Disgraced former police and crime commissioner’s business goes into liquidation
Stephen Mold has begun winding up his long-standing baby product business
The company of Northants’ former police, fire and crime commissioner Stephen Mold, has gone into liquidation.
The Brackmills-based Uber Shop company, which he has run since 2005, is being wound up voluntarily by Stephen Mold, with a decision made on October 9.
Documents lodged with Companies House show that just over £616,000 is owed to creditors by the firm, around half of which is owed to himself and his wife Nicola, who are the two directors.
Other debtors include Barclays Bank, which is owed more than £35,000 for a bounce back loan; Barclaycard is owed £8,600; £9,600 is owed to a London based accountancy firm and the printing business BrandPrint (owned by West unitary councillor Andy Kilbride) is owed £40,000. An unsecured loan of £77,000 is outstanding to Funding Circle and West Northants Council is also owed £1,629.
The company sold baby products and has its base at a warehouse unit in Monarch Courtyard, Northampton.
Speaking to NN Journal yesterday insolvency practitioner Adam Price who has been appointed to wind up the company, said that the liquidation is one month in and could take as long as six months to complete.
Stephen Mold has been contacted for comment.
The former commissioner, who was first elected in 2016 and then won reelection in 2021, decided in May this year not to stand again after NN Journal exposed the offensive comments he had made in a private meeting about his newly appointed fire chief. His position became untenable after senior Northants police and fire staff called for him to leave.
This came after many months of scandal, as the Conservative politician had appointed his close friend Nicci Marzec to the chief fire officer role, despite her not having any fire experience.
New commissioner Labour’s Danielle Stone is now in post. Her office announced yesterday that the recruitment for a new chief constable would start this week. Ivan Balhatchet has been holding the post since last October, when Nick Addereley was suspended. He has been in post since then and began his career in Northamptonshire. He is the probable favourite to get the job, and has been praised by the new commissioner since she took office.
Other candidates could possibly include former senior Northants police officer Simon Blatchley and Dennis Murray who have moved to other forces.
The Northants force has never had a female chief constable, or a chief constable from a minority ethnic background.
I read NN Journal article with some surprises. It is not the first time that Mold business was insolvent.
I became aware of his business problems as it was not all he had cracked it up to be. After investigation in Company House, I found out that there was an insolvency notice to the gazette back in 2022 and 2023. What I found difficult to understand was the unsecured loans? Where did they come from? It also appears that Councillors are using public money to fund their business. A £40k debt to a company like Councillor Kilbride would closed most small company. You may recall during the PFCC meeting that I highlighted this and pointed out to Catherine Whitehead. She did not think that Mold actions were unethical nor did she think that it was unsafe for Mold to be running both the Police and Fire services. We know now otherwise.
I've been following this on Companies House, a CVL is not a massive scandal however the bounceback loans being issued when the director was aware the business was not profitable IS worthy of note.
Incurring debts your business cannot pay off and are aware of such amounts to wrongful trading contrary to s.1121 of The Companies Act 2006, something I am familiar with as I've personally taken other directors and businesses to court for this.