Kevin Tinnelly, the man behind failed transport firm Tinnelly International Transport (TIT), instructed a company currently under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to help purchase another haulage business, MT can reveal.
The link between Tinnelly and Staffordshire-based Boston & Maine is highlighted in a report from administrators SF Plant on Lancashire haulier Barnes & Tipping (B&T), a business acquired by Kevin Tinnelly in May last year.
SF Plant's report says that Boston & Maine approached B&T's former owner in late 2007 and "informed him that they represented Kevin Tinnelly... [who] had expressed an interest in purchasing the company's business and assets."
The SFO launched an investigation into Boston & Maine in February 2008 in connection with suspected asset stripping at other firms. As part of the probe, it raided a number of residential and business properties in 
July last year.
An SFO spokeswoman says the investigation is still ongoing, although no charges have been brought.
The B&T deal subsequently went through for a total of £2.62m, with a Tinnelly-owned shell company, Regal (GB), acquiring the business. However, B&T's own assets were used to fund the purchase, leaving it with large debts and few assets.
The report stresses: "The effect of this was to create a substantial loan account with Regal, which had no assets other than shares in B&T.
"This left B&T with substantial interest-bearing debt and little or no assets."
It also says that forensic accountants are probing "various areas of concern relating to the company's trading activities" prior to its administration.
Part of the reason for B&T's estimated deficiency of £1.1m is due to money owed from other Kevin Tinnelly-owned businesses, the administrators state. Some £2.62m 
is owed by Regal (GB) and another £194,000 by TIT - for overheads and expenses paid for by B&T - which it describes as "unrecoverable" due to TIT's collapse. A further £215,000 is owed by Ron Marsh - another Tinnelly-owned firm, which has also ceased trading (MT 7 May).
SF Plant intends to sell B&T as a going concern; it has had 30 expressions of interest to date.
Kevin Tinnelly was unavailable to comment.
Boston & Maine's connection
Boston & Maine has previously appeared in MT's sister title, Commercial Motor, in connection with the takeover of a string of haulage firms: Matthew Cornish Transport, Molloy European Transport Services, J Smiths Haulage and Bildor Transport Services (31 August 2006). In each case the company's own assets were used to fund the acquisition by third parties, but which left them vulnerable.
The administrator of both J Smiths and Bildor was Duncan Morris, who is also handling the administration of Tinnelly International Transport. No-one from Boston & Maine was available to comment; Duncan Morris was also unavailable to comment.