Legal Cheek write
A legal influencer’s failed law firm is being probed by liquidators searching for a way to pay back the large debts that remain outstanding.
Alice Stephenson’s firm Stephenson Law entered into liquidation back in November 2023, with debts at the time totalling in excess of £1.5 million, over half of which was owed to HMRC in unpaid tax.
When the firm entered liquidation Stephenson was offering a paid-for course on how to set up your own successful law firm, and had just released a book ‘(Out)Law: From Teenage Mum to Legal Trailblazer’. She now runs another law firm unregulated by the Solicitor’s Regulation Authority, Plume.
Back in 2023 Stephenson told her large LinkedIn following, now over 68,000 strong, that “We owed a large amount to HMRC which we were paying back every month, but HMRC chose to call the whole debt in, which forced us into liquidation. There were no staff, clients or client money in the business.”
What there was, however, was a directors loan made out to A Stephenson of £666,157.72, the value of which at the time was marked in a liquidation document as “uncertain”.
One year on and an update published by liquidators Forvis Mazars has shed some light on the situation. Spoiler alert, it’s not good news for HMRC, the 55 unsecured creditors, the secured creditors, or even the liquidators themselves.
Of the £201,084 claimed by secured creditors nothing has been paid so far, with the expected payments marked as “uncertain”. It is the same story for the £487,289 claimed by unsecured creditors.
HMRC’s claim of £819,587 appears to be partially set off by a Corporation Tax Refund of £124,340, leaving just under £700k outstanding.
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