Hartlepool United avoid winding-up order as petition is dismissed in high court

A petition for a winding-up order by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs was listed in London’s High Court.

One of the country’s senior insolvency judges, Mr Registrar Nicholas Briggs, dismissed the petition and ordered the League Two club to pay the taxman’s legal costs after being told by barrister Maxim Cardew, for HMRC, that “the debt has been paid”.

It come five months after another winding-up petition over an undisclosed tax debt was dismissed by Mr Registrar Stephen Baister, after being told by Catherine Addy, then-counsel for HMRC: “The debt and costs have been paid in full.”

That petition was dismissed after the court heard the club had already paid the money owed, which it blamed on an accounting software error. The club said the debt was paid as soon as it was brought to their attention but the court process had already began.

At the time Hartlepool United chairman Gary Coxall said: “It wasn’t due to a lack of funds. It was purely our records showed differently to their records.”