Clear wound up after court battle
MANCHESTER fuel dealer, Clear, has gone into liquidation following a High Court dispute with a petro-chemical storage business.
The Immingham Storage Company (IMC) petitioned to wind-up Clear last July claiming the business owed it money under the terms of an agreement to store fuel at its depot at Immingham near Grimsby.
But Clear, owned by Imran Kara who has appeared in the Sunday Times Young Rich List, disputed the claim arguing that correspondence between the businesses through a series of emails did not amount to a legally binding contract.
It lost when the case went to trial last year and an appeal, heard last month, was dismissed by Mr Justice Richards at the High Court. The Official Receiver was appointed to the business at the start of the month.
According to a court judgement Clear first made contact with IMC in October 2008 to discuss the storage of up to 4,000 cubic metres of low sulpher diesel. There was a site visit and email exchanges discussing storage dates and possible costs.
This was followed by a detailed quotation setting a monthly fee of £22,250 for a minimum of 12 months from May 1, 2009. Clear went on to confirm, by email, that it wished to proceed and faxed back the signed quote. IMC then sent a formal contract but it was never returned after Clear failed to secure the fuel and made no delivery to Immingham.
IMC went on to raise invoices for May and June but Clear responded: “As you are well aware, the acceptance of your quotation in principal [sic] does not constitute a formal contract which was never signed by an officer of this company and therefore no agreement exists between us.”
Mr Justice Richards disagreed, saying that an objective reading of the email exchanges establishes that a contract was made. IMC was awarded damages of £197,110 for breach of contract.
Latest filed accounts for the 18 months to September 30 revealed the firm was also involved in a legal wrangle with HM Revenue & Customs over a £12m VAT rebate. During the period sales dropped sharply to £27.3m from £78.7m in the year to April 2008. Pre-tax profits fell to £4,419 from £342,992 in the previous accounting period. Mr Kara could not be reached by TheBusinessDesk.com.
