The Details are Coming Out
I reported not long ago about the fact that Norton Motorcycles went into administration. Well, now the administrators, BDO, have a report about the state of the company. And things look less than good. According to MoreBikes, the report outlines several issues.
The report issued by BDO is based around the company’s last published results which include numbers up to March 2018. While the report is quite long, MoreBikes points out a couple of interesting parts. First is the use of government funds to help keep the company afloat.
The British government awarded Norton £4 million (about $5.2 million) in 2015. Meg Hillier MP accused the government of, “blindly pouring millions of pounds of taxpayer’s money into the motorcycle company.” Hiller called for an official investigation into the matter.
The second thing brought up is the fact that Stuart Garner, the company’s CEO, owed the company £160,000 (about $208,500). Also, a £324,002 loan (about $422,300) was given to Norton by another of Garner’s companies. This loan had been “deemed irrecoverable” and it was written off.
Third, it’s important to note that Norton wasn’t using money it had properly. One simple point is that the company owned six Aston Martins, three Range Rovers, a Jaguar F-Type. The value for these vehicles reaches nearly £800,000 (over $1 million).
Lastly, Garner will appear in front of the pensions OImbudsman today. Thirty complainants brought a case against Garner in relation to his conduct to pension schemes.
I don’t know much about the British legal system, and I don’t know where exactly this all is going, but I will say that there seems to be some seriously shady stuff going on with Norton. It’s all starting to come out now, and it will be interesting to see what happens with this developing situation.
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