Unity at Ministry for Truth has served up a really amazing read. I’m amazed at some of the creditors who are non priority. These are some that stood out for me.
* Brewers owe Booksolve $36,955.37. The Bookshops cannot operate without Booksolve.
* I can’t imagine how HM Revenue & Customs - Vat can be a non Priority claim. That’s $62,824.74 and $57,615.60.
* Moorepay are owed $52,866.06 yet Moorepay continues to pay wages for Chichester and Durham. Pax Vobiscum, taxes and NI is paid. What is worrying is that the Brewers have not paid pensions. The pension’s board are owed money.
* SSG states that they have paid Moorepay on behalf of Durham Cathedral Shop Management Company. Payslips show that staff are paid via Durham Cathedral Shop Management Company.
* Can’t understand why SSG have to pay the Orthodox Christian Mission Fund and I can’t understand why Aaron Brewer had to be paid. (Please not another Brewer hope it’s not the son who is studying for the Priesthood).
* I can’t understand why Toybox were paid by the ENC Shop Management Company as posted by ToyboxColin on www.spckssg.wordpress.com but they are still listed as a non priority claim.
* I can’t understand why they owe Durham Cathedral money and the Cathedral is listed as a non priority claim. This one has me flummoxed. The Brewer’s have a shop at Durham Cathedral and they are allowed to continue to trade.
* I laughed when I read that St Andrew’s Bookshop are owed $40,118.76. These are the people who did a lot of people out of jobs and turned SPCK booksellers into agents for them. Everytime somebody wanted to order a book Booksolve was fixed to send the order through St Andrew’s. And then St Andrew’s blogged on the Brewer movie showing it’s full support.
To add to the Brewer’s muddled accounting – when they send stock from a shop they have closed to an existing shop they charge the account of the existing shop for that stock.
2008/07/26 at 10:21 pm
asingleblog,
You say taxes and Ni are paid – actually the second figure you have ascribed to HMRC Vat is actaully stated as being owed to HMRC – PAYE. PAYE is Pay As You Earn and is HMRC’s department for collecting the Tax & NI deducted from an employee’s wage by the Employer every month. Therefore I am sorry to say but based upon the listing (which by the way may now be inaccurate as some payments may have been made by ENC it would seem from what ToyBox said at spckssg) probably Tax and NI have not been paid up as it is listed in the Schedule E – Creditors holding unsecured priority claims.
Sorry to be the one to dampen any rays of hope – unless of course you mean they have been paid for the employee’s of ENC, Durham & Chichester shop management co’s.
In regards to Toybox and the listing – you have to remember these documents are the same documents as they originally went into Chapter 11 with and were stamped and entered into court files on the 19th June, Toybox was paid about 2 weeks ago – so there may be others that we do not know about that appear on these lists that are now settled through ENC or one of the other new companies, such as Durham Cathedral Shop Management Co. or Chichester etc.
The Cathedral will have a lease with SSG etc and may well have been owed rent etc – removing a standing tennant is not an easy thing to do unfortunately, it takes a while to get an eviction notice served and enforced – or there could be others things we know nothing about, it is not SSG that are currently trading there but Durham Cathedral Shop Management Co. – I know, i know the same directors, the same stock etc – but still legally – well we all know what they say about the law!
St Andrews, yep well they are owed that money. Though they were probably on a commission basis of all sales (thats generally how these things work) they were having to buy in the stock and supply it and I guess then they didn’t get paid for it at the time when they should have. I guess they believed the spin rather like SPCK did! Lawyers tend to be able to talk a good talk! and everyone makes mistakes, some are just bigger than others! however think on the possible scary repercussions, $40k is approx £20k currently – in this current economic climate that is not a good place for any chain of bookshops to be in the position of being short of!
Yes I did find it interesting how closed shops – that had been closed since before the petition went in are listed as creditors! Now the landlords of said buildings may be creditors but then they aren’t listed on the requisite forms – only bristol it would seem had a lease.
yes most interesting indeed – though I still hold a respect for the Dismissal notice and some of the final points of it myself.
2008/07/27 at 7:00 am
Squiglejones – PAYE and NI are being paid by those who work in the new entities. I’m taking for granted that these are passed on to HMRC. I don’t know about pensions.
2008/07/27 at 12:38 pm
asinglblog,
I wouldn’t take that for granted – all the other people had PAYE – ie NI and Tax automatically taken from their wages too – thats how Paye works, the employer takes it from your wage automatically and then holds onto it until the end of the month when they should then pay it onto HMRC. Given the stated debt listed this wasn’t happening as it should and they still owed the money to HMRC.
As I think Pax said previously if I was anyone recieving a wage from SSg or any of the associated agencies then I would contact my local PAYE/Tax office and ask them to check for you. THis can have serious repercussions for the individual later on if not resolved as a gap in NI contributions can lessen entitlements to state pensions and benefits etc, and obviously tax owed is tax owed. Given what is coming to light on stated court forms I would definitely take nothing for granted and check everything.
2008/07/27 at 2:11 pm
Thanks squiggle jones – will alert all those I know.
2008/07/27 at 7:42 pm
Did anyone else other than my friend MBgenius notice that at the end of Schedule F (continuation sheet 2) that the last 2 creditors are:
Durham Cathedral Shop Management Co. for $165387.98
Chichester Shop management. for $35844.10
Wouldn’t one suppose it would normally be the other way round and that they would owe SSG something for the shops, stocks, fittings and goodwill etc etc as is normal in a transfer of business from one company to another?? At the least I would have thought that that any debt would have been wiped out by the transfer of business and all assets to the new companies? and probably should have been recorded elsewhere than on schedule F, possibly on the statement of financial affairs under point no.6 – Assignments and Receiverships.
thoughts or clarifications anyone – perhaps I am missing something or got the wrong end of the stick here??
I also notice that there are a number of ‘closed’spck shops that are also listed as creditors – not sure how that can happen either when they are SSG shops? can a company owe itself and be a creditor at the same time as the debtor?, enlightenment would be good if anyone understands these things.
On the Orthodox Christian Mission Fund side of it – given what is said here: http://saintherman.blogspot.com/2007/01/orthodox-missionaries-needed-in-england.html
‘P.P.S. Our “sister” charity in the United States, The Orthodox Christian Mission Fund of Houston, Texas is tax-exempt under §501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Tax-deductible donations may be made to defray the costs of travel to England for this missionary project, and if made for that purpose, should be so earmarked.’
I am supposing all the debt owed and payments made to to OCMF was for travel to the UK and accommodation costs? I thought charitable grants given by a charitable grant making foundation were normally just given for the purpose intended and were not debts as such to be repayed? again perhaps someone with more knowledge can clarify this for me?
2008/07/27 at 9:45 pm
Squiggel I am as baffled as anybody else. Sometimes things are done that seem quite bizarre. Like, if stock is moved from a closed shop to the new companies, the new companies are supposedly charged for that stock. At least that is what I’ve gathered from more than one contact. Only the Brewers as owners of those companies would have control of those bank accounts. Can’t answer that at all.
I had another look at the Williams document. Does it seem that the Brewers might yet end up in bigger trouble because their schedule of assets has been submitted to the United States Trustee for referral to the proper authorities?
2008/07/27 at 11:50 pm
http://www.usdoj.gov/ust/eo/ust_org/about_ustp.htm
and then chapter 8 of the Chapter 7 Trustee’s handbook ( http://www.usdoj.gov/ust/eo/private_trustee/library/chapter07/docs/forms/Ch7hb0702-2005_amended.htm )are quite enlightening on this possible subject.
2008/07/28 at 5:11 pm
Re: monies owed to Durham. As far as I was always aware the D&C of Durham Cathedral had a vested interest in the shop – i.e. they owned/paid for some of the stock and possibly some of the fixtures and fittings. Are they listed anywhere as a creditor?
Bristol would have been the only lease as it was the only shop that the Brewers moved to a new site and were therefore liable for all costs. Contacts in Bristol have spoken to the landlords who admitted that there was quite a sum of rent outstanding and were changing the locks.
How can we find out when pensions stopped being paid? PW Business, who did the accounting work for SSG up to Sept 07 (and then are supposed to have told the Brewer’s that they wouldn’t do it any more because of their bad attitude) were pretty scrupulous and I would have thought kept up with pensions payments – after that, who knows? I guess everyone could ask the CofE Church Workers Pensions Board – SPCK in London might help out here.
2008/07/28 at 7:03 pm
Pax Vobiscum, one person I have contact with will contact the pensions board. When he knows whether his contributions was stopped or not I will post. Another person has said he will contact his PAYE tax office. Again posts will be made on this blog and the spckssg blog.