Matt Haycox ordered to attend Manchester civil justice centre to be cross-examined on his assets

Haycox claimed that when he went to board a flight from Dubai international airport to Manchester he discovered that the name on his airline ticket, booked by the claimant, was misspelt and he was unable to check in

A technology entrepreneur is pursuing a claim for damages against a former lap-dancing club tycoon who is banned from being a company director and went bankrupt for a year.

Scott Fletcher, 51, a technology entrepreneur and investor who sold his ANS Group in 2021, is suing through his company, Lowry Trading, and is seeking an undisclosed sum.

The claim, which is being defended by Charles Haycox, relates to a series of investments made in 2014 by Fletcher’s company in two vehicles, known as SPV 20 and SPV 3, which were part of a series of special purpose vehicles set up by Haycox’s Huddle Group to invest in emerging companies.

According to High Court filings, Judge Pearce ordered Haycox to attend Manchester civil justice centre in February for a cross-examination on his assets, following an application by Fletcher and Lowry Trading, the claimant, but he failed to attend.

Haycox claimed that when he went to board a flight from Dubai international airport to Manchester he discovered that the name on his airline ticket, booked by the claimant, was misspelt and he was unable to check in, court filings show. He also claimed he was unable to board a later re-booked flight because he lost his “man bag” containing his passport and was unable to retrieve it.

An application from Haycox for the hearing to be had remotely via video-link was subsequently refused.

Following a recent separate High Court action, in February Haycox was declared bankrupt for a year after insolvency practitioners at Grant Thornton petitioned on behalf of another Huddle vehicle, called Huddle SPV 4.

The bankruptcy followed investigations by the administrators that alleged Haycox may have been acting as a “de facto or shadow director of the company” and “appears to have been the beneficiary of significant loans from the company”, many of which remain outstanding.

The administrators have received claims from unsecured creditors of £19.7 million and have said a return is unlikely to be paid.

Haycox was previously banned from being a director for 12 years until 2022 after an investigation by the Insolvency Service into his lap-dancing club business in the north of England. Following his latest bankruptcy he applied for a stay of the claim against him, which was dismissed in a virtual hearing in April.

Fletcher is an experienced investor who has backed a string of technology companies. He began his career as a child actor, appearing in the television series Risky Business and the film Life Is Sweet. He later founded the अंतिम इन्स्टॉलमेंटplans Point to Point massively parallel processing technology company Sema Group, which was sold to Fujitsu in 1999.

Lowry Trading donated £237,000 to the Conservative Party between 2019 and 2014, according to Electoral Commission records.

Haycox is facing claims for damages for allegedly perpetuating a fraud that caused the claimants to invest into Huddle SPV 20 and SPV 3. In a filed defence last year Haycox denied the claim.

A recent description of himself on his website said that “having survived bankruptcy in my early 20s I have bounced back to become one of the most well-known names in the industry. Over the last 25 years, I have provided over £500 million of funding into UK businesses, raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for The Matt Haycox Foundation, starred on national TV, become a social media star and used my knowledge and experience to help other businesses and entrepreneurs all over the world. But that’s just scraping the surface!”

He has podcasts titled Stripping Off with Matt Haycox and No Bollocks with Matt Haycox. Guests have included Dame Andrea Jenkyns, the former Conservative minister who was recently elected mayor of Greater Lincolnshire after standing as a Reform candidate; Chris Robshaw, a former England rugby captain; and Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York.

His website also promotes lending, consulting, co-investing, private coaching and speaking opportunities.

Despite the order to attend the court in the UK, Haycox posted pictures on his Instagram account in April tagged at Everest base camp with Ant Middleton, the adventurer and television personality. He told his followers: “You can’t fake it at 5,364 metres … I didn’t come here to tick a box, I came to find out what I’m really made of.”

• Ant Middleton banned as company director for failing to pay taxes

Approached for comment on the claim, Haycox said “many of the assets mentioned I have not owned either ever or for many years”. He said he had “no desire to avoid the hearing” and that claim was “taking a disproportionate amount of time”.

His lawyer said in March that Haycox “reiterates he has not acted as a shadow or de facto director of Huddle SPV 4 Limited at any time

News data source: kdj.com

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