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Smiffy

¡Viva la Aussielución! 🇦🇺 🦘 ⭐️🦐
Staff member
Found this on a Grimsby forum HERE. Quite why it is on there I don't know, but details the mess we are in, quite well I feel.

Ammendments in red.

Feel free to suggest anything you feel is incorrect or needs adding. I will then edit this list, so it's all in one place.

1] Sainsburys supplied a loan of £2.5m to the club to enable them to pay their recent debt to HMRC.

2] Sainsburys supplied a further loan of £3m to pay part of a £7.7m debt to the local council. The club still owes the other £4.7m.

3] Sainsburys also loaned the club a further £1.8m to pay other debts.
These are interest-bearing loans which, if not repaid, would lead to Sainsburys taking 76% of South Eastern Leisure Ltd. [prop. Ron Martin] and therefore a controlling interest in the club. Sainsburys would then be free to sell the company to whomever they wished.

4] Southend currently lease a 10 acre training ground from the council through South East Leisure Ltd. [prop. Ron Martin] and the council has agreed to sell this site to Roots Hall Ltd [prop. Ron Martin] but has not yet received the money. This site is a key part of the new stadium development and would also, therefore, become the property of Sainsburys should they take control of that company.

5] Roots Hall Ltd has also agreed to buy 2.3 acres of council land containing a number of properties around the Roots Hall site in order to allow the construction of Sainsburys new store to go ahead. The council has not yet received a penny of that money. (Completed by Sainsbury's)

6] The 32 acre site which forms the balance of the new stadium development was purchased from the council for £1,76m in 2007 by Tribeca Property Southend [prop. Ron Martin]. This company is registered in the British Virgin Islands and is owned by another Britsh Virgin Islands company Mezcal Investments [prop. Ron Martin] .

7] Prospects College, which stands in a crucial position as it's site will form the entrance to the car park of the proposed superstore, has refused to have any dealings with any Ron Martin company and is negotiating the sale of its site directly with Sainsburys. (Completed by Sainsbury's)

8] Sainsburys also own the land on which the club shop and the entrance to the Roots Hall ground are situated.This was sold to them for £578,000 by Roots Hall Ltd. in return for a £1.2m loan. (Is this a new bit of info?)

9] The club now have just 9 (7) contracted first-team players, some of whom have not been paid recently.

10] A transfer embargo is in place as the club has not repaid a loan of £120,000 to the PFA used to pay outstanding wages last season and also owes loan fees to other clubs.

11] The club has 4 CCJs aginst it, any one of which could lead to a winding-up petition. These resulted from non-payment of money to Deloittes, who did the Fossets Farm feasibility study, a hospitality company (Club Caterers?). a loan company (Charterhouse) and a local conference venue (Cliffs Pavillion?) - they did not pay for their Player of the Year function! These six-figure debts are in addition to money owed to various directors, past and present, and The Shrimpers Trust.

12] Martin Dawn plc [prop. Ron Martin] owns 50% of South Eastern Leisure UK [prop. Ron Martin] which owns 76% of the club's shares. Martin Dawn plc has debts of £7.6m and is facing a winding-up order from HMRC.The club pays Martin Dawn plc £60,000 per annum as a 'management fee' but what it does for this money has never been specified.
Between 2006 and 2009 Mr Martin took interest-free loans from Martin Dawn plc amounting to £4.7m.

13] Southend United owes £1m to South Eastern Leisure which in turn owes more than £3m to Martin Dawn. Mezcal Investments is owed £1m by Southend United, £3.58m by South Eastern Leisure UK Ltd. and £930,000 by Roots Hall Ltd. It is not known how these debts are linked to Ron Martin's other companies in the British Virgin islands, Cyprus and Jersey! In total, Ron Martin owns 29 companies - 12 of which are registered in this country. The 12 registered here are in debt to the tune of £22m!
 
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I suggest you all get a cuppa and a garibaldi and read this thoroughly.

It is truly shocking.

Pretty sure there is some new info contained as well. Or perhaps I've just missed the various snippets.
 
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I suggest you all get a cuppa and a garibaldi and read this thoroughly.

It is truly shocking.

Pretty sure there is some new info contained as well.

Perhaps worth putting a date on it and changing as need be ie if more player leave etc?

It is an excellent round up (if not depressing). I wonder who wrote it? Surely someone with some connection to the club?
 
Perhaps worth putting a date on it and changing as need be ie if more player leave etc?

It is an excellent round up (if not depressing). I wonder who wrote it? Surely someone with some connection to the club?

If you follow the link and read the first line it says it was taken from the Echos 4 page special.
 
Christ on a bike, we really are ****ed, aren't we?

Look's even worse in text doesn't it Slip.

Can someone please explain point 8. This little diamond has escaped my radar before...

When did this happen, who did the £1.2m loan go to and what was it used for?
 
Also what is the total debt Ron could call in should he leave?

I'm thinking £12m+?
 
So SUFC and every other company owe Martin Dawn millions but RM took interest free loans from Martin Dawn for 4.7 mill.

:dizzy:

How the **** can anybody work this lot out.

12] Martin Dawn plc [prop. Ron Martin] owns 50% of South Eastern Leisure UK [prop. Ron Martin] which owns 76% of the club's shares. Martin Dawn plc has debts of £7.6m and is facing a winding-up order from HMRC.The club pays Martin Dawn plc £60,000 per annum as a 'management fee' but what it does for this money has never been specified.
Between 2006 and 2009 Mr Martin took interest-free loans from Martin Dawn plc amounting to £4.7m.

13] Southend United owes £1m to South Eastern Leisure which in turn owes more than £3m to Martin Dawn. Mezcal Investments is owed £1m by Southend United, £3.58m by South Eastern Leisure UK Ltd. and £930,000 by Roots Hall Ltd. It is not known how these debts are linked to Ron Martin's other companies in the British Virgin islands, Cyprus and Jersey! In total, Ron Martin owns 29 companies - 12 of which are registered in this country. The 12 registered here are in debt to the tune of £22m!

RM must of been in the Origami Olympic team.
 
So SUFC and every other company owe Martin Dawn millions but RM took interest free loans from Martin Dawn for 4.7 mill.

It would appear from MD's accounts that most of these had been paid back (900K outstanding in the 2009 accounts)

Misinformation from the echo's financial investigator (a consortium member maybe ?)
RM may well have taken loans out , but he paid the bulk of them back.
 
Great work, Smiffy. I'm intrigued as to your finding your way onto the Grimsby forum, mind --- not seeing how they're coping with relegation to the BSP, by any chance?
 
Great work, Smiffy. I'm intrigued as to your finding your way onto the Grimsby forum, mind --- not seeing how they're coping with relegation to the BSP, by any chance?

I literally just typed in "Mezcal Investments" into Google, to find out who they were, as I heard the name mentioned a few times. And up popped up the fishy people forum with the article! (3rd result in Google I think)
 
My interpretation on some of the points quoted.

2] Sainsburys supplied a further loan of £3m to pay part of a £7.7m debt to the local council. The club still owes the other £4.7m.

This may be the s106 developers contribution to FF that the Council have agreed to delay payment of for several years

4] Southend currently lease a 10 acre training ground from the council through South East Leisure Ltd. [prop. Ron Martin] and the council has agreed to sell this site to Roots Hall Ltd [prop. Ron Martin] but has not yet received the money. This site is a key part of the new stadium development and would also, therefore, become the property of Sainsburys should they take control of that company.

I think the Council have been quoted a saying they would be co-operative regarding the price they would accept in order to aid help the development of FF


5] Roots Hall Ltd has also agreed to buy 2.3 acres of council land containing a number of properties around the Roots Hall site in order to allow the construction of Sainsburys new store to go ahead. The council has not yet received a penny of that money.


This may be the land the Council has Compulsory Purchase Orders on that they would activate in the event of Sainsburys not being able to being able to reach agreement with the current owners eg Prospects, Pizza shop
 
Prospects is now sold to Sainsbury's.....I can't for the life of me think that the other shops(maybe some flats) equate to 2.3 acres as that is the size of the Prospects site exactly.
 
Prospects is now sold to Sainsbury's.....I can't for the life of me think that the other shops(maybe some flats) equate to 2.3 acres as that is the size of the Prospects site exactly.

Then I think Smiffy can remove point 5 from the list
 
I have doubts it will be started and, if it is, severe doubts we will have a 4 sided completed stadium in my life-time.
 

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