Former employees of contract firm Axis Fleet Management, which entered administration earlier this year, will not receive any money owed to them from the business due to a £25,000 shortfall in road fund licence (RFL) refunds.
According to the latest administrator’s report, a significant number of vehicle licence fees were prepaid to the DVLA and so FRP Advisory arranged for the HGVs to be declared off road to trigger refunds.
However, in a report to creditors, it said: “Refunds of approximately £75,000 have been received.
“I have corresponded with the DVLA in respect of the RFLs and they have advised that all refunds have now been processed and no further realisations are anticipated.
“The shortfall of £25,000, when compared to the estimate in the proposals, has largely resulted from the company issuing cheques for RFL payments which were dishonoured.”
The report added: “It should be noted that a debtor has lodged a claim for £21,000 in respect of the RFL refunds which we are investigating.”
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As a result of the shortfall, FRP Advisory has had to reassess the outcome for preferential creditors.
It said: “The preferential claims are the employees’ preferential element for arrears of pay, unpaid pension contributions and holiday pay as calculated in accordance with legislation.
“It was anticipated in the proposals that preferential creditors would receive a dividend, estimated at 37p in the pound.
“Due to lower than anticipated unencumbered asset realisations being achieved (primarily relating to the RFL refunds) there are now insufficient funds available to make a distribution to preferential creditors.”
However, staff will be able to make a claim through the redundancy payments service.
FRP has previously explained to creditors that losses at the contract hire and rental firm stretched back to 2017 and were driven by an ageing fleet and onerous hire agreements.
