IT'S SNOW FAIR

£15k paid to sell debt-laden indoor winter sports group to 'corporate rescue' firm before plug was pulled

- MARK MCGIVERN

Tycoon used dodgy scheme to shut down ski slope business, leaving workers out of pocket while he fled to sunshine

A TYCOON has been slammed for using a tangled scheme to shut down his winter sports business and dodge paying out money to staff.

Jamie Smith built up and ran the Snow Factor centre in Braehead, Glasgow, and an ice climbing wall in Kinlochleven, Argyll, both of which eventually closed leaving a trail of debt.

More than 100 jobs were lost in the wake of the failures. Staff worked for weeks for no pay and many are fighting for redundancy payments two years later.

Meanwhile, Smith - free of debt from the failed ventures - is now running a yachting business in Greece.

Workers were furious to discover that Smith was among more than 1000 UK directors to use a "corporate rescue" process created by Scot John Irvin, which the UK's Insolvency Service has taken action to shut down.

The Atherton group of companies, run by Ayrshire-based Irvin, have helped directors of failing firms avoid tens of millions of pounds of debt and leaving financial chaos in their wake.

Irvin paid bogus directors, most commonly a man named Neville Taylor, to take the place of the former directors whose companies had built up big debts to HM Revenue & Customs and others.

But these directors made no efforts to save stricken companies, instead leaving them to be dissolved. In many cases, directors "phoenixed" companies, carrying on their business with a brand new, debt-free firm.

Last night former employees of Smith at the Snow Factor indoor ski slope slammed him for the way he left them in the lurch in November 2022.

And Glasgow East MP John Grady, who is helping staff with their redundancy claims, called for an urgent investigation into the circumstances of the closure of Snow Factor and other firms via the Atherton scheme.