The appointment of Julian Wood was made on 12 August 1997 and on this same day; he sold my business to Advanced Metals International Ltd for a fee of 5,000 pounds unbeknown to me.

On the 26 August 1997, a creditors meeting was held and one creditor turned up. His appointment was secured subject to the terms of repayment I had agreed with creditors. During the creditors meeting with the one creditor in attendance, the amount of work in progress was discussed and this figure amounted to at least 100,000 pounds. It also became apparent at this stage that Julian Wood was not the Liquidator or an Insolvency Practitioner and was standing in for Paresh Shah, the real Insolvency Practitioner.

A dispute arose with Julian Wood and me following my refusal to sign the creditors meeting minutes as Chairman. I believed the content and the circumstances to be untrue and this is as follows:

  1. Julian Wood was not a specially licensed insolvency practitioner.
  2. He was not a qualified accountant. His qualification was that of a Chartered Secretary.
  3. He sold the business to Advanced Metals International who was his client as buyer of the business. A conflict of interest existed here with his sale of the business and the position of the creditors.
  4. He sold the business before he was appointed to act as liquidator by the creditors on 26 August 1997.
  5. At all times he allowed the business to trade in the same style from the same premises with the same phone number.
  6. He never pursued the Camas Associated Asphalt debt relating to the new Second Severn crossing contract which he promised he would pursue.
  7. During the period 26 August 1997 and February 1998 he sent me over 100 threatening letters. He interviewed numerous people associated with me and slandered me on and libeled me to numerous parties. He sent numerous threatening letters to my associates with malicious falsehoods.
  8. He had run up expenses in excess of 50,000 pounds on his firms fees.
  9. He had no redundancies to execute because the company continued to trade in exactly the same style which he had agreed and the new name was and still is Priority Metals & Fasteners.
  10. Prior to the appointment of Wood on 12 August 1997, Kennedy of Advanced Metals International had purchased the stock and machinery of Priority Stainless UK Ltd with the blessing of Wood.
  11. Numerous issues had arisen with Wood and I felt he had developed a personal vendetta against me especially with the tone of his letters which degenerated from dear Kevin to dear Mr. Crane.
  12. At no time had Wood visited my premises in Portsmouth, prior to or after his appointment. At no time did I engage the services of Paresh Shah who I had never met. I found out that Shah was a Chartered Accountant and had inherited the role of insolvency practitioner, prior to the 1986 Insolvency Act, after which time one had to qualify to practice as an Insolvency Practitioner.
  13. On February 2 1998, Wood and Kennedy conspired to evict me and my partner of 14 years Shirley Ann Burton from our premises where the new company had operated from since 12 August 1997.

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