News

Prior to entering administration, E Pawson & Son appears to have sold five vehicles that it had already refinanced. One of the vehicles was sold to Keltruck, while the other four were bought by an unnamed party. 

Speaking to MT, Phil Holmes, Keltruck’s used vehicle sales manager, says: “A month before Pawsons went under we bought a Scania truck from them. At the time I asked if there was any outstanding finance on the vehicle and was told no, it had all been cleared. I was  even given documents from Scania Finance which proved this.”

A few weeks later, Keltruck was contacted by Clydesdale Bank which claimed Keltruck had an asset that it owned. “It appeared that Pawsons had refinanced the vehicle through Clydesdale Bank despite selling the vehicle to us, so effectively they had received payment twice for the vehicle,” says Holmes.

Keltruck reported the incident to the police and discovered that Michael Pawson, one of the company’s directors, had already reported the incident to Rotherham Police. According to the police, he claimed it had been an accident and that he hadn’t realised when he sold the vehicle that one of his fellow directors had refinanced it.

Clydesdale’s solicitor has confirmed there are “four other assets” Clydesdale financed for E Pawson, which the bank is “attempting to recover” from the unnamed party.

Chris Kelly, chairman and managing director of Keltruck, is furious as he feels Keltruck has been  deceived. “We bought the vehicle in good faith and did the usual HPI checks. We are now going to have to pay for the vehicle again as although we possess the truck, Clydesdale owns the title.

"What is even more infuriating is that the police don’t want to investigate the matter – they claim it is a civil case and not a potential act of fraud.”

Keltruck company secretary Alec Kokinis adds: “If Michael Pawson was genuinely unaware that five of the firm’s vehicles had been refinanced by one of the other directors, it kind of suggests a negligence of responsibility. For a director of a family-run business to not know what’s going on with its vehicles seems rather strange.”

At the time of writing Michael Pawson had not returned our calls, and both Clydesdale and Pawson’s administrator, The P&A Partnership, declined to comment. Keltruck is due to meet The P&A Partnership on 20 August.

A fortnight ago, MT revealed that Pawson had total debts of £3.5m when it collapsed in April. Not only had its management failed to submit accounts for the years to March 2007 and March 2008, they also failed to provide a statement of affairs to the administrators.

Meanwhile, the new Pawson Transport is still awaiting a decision on its application for an O-licence.