Blog
Directors ordered to pay petitioners’ costs of a winding up petition
Nick Hughes
Nick joined Kingsley Napley in 2023 and is a Partner in the Restructuring & Insolvency practice.
He has specialised in insolvency work since 2001 and is primarily office holder focused. His expertise includes:
- transactional work, mostly pre-pack sales (and purchases) and the consequences of such transactions, ROT disputes, security reviews and disclaiming onerous assets;
- contractual and other disputes with which IPs either find themselves thrown into upon appointment or choose to pursue to realise assets for creditors;
- pursuing claims against the directors, their associates or other typically connected parties to recover assets which have been diverted in various ingenious ways from the insolvent entity into the wrong hands.
Nick also acts regularly for the directors of insolvent companies who find themselves facing claims from IPs. He approaches these claims pragmatically and has a good record of reaching commercial settlements before the legal costs become the crux of the dispute.
Nick also acts for creditors in fraud cases which have a significant insolvency flavour. Typically the first step is the appointment of liquidators and administrators to investigate claims.
Nick has a loyal client following for many of whom he has acted for many years.
RECENT WORK
- Acting for Liquidators pursuing preferential payments to directors via an associated company Re De Weyer Limited [2022] EWHC 395 (Ch). The Court accepted the interposition of the associated company did not defeat the claims
- Acting for a Claimant investor in a successful application to remove the security trustee of a dubious investment scheme and safeguarding circa £30m of trust assets
- Acting for Liquidators and a Trustee in Bankruptcy on a successful claim against the directors of Global Forestry Investments Limited, a teak plantation Ponzi scheme, including obtaining freezing and search orders (see https://www.sfo.gov.uk/2022/05/31/first-sfo-trial-of-2022-results-in-double-conviction/)
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Acting for directors on an application for in Court administration order in the context of a just and equitable winding up petition
Publication & Press Highlights
- The BHS saga nears an end with the liquidators success at trial against the former directors, TL4 FIRE Magazine, p23, September 2024