The assets of collapsed Scottish haulier Caledonian Express (Railfreight) were sold to a new company run by former director John Nixon for just £2,000, despite it having run up debts of almost £750,000, MT can reveal. The details of the Carluke, Lanarkshire-based firm's collapse are detailed in documents just filed at Companies House.
Caledonian went under earlier this year, with administrators appointed on 5 February it had been in a company voluntary arrangement since February 2007. The administrator's report says that the firm was unable to recommence trading "due to the risk of incurring a significant trading loss". The firm was advertised for sale and seven parties expressed an interest.
However only one offer was made - from Northfreight, a company that had been set up several months earlier by Nixon. According to the report the firm owed a total of £735,362, with the majority due to HM Revenue & Customs. However, haulage firm JBT - recently acquired by MRS Distribution - is the largest other creditor, and is owed £52,558 by Caledonian.
Murray Prentice, who was JBT's managing director at the time, said: "We were aware some time ago that it had gone into a CVA, but hoped it would trade out of it." He added: "I think the law is quite abhorrent that it allows people to set up again in this way." VOSA has currently granted Northfreight interim authority to operate, but the final decision to grant the firm an O-licence rests with Scottish Traffic Commissioner Joan Aitken. John Nixon declined to comment.