Eckington Drift Mine Remembered.

Описание: Subscribe to my you tube channel for 280+ more coal mine tributes and counting. My Last Coalmine,Worked There For 7 Years. 1ST NAIL IN THE COFFIN - FRAUD! BUSINESSWOMAN whose company is said to have paid for her expensive lifestyle has told a jury she was “stupid and made mistakes”.The prosecution in the trial of Sophie Auston claim her company, Auston and Co, which was set up to sell coal from a drift mine in Derbyshire, of which Miss Auston was previously a director, funded the purchases of among other items, a £37,000 horse, a three-bedroomed detached home for the defendant and a Mini Cooper sports car.The trial at Teesside Crown Court has also heard how £100,000 held in an account, which was money deducted from the wages of pitmen at Eckington Colliery in order to pay their tax, disappeared after a buy-out of the mine, which is now under new owners.Miss Auston said the Mini Cooper had been bought for her on finance as "a perk of the job" because she did "a lot of running about".The jury was told she sometimes had to travel from Durham to Sheffield to sort out miners' wages.She said the three-bedroomed house in Alnwick Drive, Spennymoor, bought with company money, was never intended for her - and that it was a home for her mother."I didn't even view the house before it was purchased. I had nothing to do with it. Even now, I see it as my mum's house, not mine,” she said.
Miss Auston said she was aware company money had been used to buy the horse US Abe for £37,410, but insisted she thought that was a legitimate move.
"I was told I was fully entitled to use that money as profit share money that was due to us," she told the jury.She was also was quizzed by prosecutor James Rae about her knowledge of a restraint order served on her in August 2011 which prevented the sale of the property at Alnwick Drive.
It also meant assets held in an HSBC account in her name could not be disposed of.
The defendant claimed she had been told by her father it was as a result of a misunderstanding and there was nothing to worry about.She also said her father would ask her to sign documents without her fully understanding what they were.looking back I have been stupid and made mistakes,” .
Miss Auston, 24, of Alnwick Drive, denies knowingly being a party to the carrying on of a business with intent to defraud creditors and other persons between August 1 2009 and December 1 2011. LAST NAIL IN THE COFFIN Apparently Packaged Water Ltd who own and operate the mine is (and possibly always has been) technically insolvent, they only function due to a line of credit from UK Exim Ltd who happens to share the same directors.Exim are a finance company who borrowed money from a company called Assetz Capital Ltd and then lent it to there own customers or financed purchases on behalf of customers. They were also the credit lender of Eckingtons previous owners European coal products ltd who went into administration when Exim called in a loan.Exim entered administration in sept 2018 as they could not repay money due to Assetz Capital, Looking at the finances it appears Exim's sole assets are the debt of Packaged Water Ltd which is expected to realise Nil.Eckington has a chequered history - they don't actually own any of the machinery or infrastructure as it was all sold to a finance company and is rented back from them, As its 60 year old machinery of negligible value this presumably seemed a great idea at the time. It was run as a co-operative partnership for several years until Geoff Auston did a runner with all the members PAYE and NIC contributions..
The suspicious part of me half suspects that when it became clear that European Coal Products couldn't repay the loan which would in turn possibly make Exim insolvent they put European Coal Products into administration which then sold the mine to the (conveniently appearing) Packaged water for exactly the £4,250,000 which was owed to Exim as the sole secured creditor.
This allowed Exim's books to balance but in reality as they were the ones financing the new buyer nothing had changed. Exim continued to buy materials on behalf of Packaged Water Ltd and then invoice it on as debt to Packaged Water Ltd. Possibly Exim/PWL saw this as a way of hopefully selling the mine as a going concern and actually getting there money back?
Eventually Assetz decided to call in there loans to Exim due to missed payments. As soon as Exim went into administration PWL and Eckington Mine would have had there source of credit cut off leading to the closure.Supposedly the mine was loosing a £1000 a week.