Left holding the baby!!

East_Coast_Man

I'm really hoping someone can offer me some sound advice, I'm approaching the end of my tether having slept fitfully for months, now left holding the baby.

Let me explain my story:
I had a successful engineering company (A) and decided after a couple of years to merge with a South East based company, myself and the owner of the South East Company became directors of the newly merged company (B).

As with most mergers there were a few gremlins, and all was going reasonably well or so I thought.

To cut a long story short the merger was partly funded by an overdraft facility on the original company (A), and my own credit card.

After a while money was noticed to be going missing and bills not paid etc, investigation showed the other director had mis-appropriated £100K from company (B), subsequently tried to sue but he had no assets so it was going to be a long expensive case for little or no reward.

So to get to the crux I'm now £40K in debt, consisting of £30K overdraft and £10K on my CC, both have been serviced uo to now, but the funds are depleted and soon to be exhausted.

Any advice or advices would be gratefully received, I have looked at Bankruptcy but I'm a company director, I also have employees with mortgages to pay.

Regards

GSM

MrsTinks

You really need proper business advice on this one... I would start with calling CAB - we might be able to help you but if the other director has been stealing then it's all a different ball game all together - and you really need to report him to the police if that hasn't already been done

tigerfeet2006

Also give Business Debtline a ring and talk through your options. Links and number in my sig.

tallyhoh

Do you take a salary at all?

East_Coast_Man

Should've explained a bit more in detail, but I wasn't wanting to bore you all to tears.

Anyway, I tried the police route, he stated it was a company loan to which I agreed (but didn't know a thing) therefore it became a civil matter. His house was in his wife's parents name, so as far as tangible assets he had none.

Been in touch with CCCS and must admit they've been very helpful, albeit not too confident that the creditors will hold back on the interest charges.

I'm not a happy bunny at the moment as I signed a personal guarantee for this business overdraft, and with most property these days my house is probably in negative equity. So really don't know what happens now!!

As you can see, I'm a good engineer but a really crap businessman.

tallyhoh

I dont know a great deal about business but I do know that a lot of people on this board have personal debts at this level & above.
They are trying to clear them by cutting down on expenditure & reviewing the expenses going out, i.e. electric, phone etc as well as increasing their income.
Is it possible to do that on a business level? That is the reason why I asked if you drew a salary.