Hartlepool Council Official Narrowly Avoids Company Being Struck off The Companies House Register for Failing to File Accounts....
- teessidetoday
- Oct 6
- 3 min read
Regulators reportedly "considering an investigation" into the business activities of a Hartlepool Borough Council Solicitors side-line corporation, after its twice threatened with Compulsory Strike off the Companies House Register for failing to file accounts...
6th October 2025
A solicitor employed by Hartlepool Borough Council has narrowly avoided having her side hustle firm struck off the Companies House Register after the private legal firm was again flagged for failing to submit its financial accounts.
Gemma Redfern, who lives in Trimdon, County Durham, set up the private legal company—GR Legal & Corporate Defence Ltd—while in employment at Hartlepool Borough Council. However, the company was warned it again faced being dissolved by Companies House, after its claimed the business failed to file statutory accounts & conformation statements as its required to do so on time...
According to public records, Companies House flagged the business for a 1st notice of compulsory strike-off back in August 2025, with its registered office traced to a small virtual office space in County Durham. A Teesside & Durham Post investigation in June 2025 previously reported that Ms Redfern's business was found to be operating with a dangerously negative working capital & was sitting on debts of over £30,000, & teetering on the edge of insolvency... Our earlier investigation unearthed a firm "in deep financial distress"—prompting the Hartlepool Borough Council Solicitor to immediately delete her LinkedIn profile and social media accounts shortly after our story broke into the public domain.
Our investigators tasked with the previous report into the solicitor claims such actions raise serious red flags, indicating an attempt to evade scrutiny over her business affairs, as well as questions into whether she declared her business interest to the local council...
Claims she's not giving the job her full attention !
Its prompted calls for the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to investigate whether Redfern breached SRA professional standards by setting up a private legal company whilst trousering a public salary working for Hartlepool Borough Council, with concerns as to whether taxpayers are getting value for money from the dual role solicitor that many claim shouldn't be running a second firm whilst Redfern's supposedly working as a solicitor for a local borough council.
This isn’t the first time a solicitor connected to Hartlepool Borough Council has come under the spotlight regarding their 'shady' business affairs....
In a previous report published several weeks ago, The Teesside & Durham Post revealed how Peter Devlin, the former Chief Solicitor for Hartlepool Borough Council, who now works as the legal & monitoring officer for Cleveland Fire Brigade, quietly resigned from his role at the now insolvent Cleveland Fire Brigade Risk Management Services CIC—a company which is now embroiled in legal proceedings with creditors reportedly owed over £2 million pounds in unpaid debts.
Devlin’s former company, which he jumped ship from has now been placed into liquidation, however questions reportedly remain over just how much Mr Devlin knew regarding the company’s financial state prior to its collapse, with his departure coming just a month before the firm was placed into insolvency by the High Court.
A sign of a growing problem at one of Teessides most Dysfunctional Institutions
The growing number of legal professionals with council ties being investigated is also said to be raising some uncomfortable questions about governance and accountability inside Hartlepool Borough Council, which is increasingly being viewed as one of Teesside’s most dysfunctional public bodies, with one such investigation leading to Hartlepool Borough Councils Chief Executive having to resign as a Director of at leat one company following concerns over conflicts of interest.
