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A Cardiff Magistrates Court hearing has resulted in Worcester owners Jason Whittingham and Colin Goldring being disqualified as company directors for twelve months. The 51-year-old Whittingham and the 38-year-old Goldring were also each fined £660 and ordered to pay £100 costs after failing to file accounts for the financial year to February 28, 2021.
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Having neglected to submit the necessary paperwork to the Registrar of Companies in Cardiff by the November 30 deadline last year, neither of the rugby club co-owners were in court for the hearing last Friday which dealt with the accounts for Worcester Sport Limited, one of the various companies owned by Whittingham and Goldring, and the verdicts were determined in their absence.
The pair have until Friday, November 11, to pay the fines, a date that comes a week after their year-long disqualification period begins on Friday, November 4. According to court reports, the order has resulted in Whittingham and Goldring being disqualified from being directors of a company.
They also cannot act as the liquidators or administrators of a company, be receivers or managers of a company’s property nor be in any way – directly or indirectly – be concerned or take part in the promotion, formation or management of a company for twelve months.
It was September 26 when Worcester entered administration with debts reportedly totalling more than £25million, a sum that includes the £6m owed in taxes to HMRC as well as the £15m due to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport as part of fund loaned to Premiership clubs during the pandemic.
Another Warriors company, WRFC Players Limited, was wound up at an insolvency court on October 5, leaving players free to leave with immediate effect. Thirteen have so far found new clubs. Ollie Lawrence and Fergus Lee-Warner have joined Bath, who also have Ted Hill and Valery Morozov on loan, Alex Hearle, Seb Atkinson and Finn Theobald-Thomas are at Gloucester, Tom Howe and Andrew Kitchener were picked up by Saracens, while Duhan van der Merwe (Edinburgh), Joe Batley (Bristol), Rory Sutherland (Ulster) and Fin Smith (Northampton) have also moved.
Begbies Traynor, the administrators, are still seeking a buyer for Worcester, who have been suspended by the RFU for the remainder of the 2022/23 Gallagher Premiership season and automatically relegated to the Championship for the 2023/24 Championship.
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