Shepherd Cox Bankruptcy Update

Shepherd Cox bankruptcy update.

We have received a number of requests for an update on the bankruptcy petitions filed against the directors of the Shepherd Cox companies.  Mr Carlile’s hearing was due to take place earlier this month, but was ‘vacated’ i.e it did not go ahead due to the Judge being unable to attend.  We are told the hearing is being rescheduled for some time in December.  The last update we received on Lee Bramzell’s hearing is that it is still scheduled for 8th December.

What is very concerning is that we have seen correspondence sent by Nick Carlile earlier this month from his Shepherd Cox Ltd email address providing an update on the company’s business. Shepherd Cox Ltd was placed into administration in September 2020 so Mr Carlile is acting unlawfully by pretending to represent the company.  The email lists the hotel properties which Shepherd Cox Ltd allegedly controls.  This would be good news for the administrator of Shepherd Cox Ltd if Mr Carlile’s claims were true, but they are not.

Mr Carlile claims in his email that Covid-19 has had a serious impact on the Shepherd Cox Ltd business which he states includes the following hotels:

ALLERTON COURT HOTEL  /  HALLGARTH MANOR HOTEL  /  THE NEW HOBBIT HOTEL  /  WROXTON HALL  /  THREE WAYS HOTEL  /  THE OLDE BARN HOTEL  /  THE BRIDGE HOTEL  /  THE CRAB AND LOBSTER  /  AND TWO LEASEHOLD HOTELS IN CHESTER AND SUNDERLAND.

Shepherd Cox Ltd does not own any of these hotels and it does not operate them.  Shepherd Cox Ltd was the sales arm of the Shepherd Cox scam, not the operational arm.  See our previous article here.

If Shepherd Cox Ltd did own or operate these hotels the administrator would now control them on behalf of creditors.  Mr Carlile’s claims are untrue.  He states “On a more positive note we have streamlined the business and introduced a new management company to assist us going forward. They have made significant reductions to our cost base and are forecasting a reasonable profit for the business – even in this coming year to March 2020”.   He means 2021.  I suppose that losing control of most of the hotels can technically be classified as ‘streamlining’.

We assume Mr Carlile is referring to the Festival Hotels companies as the new management company.  Mr Bramzell and Luqa Ltd (the Maltese company which controls the first three hotels on the list through its own appointed administrator) have a symbiotic relationship where the fortunes of one is tied to the other hence Luqa’s administrator appointing Mr Bramzell’s companies to run the hotels when it had many proper, genuine and far more capable hotel management companies it could have chosen.

It’s possible that someone else with access to the Shepherd Cox email system sent the email out in the name of Mr Carlile because they didn’t want to put their own name on it.  If it was Mr Carlile it was very unwise to purport to represent Shepherd Cox Ltd when he does not and it smacks of desperation.  The email was clearly intended to mislead the recipients, some of whom are owed money by Mr Carlile.  The last thing Mr Carlile would want at this stage is yet more creditors supporting the bankruptcy petition against him which may be why he has painted a completely false picture of his future prospects and ability to repay his debts.