Members of The Vincent H.R.D. Owners Club will recall this January 2011 editorial by VOC Chairman Tim Kirker, this copy of which was downloaded today from the VOC website. In it, Mr Kirker discusses plans to set up a Trust to handle the finances and assets of the Vincent H.R.D. Owners Club. He states the need for changes to the club rules before putting the establishment of this Trust to a membership vote.
A Trust is a means by which property of a real, tangible or intangible nature is managed by a person, persons or an organisation for the benefit of the owner of the said property. The Trust is created by a grantor, who entrusts the property to the trustee. The trustee or trustees hold legal title to the trust property for the benefit of one or more individuals, known as beneficiaries, as specified by the grantor, who hold equitable title. The trustees are accountable to the beneficiaries. The Vincent H.R.D. Owners Club Ltd set up with Andrew Everett as the Director on 17.9.2010 is a private limited company with share capital. It may be able to act as a Trust.
However, this is beside the point. When Tim Kirker addressed the membership of the VOC in this editorial, he must surely have been aware of the setting up of The Vincent H.R.D. Owners Club Ltd in September 2010. Whatever the case, Mr Kirker is certainly currently aware of the existence of The Vincent H.R.D. Owners Club Ltd because he became a director on 21.3.2011. Andrew Everett became Company Secretary on the same date.
The first registered address of The Vincent H.R.D. Owners Club Ltd when it was formed on 17.9.2010 was 12 Station Road, Longfield, Kent, DA3 7QD. Another company registered at this address is Huxley & Co Accountants. The Companies House (UK) records show Roy Huxley and Diane Huxley as the first directors of The Vincent H.R.D. Owners Club Ltd and that their directorships were terminated on 8.4.2011. Also registered at the 12 Station Road address is The Vincent HRD Co Ltd, set up on 9.8.2010.
Some readers will remember Roy Huxley as a former Treasurer and Executive of The Vincent H.R.D. Owners Club. Others will remember his public comments about the VOC management and the John Lumley Affair in September 2010 via the unofficial VOC internet forum VOC-JTAN. It is widely believed that Mr Huxley resigned after refusing to sign off, as a professional accountant, on VOC and VOC Spares Company Ltd accounts. Some VOC officials and members have publicly alleged that Mr Huxley was the initiator of the HM Revenue & Customs investigation into the disappearance of the John Lumley Collection.
So, where is the formation of these two limited companies leading and what will be the consequences for the wider membership of The Vincent H.R.D. Owners Club, who seem to have had no say in the formation of these two limited companies, one of which recalls the company Phil Irving and his associates set up in 1928 after the purchase of the original H.R.D. firm? And who appointed Messrs Kirker and Everett as CEO and Company Secretary of this new incarnation of the The Vincent H.R.D. Owners Club as a private limited company with share capital? Who are the shareholders? Neither Tim Kirker nor Andrew Everett have responded to these questions.
Then again, the members of the VOC's Executive Committee appear to be keeping rather low profiles at the moment. Not a single VOC executive was seen at Liphook or Stafford. Show-goers looking for the Vincent H.R.D. stand in its usual position near the Bonham's stand only had to follow their noses, leading them to a stand where the marque was represented by the local section rather than the club itself, relegated to what the organisers clearly felt was a more appropriate location beside the toilets.
Someone should look into Kirker's time with the BMF. Kirker also paid a widow £600 for his Comet, when it was worth at least £6,000. Why hasn't this been mentioned anywhere. And where is Bryan Phillips in all of this? Is he a director of the new club?
ReplyDeleteYeah, those bogs smelt bad! I felt for the Staffs lads and ladesses. But hats off to them for flying the flag.
ReplyDeleteSame old, same old.
ReplyDeleteI resigned from the VOC in 1981, because of exactly the same dictatorially based "smoke and mirrors" management and the club's flat refusal to engage in any discussion about spares company parts quality (strange as the club was the major shareholder and its members the major consumer); and this at a time when there was protesting vocal individuals.