Premier FX, the foreign exchange specialist with a branch in Almancil, closed down last Friday, leaving many customers unable to access their funds.
Shortly before the announcement was posted on the PremierFX website, individual account balances were shown as zero, staff were fired, offices closed, phones and emails were left unanswered.
A liquidator was to be appointed and the children of the recently deceased owner of the company, Peter Rextrew, were shown to be in charge of the winding up process as Companies House listed them as Directors of Premier FX Limited as from June 18th.
The website message, dated July 27th read:
‘Following the death of the founder of PremierFX and sole director, Peter Rexstrew, in June of this year, the new directors have become concerned about the cash flow solvency of the company.
"Having taken professional advice from independent lawyers and accountants and, mindful of their over-riding duties to the firm’s creditors and customers, the directors have decided to suspend the business of PremierFX and to take steps to put the company into liquidation.
"In the meantime PremierFX will not transact any new business nor process any customer payments (inbound or outbound).
"The directors anticipate that the liquidators will be contacting customers once they have been appointed."
The message was changed during the week to the current one:
‘Following the death of the founder and sole director of PremierFX, Peter Rexstrew, in June of this year, it has been decided to suspend trading until further notice and we will not be able to receive or make payments during this time. We apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause and we will notify you when matters become clearer.'
The company also has moved address from Castle Court in Reigate, to a firm of accountants:
Tudor John LLP
Nightingale House
46 - 48 East Street
Epsom
Surrey KT17 1HQ
+44 1372 742323
This Partnership specialities appear not to include insolvency and liquidation, nor has any announcement yet been made as to who the liquidator will be but this Partnership will be familiar with Premier FX as in recent years has been involved in preparing the annual accounts.
Without this key information, PremierFX’s customers remain in limbo land, dependent on close-to-zero information and fearing they have has been subject to a massive fraud.
The partner at Tudor John LLP, in charge of the PremierFX account is Hazel Day BSc (Hons) FCA DChA, who is listed as the 'lead partner for Charity sector clients.' This does not trigger feelings of great hope for those left with no funds normally transferred monthly for paying bills.
Ms Day can be contacted on partners@tudorjohn.co.uk and, in the total absence of any sensible information, perhaps she will advise on individual enquiries as to where the money has gone, has it all gone, was any of the money covered by regulators and how much and when can customers expect some form of communication. The money was held by Barclays in London in client accounts so how was it removed without client authorisation?
The company directors announced Premier FX was going into liquidation and then made no reference to this in the second posting on the PremierFX website. So what is the situation?
Ms Day may not bee too willing to add to her recent mail:
"We are aware that various announcements have recently been issued by Premier FX relating to its current position.
"Tudor John’s involvement with Premier FX has been limited to assisting the company with the preparation of its annual statutory accounts, the last such accounts completed being for the year ended 31st December 2016.
"We do not have any on-going involvement in the day to day operations of the company nor have we been in contact with the directors for any other purpose than to prepare the year end statutory accounts.
"We do appreciate that clients of Premier FX may be anxious about the current situation but we have no information on the current trading position of the company.
"Our understanding is that the company is liaising closely with its professional advisers and the regulatory authorities with a view to achieving an orderly wind down of the operations and understand that the bank accounts of Premier FX have been frozen restricting the movement of funds until further notice.
"Further updates on the Premier FX website should be made available in due course."
Set for another weekend of stress and worry, with some customers losing life changing amounts, the directors of PremierFX, Katie and Charlie Rextrew, need to make things clear. If the company is formally being liquidated, the liquidator needs to make things clear - it's not like they don't have a list of customer's emails addresses.
In the meantime, PremierFX customers are encouraged to email Ms Day, she’s there to help, after all.
Hazel Day can be emailed at partners@tudorjohn.co.uk
REMINDER
From a reader: Some of the clients may have standing orders set up at their own banks to pay PremFX on a monthly basis (we did) it may be worth reminding them to cancel any standing orders.
A READER WRITES
"I have today (3 August) spoken to the Insolvency service - a UK government department - and this is their advice which should be treated as a matter of urgency.
Anyone who has any claim should immediately email:
intelligence.live@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk
stating all the facts of your claim against Premier FX. The more people that complain the more likely it COULD be that the insolvency service COULD wind the company up in the public interest and freeze all assets.
So you all need to say how much, when etc and what details you have of bank transfers you have made and why you think there may be a problem. Emails phone messages (or lack of) etc. I shall do the same even though I have taken action through the County Court online which is available to anyone who has a claim of less than, I believe, £10,000.
However this is not a magic solution as there still needs to be liquidators appointed and winding up orders made. You need to add the registered company number which is 05769324"
