Where's_my_2Grand
As I said I know nothing about CWFC other than what I have read on Prune. But over the years that I have been involved in General Aviation, I have seen many FTOs both, large & small, go bust, leaving students out of pocket.
In nearly all cases when an FTO goes bust, it is a limited company & a liquidator is appointed. A liquidator is legally obliged to look into the actions of the directors in the period prior to the insolvency. Therefore all creditors, which includes students who have paid deposits, can make thier complaints to the liquidator. A liquidator would certainly look into any sales of assets just prior to the insolvency to see if they were made at under value or to connected persons.
So, if anything serious has occured, in certain cicumstances the directors can be surcharged. This means that the directors have to pay money to the liquidator which goes into the funds available to the creditors.
In the case of CWFC it appears that there are two limited companies, with just one individual director between them. But from the posts on this thread, I get the impression that the companies' affairs were being run by a club committee. Even if this was so, the rules for running limited companies still apply.
It appears that accounts were prepared & audited. Most paperwork at Companies House seems correct & up to date. Except the accounts for Cardiff Wales Aviation Services Ltd for Year Ended 31st March 2003 are overdue for filing at Companies House. As regards the register of charges, it appears that the director forgot to send in 'memorandum of satisfaction' in respect of loans on aircraft that had been paid off, or for aircraft sold. All the loans that I listed in my previous post are currently shown as still outstanding.
If there are any creditors who feel hard done by, then their best course of action would be to get a liquidator appointed to both companies as soon as possible. The simplest way of doing this is to ask the director (or committee?) to take the route of a 'creditors voluntary liquidation'. Otherwise the creditors would have to make an application to the High Court for a winding up order.
If you feel strongly about this, I would suggest that you talk to any other creditors that you know of, and decide whether you want to get together to take any further action.
Please bear in mind that even if you do get a liquidator appointed, there is still no guarantee that you will get any money back. This is because in a liquidation the proceeds from the sale of assets is distributed in an order set out in the Insolvency Act. It is broadly as follows:-
-- Liquidators fees & expenses
-- Secured creditors, which is usually banks and finance companies who have lent money to the company against a charge registered at Companies House
-- Prefential creditors - such as employees for unpaid wages, Customs & Excise for VAT, Inland Revenue for PAYE/NIC
-- Unsecured creditors, including students who have paid deposits
In this case, it may well be that no money trickles down as far as to the unsecured creditors. So while you may feel agrieved & wish to take action, you still may not get any money back.