BANKRUPT NOT PRESENT

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30172, 2 July 1963, Page 11

BANKRUPT NOT PRESENT

Deficit Of About £2OOO Creditors would be lucky if they realised between £3OO and £4OO. said the Official Assignee (Mr O. T. Grattan) at a meeting yesterday of creditors of Commercial Motons (Christchurch) Ltd. Mir Grattan said that the oropnietor of Commercial Motors, Ltd., Maurice Albert Davis, aged 29, a motor mechanic, was in custody waiting trial on a charge of theft of a car. He did not ‘tiink Davis could assist the creditors, so he was not present.

Of a total owing of about £2500 there were book debts of approximately £3OO to meet this, said Mr Grattan. Creditors would be lucky to get 50 per cent, of this, as some persons were disputing workmanship. All stock except for a few small items was sold, and £324 was being held pending settlement on one or two items.

Davis was adjudged bankrupt on May 6. He ceased to trade in mid-April. Mr Grattan said that Davis told him he knew the company was in debt for £ 1300 when he took it over. He thought that with a different approach to the business he could make it pay. He subsequently found that debts approached £ 1700, and after a year’s operation he found he had lost another £7OO.

“Davis did not have much idea of what it was about or what was going on,” said Mr Grattan. He had no financial backing and for the first year of operation apparently kept no proper records.

The 10 creditors at the meeting appointed Mr Grattan as liquidator.