Getting refunds from a dissolved company

GoingDownhill

For some years, I have been campaigning to get a local snake oil company prosecuted. Earlier this year this paid off to some degree, in that the company and its directors were finally brought to court and convicted - on fairly minor charges and with what must be considered an absurdly tokenistic fine (which I assume they wrote a cheque for on the spot and skipped off into the night, laughing), but in reputation terms it was enough to cause them to cease trading.

Now the company is being dissolved.

My question is, what happens to the tens of thousands of people owed refunds? Can they still get them, and if so, how? In case it makes any difference, the company is (was) based in Scotland, but had victims all over. It's listed on Companies House with a dissolution date of this coming Tuesday, which I suppose makes it too late to object to, but I'm really hoping that won't matter.

societys_child

Do they have any assets or has everything been syphoned away?

bris

It's never to late to stop the dissolution but do you have a court order against them.
You write to companies house with your case objecting to it and they put a hold on the dissolution until it's solved.


All pretty meaningless if they have no way of paying the refunds though, but take a look here.


http://www.icaew.com/en/archive/library/subject-gateways/law/insolvency/legal-alert/when-directors-can-be-personally-liable-on-company-insolvency


a long shot as it's not easy to prove and depending on the amount is it even worth the bother.

pathtofreedom

What sort of company was this? How did you pay for the goods / service? I'm just thinking if it is a retail context and you paid by credit card could you reclaim some or all of the money through your bank?

GoingDownhill

I am sure that the directors at least do have assets and plenty of them; they were running a scam very successfully for several years and fined next to nothing. There will apparently be a Proceeds of Crime process, though as I understand it, such things are not focused on reparation for victims but rather clawing back the cost of enforcement. As to whether it's worth the bother, some people paid hundreds to this company so it's certainly worth it to them. Fortunately I did not. The majority of victims would have paid online, so we're talking about credit cards, bank transfers, PayPal... but these are transactions going back up to five years.

Tigsteroonie

Irrelevant that the directors have personal assets, if this was a limited company then the liquidation & dissolution process will simply be the company assets put against the company debts. If they really are such toe-rags then it's likely that they have larger debts than yours (HMRC, business rates) so as a customer demanding a simple refund you could be well down the pecking order.

foxtrotoscar_2

Who are they?

boo_star

Tigsteroonie wrote: »

Irrelevant that the directors have personal assets, if this was a limited company then the liquidation & dissolution process will simply be the company assets put against the company debts. If they really are such toe-rags then it's likely that they have larger debts than yours (HMRC, business rates) so as a customer demanding a simple refund you could be well down the pecking order.

There are situations where directors can be held personally liable, even when the company is limited.

I don't know whether this particular example would fit the criteria (and IANAL anyway) but it might be worth looking into by the OP.

GoingDownhill

foxtrotoscar wrote: »

Who are they?

Secret Diet Drops Ltd of Fraserburgh.

I don't think they had any financial problems. As far as I can tell they paid their tax and were comfortably in profit. I suspect they've come out of this really quite well off.

shaun_from_Africa

Every adult who used the "secret diet drops" as instructed and followed their recommended diet plan would have been guaranteed to lose weight.


Why?
Well, it's nothing whatsoever to do with what is in the drops themselves but simply because of their diet plan.
According to this website:
http://dietpill-reviews.co.uk/secret-diet-drops/
the diet restricts your daily intake to 500 calories, something that is in the dangerously low level.

GoingDownhill

Yes, that came out in court. They were claiming their product had the effect, and expert witnesses pointed out what you just did. I wouldn't trust that website you linked to either; funny how they (correctly) call out Secret Diet Drops yet the product they endorse is Activ8 X Drops, which is the same thing sold by a different company. Why, anyone would think they were shilling.