Collapsed Dundee construction services firm McGill and Co was about to be sued by HMRC over an unpaid tax bill.
Scottish Enterprise, which had been criticised for refusing to issue a crisis loan to McGill, released hundreds of documents online last night in response to Freedom of Information requests.
FULL STATEMENT: Administrator confirms 374 immediate job losses at McGill
They revealed that up until January 17 Scottish Enterprise was still favourably considering a loan.
But KPMG, who were appointed administrators of the company on February 1 and had been advising Scottish Enterprise, said it would take too long to carry out due diligence on the company’s turnaround plan and the plea was rejected on January 30. the same day HMRC said it would take legal action to recover PAYE and National Insurance taxes owed to it.
Forty-eight hours later, McGill’s staff were summoned to a meeting at the Apex Hotel in Dundee where they were told they were losing their jobs.
Earlier that week McGill’s bank Santander withdrew McGill’s overdraft facility because no loan from Scottish Enterprise had been agreed.
An update provided to business minister Jamie Hepburn on January 30 stated: “Scottish Government colleagues have been advised today that HMRC has written to
McGill to advise that, while its seven day period for submitting a payment proposal does not expire until tomorrow (January 31), no proposals have been received to date and HMRC will now therefore continue legal actions.”
An HMRC spokesman said he could not comment on individual businesses.
The Scottish Enterprise documents can be viewed here.
It comes as Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard spoke to The Courier and accused the Scottish Government of a “dereliction of duty” over the collapse of McGill.
