CD & PJ Ireland Pty Limited creditors lining up

The liquidation leaves a question mark over the future of the high-profile Ireland Angus operation.

Corey and Prue Ireland with a bull that made the top price at one of their sales.

THE 408 Angus Stud of late cricketer P hil Hughes and major banks have emerged as creditors of a company placed in liquidation by the Supreme Court of NSW last month.

CD & PJ Ireland Pty Limited, owned and run by Corey and Prue Ireland, of Kyeamba, south of Wagga Wagga, has collapsed after East Coast Stockfeeds at Miranda, NSW, took court action to recoup a $43,000 debt.

The liquidators Andrew Bowcher and Tim Gumbleton have found CD & PJ Ireland Pty Limited has debts of more than $10.5 million but assets estimated to be worth nearly $4.8 million.

Four 0 Eight Angus Pty Ltd is listed as a secured creditor of CD & PJ Ireland, with a debt the liquidators have been advised is nearly $2.8 million but with a Personal Property Securities Register security over 55 stud Angus female cattle.

Phil Hughes set up the 408 Angus Stud in 2010 but it is now owned run by his parents, Greg and Virginia.

Westpac Banking Corporation is owed about $3.5 million, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia nearly $1.7 million and the Bank of Queensland $411,000.

Ireland family companies have been pursued by creditors seeking to recoup debts in the past year and a half.

But each time there was a threat, money appeared to satisfy the litigating creditors.

That is, until the court action by East Coast Stockfeeds in October.

The liquidation may spell the death knell of the high profile Ireland Angus operation.

Mr and Mrs Ireland established CD & PJ Ireland Pty Limited on December 20, 2011.

WEB OF INTRIGUE: THE IRELAND FAMILY’S ANGUS NETWORK

They began running the Ireland Angus stud at Kyeamba some years earlier.

CD & PJ Ireland Pty Limited was the trustee of the Ireland family trust and the company through which the Irelands transacted their Angus trading business.

Creditors say Mr Ireland persuaded many of them to take part in various Angus breeding schemes.

But some bills didn’t get paid on time.

A source told The Weekly Times that, on May 16, 2018, Elders took action in the Supreme Court of SA to wind up CD & PJ Ireland Pty Limited in a bid to recoup a debt of $660,000, owed from an Angus cattle transaction.

Within two days, the Irelands set up another company called Irelands Angus Breeding Pty Ltd, this time in partnership with long-time clients, Henk and Helma Van Den Heuval.

The Van Den Heuvals were born in the Netherlands but migrated to Australia in 1986.

Mrs Van Den Heuval is the owner of the Bass Hill Veterinary Hospital. She and her husband run the Greendale Hills Estate Angus stud at Greendale on the western outskirts of Sydney.

Australian Securities and Investments Commission records show the Van Den Heuvals each held 500,001 ordinary shares in IAB, while 1,000,002 were placed in the name of CD & PJ Ireland Pty Limited.

The Irelands and Van Den Heuvals each became a director of IAB. The Dutch couple were not involved with CD & PJ Ireland Pty Limited.

Elders’ bid to wind up CD & PJ Ireland Pty Limited was settled out of court and the case dismissed on June 28, 2018. Financial problems appear to have continued with both CD & PJ Ireland Pty Limited and IAB.

On July 2, this year, Platinum Operations, a subsidiary of Ruralco, now owned by Canadian fertiliser giant Nutrien, took action in the Federal Court of Australia to wind up IAB over a debt, believed to be $17,000.

The case was settled on September 18.

On November 14, the Supreme Court of NSW granted East Coast Stockfeeds an order to wind up CD & PJ Ireland Pty Limited, appointing Mr Bowcher and Mr Gumbleton, of RSM Australia Partners, in Wagga Wagga, as joint liquidators the same day.

That put them in control of the company.

In an initial report to creditors, yet to be publicly released, the liquidators said they were advised CD & PJ Ireland Pty Limited was the trustee of the Ireland family trust.

“Pursuant to a Deed of Appointment executed on 15 November 2019, the office of trustee was terminated and vacated on 14 November 2019,” their report stated. But ASIC documents show the Irelands set up a company called IFTT Pty Ltd on November 15.

It became the new trustee of the Ireland family trust.

ASIC documents show that Mr Ireland transferred CD & PJ Ireland Pty Limited’s half interest in IAB to IFTT on November 14.

But ASIC files show IFTT was not established until the following day.

Mrs Ireland is also the sole director and owner of another company, IB Gray Nominees Pty Ltd, believed to be trustee of a trust set up by her late father Ian Gray, of Glenelg, SA.

The Weekly Times does not suggest Mr and Mrs Ireland or Mr and Mrs Van Den Heuval were responsible for the collapse of CD & PJ Ireland Pty Limited.

Mr and Mrs Ireland did not return The Weekly Times’ calls.