- Finding Hood liable requires digging out the suspected 'hidden' transactions which would have to be in JDC's books-and-records.
Could you pass me some more popcorn please?
Livia1 said:
Having kept in touch with the lawyers involved on both sides, Tuke's side seems to have been quite Machiavellian.
Hood was always the target, as it was known that JDC would almost certainly go bust if sued for the £50m that Tuke lost, Hood having pocketed most of the money and become a very rich man.
However it was JDC which had the records and information that would hang Hood. Tuke therefore started the first action to declare JDC as Tuke's agent which, if true, would mean that Tuke was entitled to see every scrap of information relating to the cars bought and sold on his behalf.
Hood realised that if that happened it would be curtains for him which is why he spent £1million of the company's money defending the agency claim, and lost, not least because he didn't dare appear in court to defend the fraud allegations.
Charme, who knew nothing of the court case, then stepped in, as did Lloyds who realised that all was not entirely well, but not before JDC were compelled to provide all the information amounting to tens of thousands of documents. It then obligingly went into administration thereby removing its unwelcome distraction in the proceedings.
Apparently the documents have proved to be a treasure trove for Tuke against Hood who is now being sued for tens of millions of pounds more than when the action was started.
Who needs 'Bodyguard' when you can come here to read the next installment of a real life drama? And Livia1, thank you for setting it all off again. Perhaps this thread could eventually be published as a book, like 'Who Moved My Blackberry' (Excluding the bits about autonomous cars, of course Hood was always the target, as it was known that JDC would almost certainly go bust if sued for the £50m that Tuke lost, Hood having pocketed most of the money and become a very rich man.
However it was JDC which had the records and information that would hang Hood. Tuke therefore started the first action to declare JDC as Tuke's agent which, if true, would mean that Tuke was entitled to see every scrap of information relating to the cars bought and sold on his behalf.
Hood realised that if that happened it would be curtains for him which is why he spent £1million of the company's money defending the agency claim, and lost, not least because he didn't dare appear in court to defend the fraud allegations.
Charme, who knew nothing of the court case, then stepped in, as did Lloyds who realised that all was not entirely well, but not before JDC were compelled to provide all the information amounting to tens of thousands of documents. It then obligingly went into administration thereby removing its unwelcome distraction in the proceedings.
Apparently the documents have proved to be a treasure trove for Tuke against Hood who is now being sued for tens of millions of pounds more than when the action was started.
).I don't see Tuke as being Machiavellian, though. He just needed to secure the evidence for his claim.
havoc said:
DonkeyApple said:
Sorry but that makes no sense at all.
IANAL so can't comment on the legal propriety of that, but there is a strong chain of logic through it:-- Hood is the one who chose to defraud Tuke. Presumably Tuke took it personally.
- JDC, as a Ltd co, could always choose to go into administration and phoenix-out as a way of avoiding liabilities (including any court-mandated compensation) - suing such a company would be 'winning the court case, losing the war'.
- Hood, as a rich individual, would have no such escape route IF he could be found liable.
- Finding Hood liable requires digging out the suspected 'hidden' transactions which would have to be in JDC's books-and-records.
Could you pass me some more popcorn please?
One of the principles of English litigation is that it is conducted, at least in theory, with cards on the table. That means before a case goes to trial disclosure of what is relevant documentation takes place. Obviously you can only disclose documents you have control over. Therefore I would expect Mr Tuke would by now have quite a lot of the documents which would be disclosed in the JD Claim and which would assist him in his claim against Mr Hood. If he sued just one of the two parties he would only get documents from that party and you could see, for example, that Mr Hood might say all the documents were with JD and he could have left the building......
I would expect Mr Hood now faces claims not only from Mr Tuke but also Charme, and potentially (some) other past customers of JD if they had the same relationship with JD as Mr Tuke.
As for those claims, I would expect the one from Charme won’t outrank the one from Mr Tuke because it would be unusual for a buyer of a business to take some kind of charge against assets if their claim was a breach of obligations under the contract for the sale of them business. I suspect they would rank equally but that is just a guess on my part.
DonkeyApple said:
skwdenyer said:
Debt-equity? Whose debt? Did HPS buy the bank’s debt?
It just means that the lenders to JD have taken equity in the new venture instead of taking cash. 
my point was that if Lloyd’s were owed £100m, why would they allow the business to be sold for no money down to another debt holder?Is it possible Charme loaded up the business with secured debt, then “sold” their debt to these new guys who have now called it? There’s reference to a 30m intercompany loan.
Other than that, I only see Lloyd’s name.
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