Garner facing HMRC case over How-Do

THE publisher of the lifestyle website Manchester Confidential, is again being pursued by HM Revenue and Customs.

Entrepreneur Mark Garner’s How-Do Ltd – which he acquired in late 2011 – is facing a winding-up hearing today at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

How-Do Ltd, is not the first of Mr Garner’s enterprises to face scrutiny from the authorities. Several others have been wound-up and placed into liquidation, the most recent being Cpub Ltd in April 2012.

Cpub had previously acquired the business and assets of Manchester Confidential following the liquidation of the site’s previous owner, Planet Confidential Ltd, which was placed into a creditors’ voluntary liquidation in February 2011. Planet Confidential owed the Revenue a total of £330,000 in PAYE and VAT.

Before Planet Confidential, the site was operated by 2M Media Ltd, which was wound up in Manchester County Court on June 10, 2009.

How-Do Ltd was once the publisher of the North West media website, and merged with Cpub in late 2011 after running into financial difficulty.

How-Do founder Nick Jaspan then left the combined group and the website ceased to operate in May 2012 after an acrimonious row between him and Mr Garner, who is now the sole director of the Quay Street-based company.

A notice of the latest case was posted on the London Gazette on January 2.

As well as HMRC other creditors of How-Do Ltd are understood to include journalist and former employee Simon Binns, who agreed a settlement after an unfair dismissal tribunal in November 2012, but who has yet to be paid.

Mr Garner declined to comment on either matter, but said Manchester Confidential and its sister sites are “trading well” and would not be affected as their IP was held by him separately.

The parent company for Confidential now appears to be a Atruva Ltd, which was incorporated last year and lists Mr Garner’s daughter, Georgina Hague as its sole director.

 

 

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