Decision to Wind Up Debt Ridden Public Company Delayed Until August...
- teessidetoday
- Jul 1
- 3 min read
High Court Reportedly 'Postpones its Decision' on the future of a Public Firm owing whats said to be around £1.2m Pounds of Debt..
1st July 2025
A High Court ruling on the winding-up of a debt laden community corporation has reportedly been pushed back until August, following claims The High Court Judge wanted further information over the scale of the alleged 'ongoing concerns' relating to the firms operations...
The petition, filed by HM Revenue & Customs against the now debt ridden Cleveland Fire Brigade Risk Management CIC has now reportedly been pushed back until next month, as questions grow over the scale of the financial problems that are said to have plagued the publicly-owned company, thats now said to be saddled with around £1.2 million pounds of debts.
Its claimed, the Judge wanted to know just how the business managed to rack up such significant debts...
The CIC (Community Interest Company), originally launched in 2011 as a trading arm of Cleveland Fire Brigade, now faces an uncertain future. The postponement's said to have allowed the company more time to give the court information over its trading operations following a Durham & Teesside Today investigation revealing its legal & Monitoring Officer Peter Devlin, (a former Solicitor to Hartlepool Borough Council) departed the company only a month before HMRC petitioned the high court for the firms insolvency, suggesting Mr Devlin knew the firm, which is said to employ around 25 members of staff was on the brink of collapse. Its also uncertain now as to whether the firms numerous creditors will now ever see any of their money back, following Durham & Teesside Today investigators finding that a Second Company had been established, just months before HMRC filed for the first business to be wound up.
Those huge financial losses have to be explained !
According to the company’s own accounts, Cleveland Fire Brigade Risk Management Services CIC recorded a £609,000 loss for the most recent financial year, with just £3,000 left in the bank, as well as over £27,000 in outstanding 'loans'.
In a statement released by Cleveland Fire Brigade, officials were said to be trying desperately to distance the core fire service operations from the CIC’s affairs claiming : “The current executive leadership of Cleveland Fire Brigade has no links with the CIC and only became aware of the legal action through press coverage,” a spokesman explained. They also sought to reassure members of the public that operational fire and rescue services across Teesside are not affected by the CIC’s financial situation.
A PR Disaster for Cleveland Fire Brigade...
Despite the Brigade’s distancing, one connection to both the failing CIC & the newly incorporated business is said to remain: Ian Hayton, the Brigade’s former Chief Fire Officer, has served as a director of the CIC since its inception and continues to sit on the board even after his retirement in September last year.
Meanwhile, in a possible sign of contingency planning, a new commercial entity was said to have been quietly registered in February this year—CFB Risk Management Group Limited. Unlike its predecessor, this new firm operates as a private limited company rather than a non-profit entity. One of the directors of the new company being no other than Ian Hayton himself, the managing director of the original CIC now up before the courts.
The new company is said to be wholly owned by Cleveland Fire Authority.
Whilst the future of the CIC may hang in the balance, its legal troubles—and the creation of a new, parallel entity—suggest a delay in court proceedings has been a calculated effort by both the court & the petitioners of the firms insolvency to track down just exactly why a community benefit company has managed to run up such huge debt, only to re-establish a new business just months before its original firm faced corporate bankruptcy.
