Bentley Motorhomes enters liquidation

[mike warland]

I'm surprised that nobody has noticed the link between Autocruise getting into trouble and Swift bailing them out and Cockburn Holdsworth going into Liquidation and now Bentley motorhomes ie John Cockburn. The articles in various magazines talked of the vast wealth of knowledge that the directors of Bentley had in the Motorhome industry but they never seem to notice this link. I fell foul of him when Cockburn Holdsworth went into Liquidation and I lost my deposit , I had already part exchanged my own van which the dealer had sold and with one week to go before I emigrated to France had to buy a camper in a rush and compromise significantly.

Surely the industry has a responsibiliy to protect potential customers when clearly there is history, whether the problem was incompetence, lack of funding or something else.

[paulmold]

mike warland - 2012-08-21 11:12 AM

 

I'm surprised that nobody has noticed the link between Autocruise getting into trouble and Swift bailing them out and Cockburn Holdsworth going into Liquidation and now Bentley motorhomes ie John Cockburn. The articles in various magazines talked of the vast wealth of knowledge that the directors of Bentley had in the Motorhome industry but they never seem to notice this link.

 

I noticed it, . This is a list of all the companies with which he has been a director..

 

http://company-director-check.co.uk/director/902038448

[Robinhood]

mike warland - 2012-08-21 11:12 AM

 

I'm surprised that nobody has noticed the link between Autocruise getting into trouble and Swift bailing them out and Cockburn Holdsworth going into Liquidation and now Bentley motorhomes

 

...I refer m'learned friend to my early post on page 1 of the thread......... ;-)

[Guest pelmetman]

It does seem to follow a pattern 8-).................mind you I'm thinking of starting another business ;-)..........all I need to do is borrow a couple of million, give myself a loan of a few hundred k and then go bust :D.........Sounds like a cracking business plan to me >:-)

 

[Robinhood]

pelmetman - 2012-08-21 12:10 PM

 

It does seem to follow a pattern 8-).................mind you I'm thinking of starting another business ;-)..........all I need to do is borrow a couple of million, give myself a loan of a few hundred k and then go bust :D.........Sounds like a cracking business plan to me >:-)

 

 

......just make sure you put your assets (House, Horace, etc.) in Sue's name first. ;-)

 

....or if that's too risky, maybe Troy's, depending on your relative perception of loyalties. :D

[Harvey]

Hmm, one or two other names crop up frequently in that list. George J Bentley, Joseph Anwyll and David Garner...........

 

If it was simply borrowing the millions, arranging the personal loans then going bust why bother building any motorhomes at all I wonder...........

 

Harvey

[Guest pelmetman]

Harvey - 2012-08-21 2:46 PM

 

Hmm, one or two other names crop up frequently in that list. George J Bentley, Joseph Anwyll and David Garner...........

 

If it was simply borrowing the millions, arranging the personal loans then going bust why bother building any motorhomes at all I wonder...........

 

Harvey

 

I'm no expert but I guess that would be fraud ;-)

[Brian Kirby]

To lose one company, Mr Bentley, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose several, looks like carelessness. With apologies to Oscar Wilde! :-D

[Robinhood]

Brian Kirby - 2012-08-21 4:42 PM

 

To lose one company, Mr Bentley, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose several, looks like carelessness. With apologies to Oscar Wilde! :-D

 

.......another learned friend I need to refer to my early post on page 1 of the thread......... :-| ;-)

 

(Keep up at the back!)

[paulmold]

Harvey - 2012-08-21 2:46 PM

 

Hmm, one or two other names crop up frequently in that list. George J Bentley, Joseph Anwyll and David Garner...........

 

If it was simply borrowing the millions, arranging the personal loans then going bust why bother building any motorhomes at all I wonder...........

 

Harvey

 

Joseph Anwyll is a director of Swift.

[Cattwg]

Mine may be a simplistic view but to my mind if you go out of business owing money then you should not be allowed to start another business until either all of the debt has been paid or a substantial period (say 5 years) has passed.

How many times has a BBC Watchdog style programme highlighted someone won has gone bust owing thousands to other, often small businesses and customers only to see the same person starting a business (sometimes in a very similar field) under a different company name.

I simply cannot understand how people who have a track record of failed businesses and often of dubious honesty are allowed to form company after company. This is a general observation and is definitely not aimed at anyone associated with Bentley.

Cattwg :-D

[Bolly1965]

paulmold - 2012-08-21 11:34 AM

 

mike warland - 2012-08-21 11:12 AM

 

I'm surprised that nobody has noticed the link between Autocruise getting into trouble and Swift bailing them out and Cockburn Holdsworth going into Liquidation and now Bentley motorhomes ie John Cockburn. The articles in various magazines talked of the vast wealth of knowledge that the directors of Bentley had in the Motorhome industry but they never seem to notice this link.

 

I noticed it, . This is a list of all the companies with which he has been a director..

 

http://company-director-check.co.uk/director/902038448

 

Interesting that both Bentley Motorhomes Ltd and G Bentley Motorhomes LT are showing as both Active and Dissolved - or am I missing something

[Brian Kirby]

Touché! Guilty: hadn't read that far back. Still, it's nice to know someone else thinks the comment appropriate - even if he did get there first! I'll just claim credit for added relevance! :-)

 

What intrigues me, is whose money was being used, and how ever were they persuaded that this time things would be different?

 

I'll admit I held my breath when the existence of the firm was first announced, thinking it was either brave or foolhardy to launch a company making expensive, entirely optional, luxury goods under the then prevailing circumstances - and that was with no knowledge of the apparent track record of anyone involved. Could it just be extremely bad luck?

[Guest peter]

Brian Kirby - 2012-08-21 4:42 PM

 

To lose one company, Mr Bentley, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose several, looks like carelessness. With apologies to Oscar Wilde! :-D

Looks more like conspiracy to defraud to me.

Or downright incompetence. Either way I wouldn't have any of them running a 'burger stand.

I just feel sorry for the employees and mugs, err I mean creditors who trusted them.

[flicka]

Well as he was born in 1942, he will claim the business failure, was caused by memory loss due to the early onset of dimentia.

[lennyhb]

Bolly1965 - 2012-08-21 7:29 PM

 

paulmold - 2012-08-21 11:34 AM

 

mike warland - 2012-08-21 11:12 AM

 

I'm surprised that nobody has noticed the link between Autocruise getting into trouble and Swift bailing them out and Cockburn Holdsworth going into Liquidation and now Bentley motorhomes ie John Cockburn. The articles in various magazines talked of the vast wealth of knowledge that the directors of Bentley had in the Motorhome industry but they never seem to notice this link.

 

I noticed it, . This is a list of all the companies with which he has been a director..

 

http://company-director-check.co.uk/director/902038448

 

Interesting that both Bentley Motorhomes Ltd and G Bentley Motorhomes LT are showing as both Active and Dissolved - or am I missing something

 

I think it's the way the list is compiled several companies are listed more than once.

 

Taking out the duplicates he has been a director of 18 companies in the last twenty years all of them have been dissolved, does give one a lot of confidence in the management does it. In fact with that track record any company he is involved it's a 99.9999% chance it will go down.

[Derek Uzzell]

Brian Kirby - 2012-08-21 9:15 PM

 

...What intrigues me, is whose money was being used, and how ever were they persuaded that this time things would be different?

 

I'll admit I held my breath when the existence of the firm was first announced, thinking it was either brave or foolhardy to launch a company making expensive, entirely optional, luxury goods under the then prevailing circumstances - and that was with no knowledge of the apparent track record of anyone involved. Could it just be extremely bad luck?

 

Exactly my thoughts when the Bentley Motorhomes company was launched.

 

I recall the Autohomes company at Poole going into receivership in 1992 and Herald emerging from the ashes building motorhomes on the same Poole factory-site until 1996 before also liquidating. Autohomes and Herald models were well-regarded, but that didn't prevent those companies from failing. The Autohomes/Herald business assets were acquired by what became the Explorer Group, but I don't envisage something similar happening with Bentley Motorhomes in the current financial climate.

 

For anyone considering purchasing a motorhome from one of the smaller manufacturers, it's perhaps worth keeping in mind that Bentley Motorhomes has not been the only motorhome converter having problems recently. Most forum members will be aware that RS Motorhomes and IH Motorhomes (both well-established businesses with a reputation for high-quality vehicles) have experienced financial difficulties, though both have managed to weather the storm.

[DuxDeluxe]

lennyhb - 2012-08-21 11:25 PM

 

Bolly1965 - 2012-08-21 7:29 PM

 

paulmold - 2012-08-21 11:34 AM

 

mike warland - 2012-08-21 11:12 AM

 

I'm surprised that nobody has noticed the link between Autocruise getting into trouble and Swift bailing them out and Cockburn Holdsworth going into Liquidation and now Bentley motorhomes ie John Cockburn. The articles in various magazines talked of the vast wealth of knowledge that the directors of Bentley had in the Motorhome industry but they never seem to notice this link.

 

I noticed it, . This is a list of all the companies with which he has been a director..

 

http://company-director-check.co.uk/director/902038448

 

Interesting that both Bentley Motorhomes Ltd and G Bentley Motorhomes LT are showing as both Active and Dissolved - or am I missing something

 

I think it's the way the list is compiled several companies are listed more than once.

 

Taking out the duplicates he has been a director of 18 companies in the last twenty years all of them have been dissolved, does give one a lot of confidence in the management does it. In fact with that track record any company he is involved it's a 99.9999% chance it will go down.

 

Sounds a bit like some other well known company directors I could think of. I suppose that whilst people are willing to lend against a business plan, then they will keep reappearing

[Brian Kirby]

DuxDeluxe - 2012-08-23 5:01 PM....................

Sounds a bit like some other well known company directors I could think of. I suppose that whilst people are willing to lend against a business plan, then they will keep reappearing

Yep! And they get all this credit for being the big, hairy chested, risk takers, who we all depend upon for our future commercial success. Risk? What risk? Some other mugs' cash to gamble with, and when it all ends in tears it is their creditors/suppliers who bear the costs - some of whom will also be "dominoed" into bankruptcy through absolutely no fault of their own.

 

The rules regarding directorships and undischarged bankrupt status may once have been too restrictive, but it seems to me they now almost approach a thieves charter. This laxity has to change! :-(

[mikemoss]

The thing that really, really annoys me in this situations is that the bank (which is, after all, just another supplier, gets preferential treatment over the other suppliers. And, surprise surprise, any money left over always seems to be just enough to pay the the insolvency 'practitioners' (daylight robbers, in my view).

 

 

[Brock]

A bank can only rank as a preferred creditor if it has taken appropriate security for any borrowing. The security is usually a mortgage debenture that covers 'fixed assets' and 'floating assets'. This will include any motorhomes still owned by Bentley on liquidation. With a mortgage debenture, the bank is only getting what it is entitled to for sharing a greater risk than it would without security.

 

If the bank lent without security, and this is not unusual for small amounts of money, then it ranks as an unsecured creditor.

 

I'm not defending banks. All suppliers of goods and services to a company have the opportunity to take action to control the risk of loss should the recipient company go bust. Most do not because the amounts involved are relatively small. Some suppliers do not even do basic credit checks on the buyer or have robust accounting procedures in place to indicate when a buyer is having financial difficulties. Some suppliers over expose themselves to one buyer and thus struggle to cope with its demise. Any supplier in the motorhome industry should have been aware of the track record of those involved in Bentley Motorhomes and controlled their risk of exposure accordingly.