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I’m in a bit of a pickle and am hoping that someone will be able to provide guidance regards my liability against a claim for £25k (joint claim against me and person mentioned below). Overview as per below leading to the situation I find myself in.
I had an unfortunate association with a person (refer to as S as I don’t wish to disclose personal details at this moment in time) who at the time I trusted. I met S in 2019, I was looking to acquire a business and I was told that S would be able to fund it in return for share in the business, as this is standard practice, I didn’t have any issues with it.
To undertake due diligence S appointed a firm of accountants (Chadwick & Company). S made excuses for not being able to sign Chadwick & Company T&C’s and deceived me into signing the T&C’s. At the time S assured me that he would act as guarantor and would indemnify me against any liabilities.
Although I signed the T&C’s I did not meet with the accountant’s firm to agree scope of work nor the cost. This is something S dealt with, the interface was between S and the accountant’s (Chadwick & Company), at no point did I give any instructions to proceed to the accountancy firm. During this period, I gave S £40k (combination of cash and electronic transfer) in good faith as payment towards accountancy & other fees, however, it transpired later that S pocketed the money. I became aware of S fraudulent activities February 2022, and I informed everyone associated with this (including the accountants) of the circumstances and told them not to deal with S.
I received the County Court Business Centre claim through the post on 29th December 2022. I contacted the owner of the accountancy firm immediately and met with him on Thursday 5th January in Stratford London around 12:30pm. I explained the circumstances once again and told him that I had given S funds in good faith to the pay the accountancy fees and asked if we could agree on some sort of settlement, which he declined.
The ask is as follows:
I had an unfortunate association with a person (refer to as S as I don’t wish to disclose personal details at this moment in time) who at the time I trusted. I met S in 2019, I was looking to acquire a business and I was told that S would be able to fund it in return for share in the business, as this is standard practice, I didn’t have any issues with it.
To undertake due diligence S appointed a firm of accountants (Chadwick & Company). S made excuses for not being able to sign Chadwick & Company T&C’s and deceived me into signing the T&C’s. At the time S assured me that he would act as guarantor and would indemnify me against any liabilities.
Although I signed the T&C’s I did not meet with the accountant’s firm to agree scope of work nor the cost. This is something S dealt with, the interface was between S and the accountant’s (Chadwick & Company), at no point did I give any instructions to proceed to the accountancy firm. During this period, I gave S £40k (combination of cash and electronic transfer) in good faith as payment towards accountancy & other fees, however, it transpired later that S pocketed the money. I became aware of S fraudulent activities February 2022, and I informed everyone associated with this (including the accountants) of the circumstances and told them not to deal with S.
I received the County Court Business Centre claim through the post on 29th December 2022. I contacted the owner of the accountancy firm immediately and met with him on Thursday 5th January in Stratford London around 12:30pm. I explained the circumstances once again and told him that I had given S funds in good faith to the pay the accountancy fees and asked if we could agree on some sort of settlement, which he declined.
The ask is as follows:
- I did not have any interaction nor gave the accountancy firm “instructions to proceed”.
- Prior to commencing any work, the accountants should have engaged with me to discuss the scope and cost, but this did not happen, instead the interaction with between S and the accountancy firm.
- Shouldn’t the accountancy firm have asked for funds to be held on account and once spent not carried out any further work until such time further funds were paid to be held on account?
- I met with the owner to reach some sort of agreement and he declined.
- As the claim is against me & S, presumably I could potentially be liable for £12.5k.
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