Craig Whyte: further developments on the roofing front
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by ALEX THOMPSON, Channel 4
It has become clear that Craig Whyte faces potentially serious sanctions, should he fail to appear at the coming debt-recovery case scheduled to happen in Edinburgh, possibly this side of Christmas.
You’ll recall that the company, One Stop Roofing Supplies, of Glasgow, is trying to recover just over £86,000 owed the company by the former Rangers owner Craig Whyte.
Although this is a civil case on the face of it, the powers under the Insolvency Act 1985 are far reaching if Mr Whyte decides not to turn up to the court hearing.
On the face of it, the case will be the appointed liquidator taking action against the company Tixway, owned by Mr Whyte. But the force behind the case is very much the roofing company, who say they are determined to recover the money they say is owed to them, in the equivalent of an English high court, the Edinburgh court of session.
04 craigwhyte r w Craig Whyte: further developments on the roofing front
If they manage that, they will have beaten many much more powerful agencies also charged with investigating the former Rangers boss.
It is possible in civil cases for the issue to be held in the court of session and ruled upon purely in front of lawyers, with neither interested party even being present. However, in this case the examination of Mr Whyte is being held under the insolvency act, which has some far-reaching powers.
It is worth quoting the relevant section of the act in full so we all know what we are looking at this autumn in Edinburgh. This is section 134 of the Insolvency Act 1985:
(1) If a person without reasonable excuse fails at any time to attemd his public examination… he is guilty of a contempt and liable to be punished accordingly.
(2) In a case where a person without reasonable excuse fails at any time to attend his public examination… or there are reasonable grounds for believing that a person has absconded, or is about to abscond, with a view to avoiding or delaying his examination… the court may cause a warrant to be issued to a constable or prescribed officer of the court -
(a) For the arrest of that person and
(b) For the seizure of any books, papers, records, money or goods in that person’s possession
(3) In such a case the court may authorise the person arrested under the warrant to be kept in custody and anything seized under such a warrant to be held, in accordance with the rules until such time as the court may order.
So could it be the the Glasgow roofers end up being the people who get Craig Whyte into court and perhaps into the dock facing a contempt charge, should matters come to that?
In that light, it is worth recapping how deep the questions and mysteries go in the alternative universe Mr Whyte seems to inhabit. We need to remind ourselves that Mr Whyte was, for instance, born twice. Now a Virgin Birth I can just about handle, if not believe, but I fully respect all those who have faith in such happenings.
But getting born twice?
It’s all there. Of course, there very well might by two men who both happen to have been born on 18 January. They could both be called Craig Thomas Whyte. They could both have a string of dissolved companies. They could both have said string in the same sector of financial mangement.
They could…
The records show our first Craig Thomas Whyte of Lancefield Quay, Glasgow was born on 18 January 1969 and was company director for a string of short-lived outfits which are listed as dissolved.
Then there is our second Craig Thomas Whyte of Eaton Place in London who was born on precisely the same day but two years later, in 1971.
With Craig, of course, anything is possible, and he could very easily have simply been reincarnated when two years old. I don’t care what the scientists say. Should our friends over at One Stop get their way, we might finally be getting some answers to this and many, many other questions swirling around the former owner of Rangers Football Club.