Loading ...A CREDITORS’ meeting of the failed Portland business Sobey Engineering, has been told there was no evidence to suggest a phoenix business had happened when the assets of the business were sold.
However, the meeting was also told the position would be considered in further detail when the liquidator lodged an offences report to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
Details of the meeting in Melbourne held in late May were released late last week.
Sobey Engineering entered into voluntary administration in late February and was placed into liquidation in March. It owed creditors more than $1.5 million.
Meeting chairman Ivan Glavas, from solvency and forensic accountancy firm Worrells, told the meeting the liquidator (Worrells partner Paul Burness), had put the business up for sale, both in terms of its assets and/or as a going concern.
He said no offers for the business as a going concern were received, but the assets were sold for $66,000.
A new company, Sobey Services was formed, which trades at the same premises at Cellana Crt, Portland, and has the former owner/operator of Sobey Engineering, Glenn Sobey, as its manager.
Australian Taxation Office proxy Sunita Sachdeva asked whether a phoenix business had been orchestrated.
‘Phoenix’ activities involve a business being deliberately liquidated in order to avoid payment of tax liabilities, wages, superannuation, leave entitlements and other responsibilities. The business then continues, free of liabilities, I the form of another corporate entity, controlled by the same person or group of individuals.
Read more in Monday’s edition of the Portland Observer.
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