Bond case tightens regulation of rogue IPs
The case of former Bond Partners director Theodoulos Papanicola, who was banned last month by the ACCA for misconduct, established a precedent that will tighten up regulation of wayward insolvency practitioners.
The judgment in ACCA v Koumettou & Morfakis, which involved the transfer of Papanicola's cases to another IP, is the first time a recognised professional body (RPB) has reversed a transfer between its own members.
After an ACCA disciplinary hearing involving Papanicola in September last year, the High Court in Birmingham agreed to transfer his caseload due to "ill health" to another former Bond Partners director, Costas Morfakis, now working at a firm called Axiom Recovery, and Ninos Koumettou, an unconnected practitioner from Alexander Lawson & Co. In the latest decision, the judge noted that the transfer involved agreements that appeared to guarantee Bond Partners an income stream from some of those cases.
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Bond Partners
Oh yes Bond - the organisation that sold 'debts' to banks (yet again behaving disgracefully) who in turn pursued small practitioners through the courts.