This is what I wrote to Stephen Speed, the Chief Executive of the Insolvency Service:

Dear Mr Speed

This is to invite you or someone else in your department to a meeting that will take place tomorrow, Tuesday, between 2 and 4 in Committee Room 16 of the House of Commons. Whilst I don’t expect you to attend at such short notice, I thought you might want to send Shona Manson whom we’ve been in touch with, or somebody else we can work with.

My main reason for inviting you is your stance on punishing dishonesty and other unethical behaviour. To give you a feel for what to expect, I attach three documents pertaining to the meeting as well as the most scandalous bankruptcy we are aware of: Mr David Fabb. One of the judges involved said: “This bankruptcy order ought not have been made. But I am using my “judicial discretion” not to annul it.” How is that supposed to increase our confidence in your system and procedures, I wonder?

Our group has accumulated a vast amount of evidence and knowledge about slippages in the Courts that your Service seems to miss, when Bankruptcy Orders are issued based on false documents, forms and evidence.

And while I appreciate that you don’t deal with individual cases, we have accumulated summaries of many to demonstrate what we know. It would therefore help if you were to support us in our efforts to annul bankruptcy orders that we found to be legally invalid and thus null and void.

Dr Vincent Cable is quite aware of our group efforts. Hence I would appreciate your collaboration.

With many thanks in advance,

Sabine K McNeill
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And here’s the answer that I got:

Dear Ms McNeill,

Thank you for your invitation of 24 January. Mr Speed has asked me to reply on his behalf, I apologise that I did not have an opportunity to do so in advance of the meeting last week.

The role of The Insolvency Service is to administer insolvent estates following orders of the court. Concerns members of the Forum have about the Court Service or the actions of the Judiciary are a matter for the Ministry of Justice and not The Insolvency Service.

Official receivers have neither the authority nor the resources to investigate or challenge documentation which has been considered by the court. If you have the evidence that bankruptcy orders were made on false documentation, forms and evidence then the correct route is for the individual to ask the court to annul the bankruptcy order. This is a matter between the individual, the petitioning creditor and the court.

There is an established review and appeal process for individuals who wish to challenge the findings of the court. Any party to proceedings who believes a judge has incorrectly applied the law or erred in the exercise of his / her discretion has a right of appeal to a higher court.

Yours sincerely,

Shona Manson