Park First Court Hearing

The Park First saga continues on Monday 4th November with a court hearing requested by Smith and Williamson, the administrator appointed by the Park First directors. As mentioned in previous articles Smith and Williamson are asking investors to accept the write-off of more than £115m which appears to have vanished into a black hole. They give absolutely no explanation of who has had this money, what they used it for or why they consider it to be “unrecoverable”.  Investors are just being asked to vote for it based on the word of Smith and Williamson.

The court hearing has been requested in order that the Judge may consider, among other things, whether it is acceptable for Smith and Williamson and Park First to refuse to supply the List of Creditors to investor representatives such as Mark Hendrick of Quantuma LLP and Lisa Moxon of Dow Schofield Watts. The argument put forward by investor representatives is that Smith and Williamson is attempting to deny creditors the right to join together to defy the so-called “directors’ rescue plan” and to be informed of an alternative, more just and equitable proposal.  Most investors want an investigation into the missing money and the conduct of the company directors. They also want Smith and Williamson removed as administrators. Smith and Williamson on the other hand is proposing that there is no investigation into the money and that the company directors just continue in their positions.

We have raised the question as to whether creditors are being misled by Smith and Williamson. The company assets include £33m held in an escrow account over which the Financial Conduct Authority has some control.  Smith and Williamson wrote to all creditors to advise them that unless they vote for their proposal that £33m would no longer be available to creditors.  The FCA had to intervene to point out that this was a false statement.  The £33m would not be lost and could be included as assets under the Quantuma / Dow Schofield Watts proposal.

We have pointed out that Smith and Williamson HAS NOT informed creditors that they had sent out a misleading communication and we have commented that there may be creditors who still believe the £33m would be lost to them. Smith and Williamson has made no effort to correct its error.

Our opinion was reinforced this week when we were introduced to an 89 year old Park First investor.  He has no computer and has never had an email address.  He was sold his Park First investment over the phone.  We spoke to him this week and he advised us that he would be voting for the Smith and Williamson proposal because he had received a letter telling him that if he didn’t vote for it he would lose his share of the £33m. He had also been telephone by Park First this week advising him that he should vote for the Smith and Williamson proposal.  We believe there will be many people who are in the same position.  They have effectively been manipulated into believing the false statement made by Smith and Williamson.  This is an abuse of the administrator’s position and we hope the Judge agrees that the List of Creditors should be released to investor representatives so that the true position can be properly communicated to them.

If you are an investor and have not already contacted the investor representatives mentioned above we recommend that you do so.  They will be in attendance at the Park First court hearing.

To view our previous article on Park First please click here.  This article contains the contact details of Mark Hendrick and Lisa Moxon at the bottom of the page.

To view our latest article on Park First please click here.