As the fall-out from the collapse of Carillion continues with creditors waiting in vain for payment, spare a thought for a long list of printers, graphic designers, publishers, print finishers and members of the public who haven’t been paid from the HousePrint debacle.
Harry Mottram investigates
The company was run by the notorious print farmer Neill Malcolm Stuart John of Barry in Wales, and went to wall in 2016. No one was paid as the liquidators found there to be no assets. However there was something odd on the balance sheet presented at the liquidation. House Print (trading as The Printing House) claimed to be owed £585,385.28 whilst owing £288,379. These figures have since been adjusted very slightly, but the difference is astonishing as any administrator worth their salt would quite possibly have been able to save the firm or at least see it trade out of its difficulties.

Print Monthly understands from a source at the heart of the case that the £585,385.28 was likely to be “a series of spurious counter claims.” This publication contacted some of those on the list of debtors asking if they owed the amounts mentioned in the report, and they all replied they were owed money and not the other way around… The full story is here along with other stories on the couple – search for Print Farmer on the site: http://www.printmonthly.co.uk/News/Industry/6334/print-farmers-series-of-counter-claims

More at http://www.harrymottram.co.uk