Posh's firm is formally threatened with closure after failing to file its accounts on time for the third year running

• e-mail

Victoria Beckham's fashion label has been formally warned it could be closed down after failing to file it accounts on time

Pouting former pop singer Victoria Beckham was so thrilled to learn she would receive a New Year OBE that she was accused of breaching official protocol by making news of the honour public.Pouting

If only Posh Spice took such a close interest in her financial affairs.

I can reveal that her fashion label, Victoria Beckham Ltd, has been formally warned that it could be closed down for failing to file its accounts on time for the third year running.

The business, which she set up in 2008, was served with a 'notice of compulsory strike-off' by Companies House on December 6.

'Unless cause is shown to the contrary,' the letter said, 'Victoria Beckham Limited will be struck off the register and the company will be dissolved,' by February 5.

It then informed Mrs Beckham and her fellow directors that the company, which enjoyed a turnover of more than £34 million in 2014, and all its property would then 'belong to the Crown'.

This would be acutely embarrassing when Victoria meets the wearer of the Crown to collect her OBE, which she is due to receive in the Queen's New Year Honours.

The 42-year-old designer's shame will be heightened by the fact it's not just Victoria Beckham Ltd that is due to be closed. Its parent company Beckham Brand Holdings Ltd was also served with a strike-off notice, on December 13.

That business, established in 2014 with her former England captain husband, David, as a director, had a turnover of £51.5 million that year. 

Victoria Beckham Ltd was established in 2014 with David as a director.  The company had £34 million turn-over but it registered a profit of only £1.23 million.

The Beckhams are on holiday in the Maldives, from where Victoria posted a photo online yesterday of their five-year-old daughter, Harper, looking over the ocean as the weather turned.

Appearing to pay tribute to actress Debbie Reynolds, who died on Wednesday, Victoria wrote next to the snap: 'Singing in the rain.'

Victoria Beckham shared this picture of Harper waiting for the sun under her brolly on the beach in the Maldives

Despite the £34 million turnover of Victoria Beckham Ltd, it registered a profit of only £1.23 million.

The business scraped into the black thanks to help from her husband, without which the company would have made a near £4 million loss. A spokesman for the Beckhams declines to comment.

However, a friend of the couple insists that it is merely an administrative problem.

The friend says the accounts for both companies have been audited and signed off by their boards.

'They have been sent to Companies House, but I understand that there is a backlog,' the friend says, insisting: 'There are no financial problems.

'This late filing has not impacted the business in any way.'

Since Fifty Shades Of Grey became a worldwide phenomenon, selling more than 125 million copies, there have been a string of reports of couples injuring themselves while indulging in the sado-masochistic practices featured in the erotic novel.

Author E. L. James is unrepentant. 'What?' the Londoner exclaims. 'It's not a frickin' manual!

'Look, this is not Proust. It's not a polemic for 21st-century manners. It's not a How To. It's a fun way for women to escape.'

BBC cameraman's daughter James, 53, sees herself as an easy target for criticism.

'I'm an overweight, middle-aged woman writing a sexy story,' she says.

'It's all pejorative. It's fine to have your Captain Marvels for older men.

'We live in a misogynist society. Anything women do for other women is denigrated.'

Chain gang shame of Marco's son

Fiery Marco Pierre White was known as the restaurant world's enfant terrible when his exploits included cutting open the back of a chef's jacket and trousers with a knife after he complained of heat in the kitchen.

But his troubled son Marco Pierre White Jr, 21, is the one humiliated this week as he began 120 hours of community service for fraud, clearing rubbish in Wiltshire.

White, whose heavily tattooed body was hidden in a hoodie and orange high-viz jacket, had dishonestly used his ex-girlfriend Carina Evans's bank card.

Marco Pierre White Jr, 21, was humiliated this week as he began 120 hours of community service for fraud, clearing rubbish in Wiltshire

There was a time when his father (pictured together) was known as the restaurant world's enfant terrible when his exploits included cutting open the back of a chef's jacket and trousers with a knife

Sir Paul McCartney was so removed from normal life and protected by flunkies in The Beatles that he didn't handle any cash for a decade.

Macca has been recalling the early days of his next band Wings, which began life playing impromptu university gigs and touring in a ramshackle van in 1972.

The first night was in Nottingham, with proceeds from the 50p tickets shared with the students' union. 'That flummoxed me,' Macca, 74, confesses. 'I hadn't seen money for at least ten years. The Beatles never handled money. After the show we walked around Nottingham with £30 in coppers in our pockets.'