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Hello. I'm hoping someone can offer an insight into a rather unusual situation. We are a small business (sole trader) and one of our customers (a Limited Company) has gone into liquidation, owing us circa £26,000 (inc VAT). We have submitted our Proof of Debt form to the liquidators but aren't holding out much hope of seeing the money owed to us due to them having multiple bank loans and owing for PAYE etc as well as countless other creditors.
Out of the blue this week, we were called by a company called Commercial Credit Management (C.C.M) based in Wallsend. They claim to have strong evidence that the Director of the company traded wrongfully/fraudulently and therefore we could make a compensation order against the Director of the Ltd Co who owes us money.
Apparently they have evidence (though I don't know how they have obtained this) that the Director was fraudulently having money which was invoiced by the Ltd Co paid into a personal bank account rather than the Ltd Co account and that the Director has circa £1m in assets in a separate company. CCM believe we/they would have a good chance of being paid out via the compensation order despite the company being in liquidation.
CCM have offered two options:
1. We instruct him to proceed against the Director as above and the cost to us would be £1,000 + VAT. If the Director makes us an offer and we accept it, the Director would pay us the agreed offer amount and in addition 20% extra to cover CCM's expenses.
2. If we don't wish to pursue this route, CCM would buy the bad debt from us at 15% and then pursue the Director themselves, at their risk.
We have never heard of such a scenario before and our first thoughts were that it was a scam - the financial equivalent of an ambulance chaser - as we had been cold-called by CCM.
Has anyone else come across such a scenario or can anyone advise whether this sounds legit or whether we are right to trust our gut instincts and ignore the communications from CCM?
Out of the blue this week, we were called by a company called Commercial Credit Management (C.C.M) based in Wallsend. They claim to have strong evidence that the Director of the company traded wrongfully/fraudulently and therefore we could make a compensation order against the Director of the Ltd Co who owes us money.
Apparently they have evidence (though I don't know how they have obtained this) that the Director was fraudulently having money which was invoiced by the Ltd Co paid into a personal bank account rather than the Ltd Co account and that the Director has circa £1m in assets in a separate company. CCM believe we/they would have a good chance of being paid out via the compensation order despite the company being in liquidation.
CCM have offered two options:
1. We instruct him to proceed against the Director as above and the cost to us would be £1,000 + VAT. If the Director makes us an offer and we accept it, the Director would pay us the agreed offer amount and in addition 20% extra to cover CCM's expenses.
2. If we don't wish to pursue this route, CCM would buy the bad debt from us at 15% and then pursue the Director themselves, at their risk.
We have never heard of such a scenario before and our first thoughts were that it was a scam - the financial equivalent of an ambulance chaser - as we had been cold-called by CCM.
Has anyone else come across such a scenario or can anyone advise whether this sounds legit or whether we are right to trust our gut instincts and ignore the communications from CCM?
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