So were the press misleading or is Ridsdale???

As Ridders-gate and the aftermatch of the closure of his WH Sports consultancy hit the media, Peter Ridsdale was quick to defend his position and play down reports.

On the CardiffCity.com messageboard, regular user, Trust member and accountant Keith Morgan aka Since'62 gave his interpretation of events and they don't paint Mr. Ridsdale and his response (on this blog yesterdaty) in a fantastic light. Read on for his view.

"Sorry I have come to this story late , but have been working away and only became aware of the newspaper accusations and Peter Ridsdale`s denials and counterclaims by way of text messages from a regular poster on here.

In order to be fair to Peter Ridsdale -his explanation that it was just a technical liquidation because the company had served its purpose and was no longer trading , and his suggestion that it was therefore a solvent liquidation (known as an MVL)was on the face of it feasible - I thought it was best to do a bit of research first before posting my comments.

Having initially given Peter the benefit of the doubt over this , unfortunately it would appear that yet again what he says does not quite correspond with the facts of the matter which are as follows:-

1) On 22 April 2009, as a shareholder of WH Sports Group Limited (company number 4741357), he signed resolutions putting the company into liquidation and appointing an insolvency practitioner (Ian Frances of Conduit St , London) to be its liquidator.

2) By itself , the above document could still mean that the company was solvent and was just being wound up (as Peter is suggesting) as it had ceased to have a reason to exist now that he had become a direct employee of CCFC.To be a solvent liquidation , Peter would then have followed up these resolutions by filing what is known as a Declaration of Solvency. Such a document is a sworn document clearly showing that the company has more assets than liabilities and that all known creditors have either been paid off in full or will be within 12 months.

3)However , on the same day Peter and his wife signed a SWORN AFFADAVIT in front of a solicitor stating that an enclosed Statement of Affairs for the company was a "full , true and complete" statement.That statement showed the company to be heavily INSOLVENT - i.e it hadn`t been wound up at all on the basis Peter is claiming.


4)The assets shown in the Statement of affairs are an overdrawn director`s loan account of £2,592 (i.e. Peter owed his own company) and cash at bank of £20,000. Total assets of £22,592.

5)The liabilities shown in the statement total £409,900 , which gives the shortfall of £387,408 referred to in the NOW article.These liabilities are broken down as follows:-

Trade and expense creditors £9,900
Barclays Bank £26,445
HMRC -Corporation tax £146,663
-PAYE/NI £111,253
- VAT £115,639

6)The £9,900 is made up of £6,900 due to the company`s accountants (Scodie Deyong)in unpaid fees and £3,000 due to Companies House in respect of fines for late filing of the company`s accounts (a level of fine only levied if there have been persistent and serious filing breaches).

7)Peter`s personal investment into WH Sports is limited to only £50 ,which is the shares he bought in it (his wife has the same amount).

Quite clearly from the above , Peter has been at best "economical with the truth".It is NOT a liquidation just to bring the company to a neat and tidy end , but an insolvent one where substantial debts are owed , particularly to HMRC.

From his own sworn statement , his company appears to have failed to pay over the v.a.t.it charged CCFC on its consultancy fees , failed to pay over Corporation Tax on the profits deriving from those fees , and failed to pay over PAYE/NI properly deductable from the salaries he paid himself and his wife out of the company(most of the cash from the fees appears to have been paid out to them as there is only £20,000 left in the company bank account and it received over £700k from CCFC in cash).

In addition , the company appears to have breached accounts filing rules and not paid its accountants.It also has a Barclays Bank debt for reasons unknown (why would the company have to borrow money when it had substantial income and only directors` pay as a major cost?).

Overall , the position of WH Sports Group Ltd looks far from clever financially and not at all in line with Peter`s interpretation of events. And that`s not just my opinion , but based on the contents of documents he signed and legally swore himself - not newspaper gossip.

My confidence in Peter`s ability to properly financially manage a company is diminishing by the day. And that confidence wasn`t very high in the first place."