Morton and the £358,000

[Exiled Poolie]

A certain amount of ignorance is being shown here. HBC cannot get this money as the legal entity that owes it has been liquidated and presumably there are insufficient funds left in the company to pay all the creditors owed. Brian Morton does not owe the money himself. Whilst it stinks, he is using the law of the land to get round it. You and I as council tax payers are not limited companies and we personally owe the debt if we don't pay what is due.

They could have got the money from Morton's businesses if they had taken him to court and got an order. They clearly chose not to go down that path and given Morton's record of bilking anyone and everyone they knew what was coming. So no they could have got  it but they chose not to go after it and in effect allowed their mate to get all his services for free whilst the rest of us paid his share.

You clearly live in cloud cuckoo land. A court order would only have resulted in him liquidating the company at that point, result is that HBC still wouldn't have got paid. He is a piece of scum, but he is clever enough to know how to work the system.

[steveL]

There's no reason, with his record, that HBC could not have insisted on monthly payments of business rates. His track record speaks for itself and if he didn't play ball then maybe it's time to look at those alcohol licenses.

Morton reminds me very much of Wilcox with a similar aversion to handing over money to anyone be it wages to staff, electricity bills, suppliers or HBC and like Wilcox, his game needs to be brought to an end.

[mk1]

You clearly live in cloud cuckoo land. A court order would only have resulted in him liquidating the company at that point, result is that HBC still wouldn't have got paid. He is a piece of scum, but he is clever enough to know how to work the system.

He must have had some assets so they could have been sold to pay part of the debt. As it was he was left to carry on not paying his staff and  p**s more of our money into the bookies. He was always going to  go under so  no it would not have 'forced' him under.
Clearly you have no idea of how far Hartlepool Council go to recover unpaid Council Tax. They have the most aggressive collection department in the North East if not the country, For some unknown reason Morton was given an exception to this policy and that means someone was covering his back.

[jawsbbc]

and this one        https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/03855052/officers

[jawsbbc]

 read the comments   this was 2014
http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/business/hartlepool-hotel-to-undergo-250k-revamp-as-part-of-plans-to-regenerate-town-but-nightclub-shuts-down-1-6640825

[jawsbbc]

sums mortons places up to a T why is he been allowed to run this place read the comments only a week old https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g191274-d246411-Reviews-Staincliffe_Hotel-Hartlepool_County_Durham_England.html#REVIEWS

[steveL]

Mail catches up but no comments allowed.

83% of all debt written off is attributable to Brian Morton but Morton himself blames it on the bills being too high. Not sure what he blames for him not paying staff and not paying the minimum wage - maybe he thinks the min wage is too high as well.

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/hartlepool-council-waives-eye-watering-business-debts-1-8591720

[kevplumb]

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/hartlepool-council-writes-off-eye-watering-500-000-business-tax-debts-1-8591720

comments allowed

[Inspector Knacker]

When you owe someone £10, they'll keep asking for it back. When you owe them £1,000,000 they humour you.