Mayflower Corporation failed for four years to make full payments to HSBC, which was operating an invoice-discounting scheme on its behalf.
The arrears were the "certain accounting irregularities" at its TransBus International subsidiary revealed on March 29. Mayflower, the bus maker and manufacturer of motor vehicle components went into administration last month, when it announced the departure of the group's top three executives. (See UK in Depth - 30 March 2004: John Major to be questioned in Mayflower audit inquiry)
At that time, Mayflower said the irregularities mainly involved "delays in passing on payments from customers to one of the group's finance providers" and would increase its net debt by less than Ј20m. It was the last straw for lenders, however, and administrators were called in two days later.
HSBC and Deloitte declined to comment yesterday.
