Liquidator finds ‘suspicious payments’ from Gold Coast butcher Salt & Co Meats before company collapse

A failed Gold Coast butcher store’s bank accounts were cleaned out of all but $2407 prior to the business being put into liquidation.

A FAILED Gold Coast butcher store’s bank accounts were cleaned out of all but $2407 prior to the business being put into liquidation owing creditors hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the liquidator’s report.

Salt & Co Meats Pty Ltd, which traded as Salt & Co. Dry Aged Gourmet Meats and lists Palm Beach resident Samantha Williamson as its sole director, was placed into liquidation in May.

The company ran the Salt & Co butcher store at Robina Town Centre but was evicted from the shop after a dispute with landlord Queensland Investment Corporation. There are other Salt & Co butcher stores at Pacific Fair, Westfield Coomera and Pavilions in Palm Beach trading normally and run by separate companies of which Ms Williamson is director.

Rhys Williamson (left) pictured with an apprentice from RJ Builders Pty Ltd.

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Ms Williamson’s husband Rhys Williamson has faced accusations he ran the company – a claim he denies.

According to a report to creditors filed by liquidator Jason Bettles of Worrells on Thursday, when the business collapsed it had $2407 in cash in the bank and owed creditors $197,874.

Creditors include Warmoll Foods Pty Ltd (owed $8081), CTS Sunstate Group Pty Ltd (owed $77,313), Hickey Lawyers (amount unknown) and Pacific Spark Electrical Solutions Pty Ltd (owed $7210).

There are Salt & Co Dry Aged Gourmet Meats stores at Westfield Coomera and Pacific Fair

MORE BUSINESS NEWS Costco to open giant Gold Coast complex Green light for Movie World takeover No guarantee Virgin job losses will stop at 3000 Mr Bettles writes in his report that further details could not be obtained because Ms Williamson has failed to hand over the company’s books and records.

He has referred the matter to ASIC seeking their help in obtaining the records.

Neither Mr or Mrs Williamson responded to phone calls or emails on Sunday.

The August report also notes a series of what are deemed “suspicious payments” made from the company’s St George bank accounts in the lead-up to the liquidation in May. They total $306,555 and include two $20,000 payments with the reference ‘Osko withdrawal – Boutique Bullies’, $42,500 in loan repayments, and four payments totalling $27,451 for what appeared to be the rent on another store.

Salt & Co Dry Aged Gourmet Meats

Mr Bettles recommends a public examination of the company and Mr and Mrs Williamson to find out if there were voidable transactions or if Ms Williamson may have breached her duties as a director.

He also says the PE would seek to find out if Mr Williamson might have been a shadow director, which he has previously denied.

However, Mr Bettles notes there are insufficient funds for a PE or other investigation and creditors must decide if they are prepared to meet the costs of further investigations.

He says at this stage there will be no dividend paid to creditors. Also in the report, Mr Bettles provides details of phone conversations with Mr Williamson.

One concerns the delivery of goods by Warmoll Foods to the Westfield Coomera Salt & Co shop rather than the Robina store. Mr Bettles questioned Mr Williamson on why the goods were not delivered to the Robina store.

Samantha Williamson has listed her luxury duplex at 2/9 Diplacus Drive, Palm Beach for sale

Mr Williamson responded, according to the report, by saying he didn’t know the goods weren’t delivered to Robina, saying Warmoll had not done “due diligence” and noting the stock “would have been long gone before the Robina store opened”.

Mr Bettles writes there could be a case Ms Williamson breached her director duties by completing a credit application in the company’s name, ordering the goods, having them delivered to another store and then not depositing the receipts for those goods into the company’s bank accounts.

In a May letter to the Bulletin, Ms Williamson said she had no choice but to place Salt & Co Meats Pty Ltd into liquidation because of a dispute with QIC.

In the letter she claims the company is owed a “significant amount of money” by QIC for the shop fit out and delays caused to the opening of the store in time for Christmas.

She also said Mr Williamson was “no means an influential person within my companies, rather an employee running the frontline”.