Mark Hales made bankrupt
Discussion
Those of you who kindly contributed to the fund will know about this, but for those who don't here is the email I received from Mark today......
To everybody who has been kind enough to donate...
Apologies again for this round robin email, and also to those kind people I may have missed last time.
Thank you all so much for your generosity and support in this unpleasant matter. Your contributions allowed me to keep the fight going for a bit longer, and to survive while it was all going on. It’s amazing how these things completely take over your life and working productively is one of the first things that suffers.
I use the past tense in the context of the fight, because on June 11th Piper purchased the last piece of his retribution and succeeded in making me bankrupt.
Piper has now spent nearly £80,000 in his efforts to bankrupt me and has refused all offers to settle. A group headed by the CEO of Nick Mason’s businesses had organised some serious fund raising activities and Nick and others had kindly underwritten a minimum of £50,000. This was on the table, plus whatever surplus came from the fundraising, plus anything remaining in your fund. Piper refused the offer saying he would continue with the bankruptcy proceedings.
I have the interview with the Official Receiver on Tuesday. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Thanks again
Mark
Frankly, I consider the whole affair a shoddy business, but then there will always be pro's and con's for both sides so leave it there. It seems that this time Goliath came out the winner against David. Sad.
To everybody who has been kind enough to donate...
Apologies again for this round robin email, and also to those kind people I may have missed last time.
Thank you all so much for your generosity and support in this unpleasant matter. Your contributions allowed me to keep the fight going for a bit longer, and to survive while it was all going on. It’s amazing how these things completely take over your life and working productively is one of the first things that suffers.
I use the past tense in the context of the fight, because on June 11th Piper purchased the last piece of his retribution and succeeded in making me bankrupt.
Piper has now spent nearly £80,000 in his efforts to bankrupt me and has refused all offers to settle. A group headed by the CEO of Nick Mason’s businesses had organised some serious fund raising activities and Nick and others had kindly underwritten a minimum of £50,000. This was on the table, plus whatever surplus came from the fundraising, plus anything remaining in your fund. Piper refused the offer saying he would continue with the bankruptcy proceedings.
I have the interview with the Official Receiver on Tuesday. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Thanks again
Mark
Frankly, I consider the whole affair a shoddy business, but then there will always be pro's and con's for both sides so leave it there. It seems that this time Goliath came out the winner against David. Sad.
This is very sad, and again shows that no one comes out well in this sort of legal scenario. It would seen , and i don't know all the details,but from what i have read including the Octane mag, that offers of some sort were put on the table and were rejected. I do feel for Mark and i do know that Mr Piper may suffer some animosity from the classic car and classic race car fraternity, certainly from myself for what its worth. I do hope that his invitations to South Africa where he is something of a hero and where i have a past, are no longer forthcoming. And I for one, will not be keen to attend events where he is officially included. But all round, a bad show and not what we in the classic car movement expect from fellow enthusiasts.
t to me.....Only Piper & Hales know what was said/agreed between the two parties before & after driving the car.
Hales seems to be keen to slate Piper, while Piper has remained silent.
I've a lot of respect for both men, its just a shame it could not have been sorted out over a pint & a handshake.
Hales seems to be keen to slate Piper, while Piper has remained silent.
I've a lot of respect for both men, its just a shame it could not have been sorted out over a pint & a handshake.
POORCARDEALER said:
I've a lot of respect for both men, its just a shame it could not have been sorted out over a pint & a handshake.
That's what is sad about the situation.I think the situation is that Hale's can't afford to pay the legal costs and the cost of fixing his car so bankruptcy proceedings have started to force the sale of his remaining capital assets to the point where the bill is paid. This probably includes house etc. That said if the debt is say £80k legal costs incurred by Piper plus the costs of repairing the Porsche (£40k?) and also Hale's legal costs (£20-40k?). I don't know how much is in the whip round pot but Hales mentions that others promised to put in something like £50k and there have been various other fundraising events. Whether Mark is properly bankrupt afterwards depends on how much capital he has and whether the promises made by others are kept... I'd suspect he wouldn't be totally broke.
But then it's hard to know for certain exactly what the numbers are and how they stack up so the above is just guesswork!
But then it's hard to know for certain exactly what the numbers are and how they stack up so the above is just guesswork!
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