Third Hartlepool United winding up order is dismissed in High Court

At a brief hearing which mirrored the earlier hearings, counsel for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs asked one of the country’s senior insolvency judges, Mr Registrar Nicholas Briggs to dismiss the winding up petition.

Such requests are normally an indication that the tax bill has been settled.

The registrar agreed and dismissed the petition.

The latest petition was listed in the court last month.

At the time Pools chairman Gary Coxall told the Mail: “This is something that has already been sorted.

“We were aware of the issue and had a payment plan in place with the HMRC.”

At Christmas, Mr Coxall issued a statement through the club to reassure fans after reports it was facing a petition for £104,298.47.

He then said: “It is true that the Club has previously received two winding-up petitions but both have been explained.

“This ‘third’ winding-up order is totally different, as we agreed a payment plan with HMRC by which we would settle the amount in two separate payments and, as of today, we have now cleared £100,000 of that bill.

“As part of the payment plan we agreed that if the second payment wasn’t met then a winding up-petition could be back-dated but this has been resolved.

“In short, it was only a notice of a winding-up, which has been effectively resolved before issue.”

Previous petitions were dismissed by the court in June and November last year when counsel for the taxman asked the judges to dismiss them.

Mr Coxhall said in December that the club had secured funding to press ahead with plans to develop land adjacent to The Northern Gas and Power Stadium, as well as the stadium itself.