Hartlepool Restaurant Business Collapses Owing Nearly £250,000 as HMRC Calls in its Debts..
- teessidetoday
- Jan 29
- 2 min read
Hospitality Firm Collapses with Nearly £250,000 of Debts...
29th Jan 2026
A Hartlepool Restaurant has collapsed into insolvency owing nearly a quarter of a million pounds to its creditors.
The Prickly Pear At The Old Brewery Limited, trading as Maximos, has formally entered liquidation, with newly filed Companies House insolvency documents revealing a business that was deeply insolvent and creditors left facing significant losses.
The company, submitted a statutory Statement of Affairs dated 16 January 2026, confirming that it held just £5,200 in cash at bank at the point of liquidation, with no other realisable assets recorded. Against this, its claimed total liabilities exceed £249,000, creating an overall insolvency deficit of £249,162.34, effectively wiping out any prospect of any money being repaid to its unsecured creditors.
The liquidation is said to be being overseen by insolvency practitioners Paul Matthew Kings and Lynn Marshall of KRE (North) Limited, based at 7–8 Delta Bank Road, Gateshead, who are formally appointed as joint liquidators according to the Companies House LIQ02 Notice of Statement of Affairs.
The Statement of Affairs, signed by director David Kilburn and seen by the Teesside & Durham Post, presents a company that was financially unviable long before formal winding-up proceedings were initiated. The documentation confirms that HM Revenue & Customs is the single largest creditor, with a claim of £200,000, a figure that dwarfs the company’s total available assets. With only £5,200 available in the estate, HMRC’s exposure translates into an immediate estimated shortfall of £194,800, meaning the vast majority of the tax debt will remain unpaid & the Tax Payer left mopping up the loss.
Unsecured creditors are also said to have been left heavily exposed, with Trade and expense creditors, listed as ten separate entities collectively owed £31,660.34, while one banking institution is said to be owed a further £22,700. None of these liabilities are supported by secured assets, and the insolvency filing makes clear that there will be no distribution available to unsecured creditors, leaving them facing a combined estimated loss of £54,360.34.
The collapse of Prickly Pear At The Old Brewery adds to the growing list of hospitality and leisure businesses which have failed under the combined pressures of operating costs, taxation liabilities, energy prices and declining consumer spending. With HMRC absorbing the largest loss and local suppliers left without payment, the liquidation highlights again how business failures extend far beyond company directors and shareholders, transferring financial damage directly onto the public purse and the local economy.
As the winding-up process continues under the control of KRE (North) Limited, the case stands as a clear example of balance-sheet insolvency in its purest form — a business that ceased trading not merely due to temporary cashflow problems, but because its underlying financial structure had become irreparably unsustainable
