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Walking Down The Halbeath Road


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Would not begrudge JJ if he left in the summer. In fact, unless he is completely obsessed or masochistic, why would he stay? We are circling the drain, he's not getting paid and he doesn't need the hassle. I'm sure he can find another job, even it was a Director of Football type position elsewhere. That being said, I would love him to stay as I think he's done a really decent job and is an excellent manager for this level.

I have had a feeling for a while though, that John Potter and Craig Dargo will be in charge of the First Team next term.

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I believe there was another Masterton story in the Mail on Sunday yesterday? Anyone get a copy of it?

This

  • 17 Feb 2013
  • The Scottish Mail on Sunday
  • By Andrew Picken

Bank wrote off £4.5m loan to ex-boss’s firm

..then they gave his company an even bigger handout

THE Bank of Scotland wrote off a £4.5 million loan to a firm owned by its former managing director.

But, despite being left out of pocket, bank executives then gave

another firm, owned by Fife businessman Gavin Masterton, a new £12

million loan.

A Scottish Mail on Sunday investigation into the finances of Mr

Masterton, owner of ailing Dunfermline Athletic FC, has uncovered close

ties with his former employer.

The latest revelations show that the £4.5 million loan was written

off in 2004 as parts of Mr Masterton’s business empire failed.

However, less than four years later Bank of Scotland bosses approved a

£12 million loan deal with a company owned by the 71-year-old, which

let it skip repayments for 35 years.

Sources suggest the deals were personally approved by disgraced HBOS executive Peter Cummings.

One said: ‘The Gavin situation was very embarrassing for the bank. He

only left them a few years before and they lent his companies a lot of

money. The deals were very much about wiping out or recycling his debts

as quickly as possible. It is treatment the vast majority of bank

customers would not have enjoyed.’

In 2003, Wood Investments (Scotland) Limited was owned by two businesses within Mr Masterton’s complex web of companies.

Accounts show it lent Dunfermline Athletic £4.5 million, understood to be from a Bank of Scotland loan.

Wood Investments’ accounts for the year after show £4.4 million was

‘provided for’ and sources confirmed the bank wrote the money off.

The same accounts show that Mr Masterton and Dunfermline Athletic

chairman John Yorkston both resigned as directors of Wood Investments,

which was sold to SDG Property and SDG Caledonia Holdings.

This deal was linked to the collapse of companies trading under the

name Stadia, a business started by Mr Masterton to develop land around

football grounds.

Stadia banked with Bank of Scotland and is thought to have racked up debts of around £25 million.

There has been intense scrutiny of Mr Masterton’s finances as his

ailing First Division club struggles to pay tax and wage bills this

season.

Earlier this month, the Scottish Mail on Sunday revealed details of a

£12.2 million deal which show Mr Masterton’s company does not have to

pay anything back until 2043.

The cash was used by one of Mr Masterton’s companies to buy

Dunfermline’s stadium and records at Companies House suggest the loan is

effectively interest-free as long as the Fife club remains there.

The records also show East End Park’s value was £5.9 million in 2007,

rising to £11.2 million in 2008. The £12.2 million loan, with the

stadium as security, was agreed in 2008.

A spokesman for Mr Masterton – who retired from the bank in 2001 – refused to comment on ‘confidential commercial matters’.

A spokesman for Lloyds Banking Group, of which taxpayer-backed Bank

of Scotland is a part, said: ‘We do not comment on individual

customers.’

Edited by Rovers_Lad
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As was shown last Summer. Something is only worth what somebody is willing to pay for it.

So how much is EEP worth again?

Instead of pouring their money down the drain, the various fan groups should have been banking it, to deal with the receiver when the time comes.

This


  • 17 Feb 2013
  • The Scottish Mail on Sunday
  • By Andrew Picken

Bank wrote off £4.5m loan to ex-boss’s firm

The records also show East End Park’s value was £5.9 million in 2007,
rising to £11.2 million in 2008. The £12.2 million loan, with the
stadium as security, was agreed in 2008.

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