How Avro Energy went bust but son and dad still sent £830,000 to a building firm they owned

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I think the son and father team which ran Avro Energy owe an explanation to their 580,000 customers about the way they ran their business.

Avro went bust this week leaving their customers facing an increase of £400 in their bills but an analysis of their accounts shows some murky dealings.

Thanks to some good work by the Times we discover that Avro - owned by Jake Brown 27, and his father Andrew, 57 provided an unsecured interest-free loan of £830,000 to Berkley Swiss Ltd., a construction company they owned. Handily the registered office was the same as theirs in the Eliot Business Park in Nuneaton.

There was also a £2.25million management charge for an advertising agency called Sendito Marketing. That is also owned by the Browns and happily for them is registered at the same address.

Finally there are further loans totalling £163,656 to the pair recorded in the latest accounts.

Avro was set up by Jake Brown, a former non-league footballer, back in 2014 while studying law at Birmingham University. His father later joined him. He didn’t invest any of his own money in the company which was financed by the advanced fee paid by customers.
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The company expanded quickly by offering families cheaper electricity and gas. Its turnover soared from £80million in 2017 to £390million in the 18 months to June 19. But instead of becoming more profitable it went from making a small profit to losing £28million.

Avro claimed in its accounts that they had a hedging strategy - a form of insurance - to cope with rises in gas prices. That clearly was not true or they had not hedged their entire position.

According to the Times visitors to the Brown’s detached family home in Sketchley, Leicestershire, were told he was ‘’not there’’.

And if I were Mr Brown I would not be there for some time to come.

The Brown family may have thought they were being very clever for milking cash from Avro to send to their other businesses but they should pay a price in the court of public opinion. 

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PS: So just to mention again but if you plan to buy either car or home insurance I wonder if you might look at my small price comparison site A Spokesman Said as we earn a little commission from each sale which helps fund the research and editorial costs of running the site. It has the same offer as the big ones like Go Compare. Thank you.