Crystal Umbrella Gone Bust

[Scruff]

This looks like a typical case of "Phoenix'ing". The assets are taken over by a new Company, but they leave the liabilities behind, ie concurrent creditors (like all their suppliers, and contractors who are owed money). This is done by some smart Accountants, using a "pre-pack". It is not really rocket-science, but by following a very well set of defined actions, timing and negotiations.

[WilliamAC1]

This looks like a typical case of "Phoenix'ing". The assets are taken over by a new Company, but they leave the liabilities behind, ie concurrent creditors (like all their suppliers, and contractors who are owed money). This is done by some smart Accountants, using a "pre-pack". It is not really rocket-science, but by following a very well set of defined actions, timing and negotiations.

Seems like the whole edifice is collapsing as Aqua Bubble registered offices changed to a corporate restructuring partnership in the last few days and delving deeper, liquidators were appointed on the 24th October. Its somewhat surprising that those of us "employed" by Aqua Bubble have not had any formal communications from the liquidators.

There also seems to be some contradictory information about all of this. I'm employed by Aqua Bubble and my Contract of Employment states that Crystal Umbrella is a trading name of Aqua Bubble whereas the notification we received states that Crystal Umbrella is part of Unitum Operations.

Theres a whole tangled web of interrelated companies who all seem to have Crystal Umbrella as a trading entity.

To be honest, I think that people are better off out of the whole operation if they can extract themselves without significant loss (e.g giving notice before taking time off) as there must be doubts about their business model. Some quick googling also identifies that Aqua Bubble has had winding up petitions presented (for unpaid tax/NI) in previous years (although dismissed) so teetering on the edge over a period of time.

I've requested further info from Pendragon before I "commit" so if I get anything will let other know

William

[lucyclarityumbrella]

And then are the things we don't know and didn't think about. What about finance? Surely they are all now going to have issues trying to get mortgages, loans and any other finance with their new employer only being a few months old?

Which is why I would expect if there is a transfer that this would have to be all employees TUPE'd over to the new entity, at that point the employment if continuous! If not handled properly, it will be as you said a new employment! Be interesting to see how the B2B contractual side works with all the agencies???

[killingtime]

The 0800 848 8888 number now diverts to a full mailbox. There was a person at the end of a phone yesterday.

Same result for the number of my account manager.

If anyone finds the number for Pendragon, please post it here. I've only got the email for Pendragon at the moment, and they're not responding to my emails either.

It's clear the two companies are linked in some way as the Crystal website has been updated to state:

Crystal umbrella is a trading name of Pendragon Consultancy Ltd Co Reg: 11330591

So the email that went round informing people that the Crystal brand is going into liquidation must mean that Pendragon has bought it. That's the only way they can continue to use the brand.

[bobof]

I was told yesterday in a call to Pendragon that Opus Consulting are the IP (I guess Insolvency Practitioner). I called them and they gave me details of someone who is handling this process; though they haven't replied to my email requesting clarification on invoices outstanding and their status, redundancy, whether HMRC / NI are paid up (I can see PAYE transactions listed online, but no idea if they've paid), etc. I've been paid up fully as far as I can see for all the invoices paid by the end client (in fact, I think I've been paid for one they haven't paid for yet!) but there is at least one invoice which had previously been raised and hasn't been paid by the client. I've told them not to pay it for now until the dust settles.

On the subject of the one invoice that is currently raised and not paid; Pendragon said in a phonecall they could just re-raise it and pay me if I join with them (sounds fishy to me). I might not understand things well; but I thought that invoice is now a debt to the failed operation. If it were that easy, surely I could invoice the client myself instead? Doesn't sound right.

Is this company really in liquidation / administration? I can't find any evidence of Unitum Operations being in administration (who are the named outfit on my PAYE file at HMRC). Or is the plan to get as many employees as possible to jump ship voluntarily before they shutter, to minimise liabilities for redundancy etc?

Another interesting titbit - if you log into the web portal you can download their invoices. It seems the recent invoicesto client going back a few months have had the following payee details:

"Bank Name Barclays Bank
A/c Name Pendragon Client Account
Sort Code 20-20-37
(account number deleted in case it is a unique account for my end client)

Company Registration: 11330591
V.A.T. Reg. No. GB293 5321 94
www.crystalumbrella.com
Crystal Umbrella is a trading name of Pendragon Consultancy Ltd

The above might explain why Pendragon might have some money, and Unitum not... the invoices appear to have been collected by Pendragon and the wages paid by Unitum. Very friendly for a company that says this:
"Pendragon Consultancy has no affiliation with Unitum Ltd or Crystal Umbrella and we are delighted to be introduced to you.
Please be advised that Pendragon Consultancy Ltd has no affiliation with Unitum Ltd or Crystal Umbrella and so we are delighted to be introduced to you."
From a welcome email I was sent by Pendragon (also been sent a contract I don't plan to sign, can't even read it without agreeing to something or other).

My PAYE records are also a mess. Aqua Bubble stopped paying me and Unitum Operations took over earlier in the year; however when Unitum took over they erroneously kept the year to date amount for the new "employer" and started adding the weekly payments to that. So even though the weekly amounts all look right it looks like I will earn way too much this year and so the computer spits out an absolutely ridiculous tax code.

I was just in the process of going Ltd so I only have this one invoice in question. To be honest I'd probably sack it off and chalk it to experience rather than go with the flow on this; I have little interest in becoming an employee to claim a single paycheck.

Like many I went umbrella as it seemed simpler and have carried on with it through sheer laziness. Well, that'll teach me...

[WilliamAC1]

I was told yesterday in a call to Pendragon that Opus Consulting are the IP (I guess Insolvency Practitioner). I called them and they gave me details of someone who is handling this process; though they haven't replied to my email requesting clarification on invoices outstanding and their status, redundancy, whether HMRC / NI are paid up (I can see PAYE transactions listed online, but no idea if they've paid), etc. I've been paid up fully as far as I can see for all the invoices paid by the end client (in fact, I think I've been paid for one they haven't paid for yet!) but there is at least one invoice which had previously been raised and hasn't been paid by the client. I've told them not to pay it for now until the dust settles.

On the subject of the one invoice that is currently raised and not paid; Pendragon said in a phonecall they could just re-raise it and pay me if I join with them (sounds fishy to me). I might not understand things well; but I thought that invoice is now a debt to the failed operation. If it were that easy, surely I could invoice the client myself instead? Doesn't sound right.

Is this company really in liquidation / administration? I can't find any evidence of Unitum Operations being in administration (who are the named outfit on my PAYE file at HMRC). Or is the plan to get as many employees as possible to jump ship voluntarily before they shutter, to minimise liabilities for redundancy etc?

Another interesting titbit - if you log into the web portal you can download their invoices. It seems the recent invoicesto client going back a few months have had the following payee details:

"Bank Name Barclays Bank
A/c Name Pendragon Client Account
Sort Code 20-20-37
(account number deleted in case it is a unique account for my end client)

Company Registration: 11330591
V.A.T. Reg. No. GB293 5321 94
www.crystalumbrella.com
Crystal Umbrella is a trading name of Pendragon Consultancy Ltd

The above might explain why Pendragon might have some money, and Unitum not... the invoices appear to have been collected by Pendragon and the wages paid by Unitum. Very friendly for a company that says this:
"Pendragon Consultancy has no affiliation with Unitum Ltd or Crystal Umbrella and we are delighted to be introduced to you.
Please be advised that Pendragon Consultancy Ltd has no affiliation with Unitum Ltd or Crystal Umbrella and so we are delighted to be introduced to you."
From a welcome email I was sent by Pendragon (also been sent a contract I don't plan to sign, can't even read it without agreeing to something or other).

My PAYE records are also a mess. Aqua Bubble stopped paying me and Unitum Operations took over earlier in the year; however when Unitum took over they erroneously kept the year to date amount for the new "employer" and started adding the weekly payments to that. So even though the weekly amounts all look right it looks like I will earn way too much this year and so the computer spits out an absolutely ridiculous tax code.

I was just in the process of going Ltd so I only have this one invoice in question. To be honest I'd probably sack it off and chalk it to experience rather than go with the flow on this; I have little interest in becoming an employee to claim a single paycheck.

Like many I went umbrella as it seemed simpler and have carried on with it through sheer laziness. Well, that'll teach me...

Re your point regarding whether of not Tax/NI not been paid over, this should not impact you as you can get HMRC to credit you for the deductions shown on payslips/P45 etc. From reading The Gazette, it would seem that the reason for them going into liquidation is based upon a petition from HMRC for unpaid Tax/Ni.As JUnitum/Aqua Bubble have deducted the amounts before paying you, the debt resides with them and you shouldn't worry provided you have the evidence of whats been deducted.

Re the tax code, this should not be impacted by how much you earn as it basically relates to the amount of money you can earn before tax is taken. Its something issued by HMRC and not related to earnings. It may be low due to unpaid tax in previous years that is being claimed via your tax code or you maybe on basic rate if Unitum have not received a quote from HMRC. If this is the case and you overpay tax on your earnings, you can complete a self assessment at the year end and recoup any overpayments from HMRC.

Having read you comments again, are you saying that in effect they are double counting your earnings to date by having this amount included twice (once for the previous employer and also as part of what your current employers have paid you. If you do move, then hopefully you can get a P60 showing your correct earnings and the year to date tax paid which you may find reduces the tax paid with your new employer and you have been overpaying so far this year.

William

[WilliamAC1]

Notice re Unitum for appointment of liquidator

UNITUM OPERATIONS LTD | Meetings of Creditors | The Gazette

Aqua Bubble has already done this and seems like Unitum Operations is only now catching up

William

[northernladuk]

Interesting Pendragon Client Account is mentioned. There is a company previously run by Alan Stuart Little but now by Janet from August which is company no. 09856409. Finances don't look great there either. .

This isn't the company number the post above mentions.

Seems suss there is an account called that under a different company but there is also a limited of that name. Is this how most client account setups work?

How come Janet has set a company up that looks remarkably like the name of the company that Alan has run for ages? She's set it up as Pendragon to tie in with the client account company she's picked up?

[bobof]

Re your point regarding whether of not Tax/NI not been paid over, this should not impact you as you can get HMRC to credit you for the deductions shown on payslips/P45 etc. From reading The Gazette, it would seem that the reason for them going into liquidation is based upon a petition from HMRC for unpaid Tax/Ni.As JUnitum/Aqua Bubble have deducted the amounts before paying you, the debt resides with them and you shouldn't worry provided you have the evidence of whats been deducted.

I have downloads of all my payslips. Not everyone will have these I imagine as they stopped emailing out payslips a while ago and you had to log in to their web portal to collect them. The portal is still up, so I guess folk should really download ASAP...

My payslips all show how much employee tax / NI has been paid. Of course I can't see transparently that the employer's NI claims to have been paid as it is just inside an "additional required contribution".

My concern here is that though HMRC might well credit my own personal account with the contributions shown on my payslips if they've not arrived from a failing company; there is I guess a very good chance that they might try to pursue the end client to recoup this. That would cause a problem for twofold;
1) I have an ongoing relationship with the end client and it is a bad reflection on me if HMRC chase them for money
2) I would feel honour bound to reimburse the end client for any of their out of pocket costs here as we didn't go into this on the basis of them being liable for employer's NI on my contract. I want to have a good ongoing relationship with the client so I would have to suck that up...

Re the tax code, this should not be impacted by how much you earn as it basically relates to the amount of money you can earn before tax is taken. Its something issued by HMRC and not related to earnings. It may be low due to unpaid tax in previous years that is being claimed via your tax code or you maybe on basic rate if Unitum have not received a quote from HMRC. If this is the case and you overpay tax on your earnings, you can complete a self assessment at the year end and recoup any overpayments from HMRC.

Having read you comments again, are you saying that in effect they are double counting your earnings to date by having this amount included twice (once for the previous employer and also as part of what your current employers have paid you. If you do move, then hopefully you can get a P60 showing your correct earnings and the year to date tax paid which you may find reduces the tax paid with your new employer and you have been overpaying so far this year.

It is all related to this current year; my previous years taxes aren't in question (thankfully) - I've been with them years through laziness.

Obviously I can't get a P60 from CU as they are only issued at the end of the tax year from the current employer. As the current employer at that time will be me I guess my P60 should be right.

I'll illustrate the state of my HMRC below; I think this was done to everyone or a large subset as they sent out an email to say it was HMRC's fault (though HMRC dispute this, and the HMRC website concurs).

Say I am paid £1000 / wk. I have ~20wks with Aqua bubble, totally £20K. This employment is shown on my record with the amounts deducted per my payslips, and a total of 20K.

Then it moves to Unitum operations as the current employer. £1000 / wk, 10 weeks. Again, the individual payslip entries are shown, so you'd expect the income for this current employer to be £10000. But it isn't, it is showing £30000 earned for this employer. As a result HMRC think I've earnt £50K this year and payed tax on £30K, and are projecting forward that I'll earn some obscene sum for the rest of the year as the second £30K was earnt in a very short period. This then spits out a K-code for tax.

My biggest concern on that is that I'm now going limited. I don't have a P45 yet and so I'm trying to work out how to get this fixed so that I can pay myself correctly PAYE out of the limited co. I've called HMRC twice and both times they tell me they're correcting it but they seem unable to get it to do the right thing.

Notice re Unitum for appointment of liquidator

UNITUM OPERATIONS LTD | Meetings of Creditors | The Gazette

Aqua Bubble has already done this and seems like Unitum Operations is only now catching up

Thanks, my google-Fu was not strong here. So if I read this right they're not actually in liquidation yet? There is a meeting on the 5th Dec? So folk moving over to a new brolly are doing so completely voluntarily at the moment?

Interesting Pendragon Client Account is mentioned. There is a company previously run by Alan Stuart Little but now by Janet from August which is company no. 09856409. Finances don't look great there either. .

This isn't the company number the post above mentions.

Seems suss there is an account called that under a different company but there is also a limited of that name. Is this how most client account setups work?

How come Janet has set a company up that looks remarkably like the name of the company that Alan has run for ages? She's set it up as Pendragon to tie in with the client account company she's picked up?

Any thoughts from anyone on the status of this outstanding invoice? It looks to me now that as it (and all the recent invoices) have been invoiced via the currently operating Pendragon Consultancy Ltd (11330591), but as you say to a bank account that seems to hold the name of another company (coincidence?). So I guess Pendragon will carry on chasing this invoice as owed to them, and unless I sign up with them there is no way I'll be able to get a payslip from them.

Edit: my pay has recently been entering my bank account from a Unitum Operations bank account. I guess if this is all above board Unitum would invoice Pendragon for my services... Or they had some operating surplus that they're using up. Hopefully not funds that should be going to HMRC...

I guess my only option there to obtain payment without becoming a Pendragon employee would be to see if Pendragon would rescind the invoice to the client - is that even possible? Any other thoughts? I'm not liking how this all seems to be developing so I'm disinclined to sign up again.

I should add a disclaimer that much of the above is conjecture and I am not suggesting there is any wrongdoing, just that I'm worried about the possibilities; this is due to there being no useful and detailed information about the state of affairs coming from either Pendragon, Unitum, Crystal or Opus. They could avoid all this by putting out some useful communications on where things stand.

[Samantha26]

Help!!!

Guys, I’m in real need of some help or advice or whatever. I’m a “victim” of this absolute farce.

They were Aqua Bubble, then Unitum and they’ve duplicated my earnings with HMRC. Which means I’m now on a K tax code. I can’t get a P45 and my account manager at Crystal is absolutely useless. She now works for Pendragon. I’m paying the tax man a shed load of money each week. I’ve contacted Janet De-Havilland and she’s about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

Is anyone out there in the same position as me?! I’m going stir crazy!!