Row over receiver heads to High Court

A dispute over the appointment of a convicted fraudster as receiver of failed publishing firm Retail Media is headed to court.

A group of creditors has gained a High Court hearing into whether John Gilbert acted in good faith in his handling of the receivership.

Gilbert was jailed in the 1990s for three and a half years for fraud and struck off the Institute of Chartered Accountants' register.

Retail Media published the shopping magazine Bestbuys and had a print company Horizon Printing.

Creditors owed an estimated $4 million were angered when interests associated with Retail Media's shareholders appointed Gilbert receiver on June 5.

They were further dismayed when Retail Media appointed its own liquidator, Ray Burgess of Restructuring Services, three days later.

The creditors immediately sought and gained a High Court injunction preventing Gilbert from doing anything with the company's assets.

Rowan Chapman, chief executive of accounting firm WHK, which is owed $200,000, said they were worried Retail Media could go the same way as Horizon Printing the month before.

Horizon, largely owned by Retail Media major shareholder Greg Scott, appointed Gilbert as liquidator on May 21 - one day after a new company, Big Quality Print, was incorporated and bought Horizon's business.

Big Quality Print is owned by a former Horizon manager and a trustee company and now operates out of Horizon's Avondale premises.

Horizon's creditors, owed about $1.9 million, were looking to force Gilbert to step aside as liquidator when he did so on June 24, the same day the Herald published a story about the situation.

Chapman said a nominee company representing a trust associated with Scott's family appointed Gilbert as receiver of Retail Media, based on a security it supposedly held. But the creditors believed the family trust held the security.

Meanwhile Burgess stepped down as liquidator of Retail Media on July 27 and has been replaced by John Cregten of Corporate Finance.

Gilbert's first receiver's report dated August 14 says the publisher owes $7.5 million in total.

Subsidiaries of APN News & Media, which publishes the Herald, are creditors of Retail Media and Horizon Publishing.