FOLLOW-UP: Fire Brigade-Backed Hartlepool Company Owes £1.2M in Debts as Insolvency Looms – Ex-Council Officials Said to be at the Heart of The Scandal...
- HBC Exposed
- 5 hours ago
- 4 min read
£1.2 Million in Debt, Collapsing Finances, & looming bankruptcy: Former HBC Officials under the Spotlight over just how a Community Company Backed by Cleveland Fire Brigade & Tax Payers Money Crashed into Crisis.....
11th June 2025
A Hartlepool-based company backed by Cleveland Fire Brigade and propped up with former senior Hartlepool Borough Council officials is now revealed to have amassed approximately £1.2 million pounds in debts — and is now facing a High Court petition for winding-up brought by HM Revenue & Customs.
As HBC Exposed exclusively reported earlier this week: Peter Devlin, Hartlepool Borough Council’s former Chief Solicitor, quietly resigned his directorship of Cleveland Fire Brigade Risk Management Services CIC just weeks before the company was set to be summoned to the High Court for compulsory insolvency proceedings after being unable to meets its huge debts accrued on the failing community firm...
But the financial situation emerging is even more alarming than readers first thought....
That's because, According to the company’s own accounts, it recorded a £609,000 loss for the most recent financial year, with a pitiful £3,000 left in the bank, as well as over £27,000 in 'loans'.
The lion’s share of its debt — said to be an eye-watering £688,000 the firm owes to HMRC, where its reported a previously "agreed" payment plan collapsed, leaving HMRC 'no choice' but to pursue the full amount owed in court, putting the alleged 'community interest company' at risk of collapse under the weight of its own debts..
But, questions are already being asked as to how a ‘Community Interest Company’ managed to rack up over £1 million pounds in debts, under the guise of supposedly serving the public interest?
As well as the burning question of just how did individuals with significant public sector financial experience — including former Hartlepool Borough Council officials — fail to prevent this disaster?
Because, It turns out, Devlin wasn’t alone in this venture. Cleveland Fire Authorities Chief Finance Officer is none other than Chris Little, the former HBC Director of Finance for Hartlepool Borough Council, whose tenure at at the disgraced institution was mired in controversy almost from the very day he was appointed into the role..
Mr Little’s time at HBC coincided with multiple financial scandals, including the purchase of a derelict property using tax payer funds for four times its reported value — a matter that sparked a number of regulatory investigations into his conduct...
His move to Cleveland Fire Authority then ensued in 2023, following claims he was 'retiring'.... However his involvement in a fire brigade spin-off company now at the centre of a major insolvency scandal will do little to ease concerns about the revolving door between troubled local authorities and quasi-public enterprises, particularly as he was the one tasked with doing the accounts for both Cleveland Fire Authority & officially reported on the failing ltd company directly on Cleveland Fire Authorities latest published financial statements.
The fire brigade’s commercial arm (Cleveland Fire Brigade Risk Services CIC)— established in March 2011 under the Local Government Authorities (Power to Trade) Order 2009 — was created to allow Cleveland fire authority to trade its services in the private sector. But with its likely collapse imminent, serious questions are likely to be asked of Cleveland Fire Authority bosses, who appointed both Devlin and Little, despite their links to one of Teesside’s most criticised & underperforming councils as to how they managed to oversee the companies apparent collapse under so much financial liability without actually seeing it coming ?
This is more than a financial failure — it’s a governance crisis, one source told us.
Not only does this vindicate long-standing whistle-blowers and critics who dared to speak out several years ago over the financial irregularities at Hartlepool Borough Council, it also underlines the danger of recycled leadership and unchecked public-private experimentation that's likely to leave the taxpayer ultimately picking up the pieces of this latest failed business endeavour..
The member of the public who approached HBC Exposed with the information said:
“This development vindicates everyone who tried to raise the alarm about what was happening at Hartlepool Borough Council all those years ago when these individuals were in senior roles. Those who spoke out were dismissed as ‘vexatious’, labelled ‘troublemakers’, or in some cases banned from the council buildings for speaking out—but they were right to be concerned. These individuals operated in such a bubble of entitlement that the moment they stepped into the private sector, their inexperience & incompetence was fully laid bare. They couldn’t even manage the basic responsibility of running a private ltd company. There must now be a full and transparent investigation into those officers & suspend them from their roles.”
A petition for insolvency for the business is set to be heard at the High Court, Royal Courts of Justice, 7 Rolls Building, Fetter Lane, London, EC4A 1NL on the 18th June 2025.
