£100k taken out from liquidated Oxford restaurant’s accounts

Glut Ltd, which trades as Glut, was put into voluntary liquidation in January 2024 having been operating for around five years.

The George Street restaurant opened in 2019 and enjoyed much success early on, having climbed to the top of customer review website TripAdvisor’s restaurant charts within six weeks of opening.

But a notice that was put on Glut’s door suggested the landlords took control of the property and the lease had been forfeited with the premises “secured”.

Elliot Green, liquidator at insolvency and company closure specialist Oliver Elliot, was tasked with winding down the company.

Sami Mahfouz at Glut restaurant (Image: Andy Ffrench)

His latest report published recently has suggested a large, unexplained £100,000 reduction in the director’s loan account, and he still cannot identify the transactions that caused it.

This is now the central focus of the liquidator’s investigation, with help from solicitors, because it may indicate issues with payments to the director or connected parties.

Mr Green is now investigating whether payments involving “connected” people or companies were proper and fully explained.

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He said: “Investigations at the heart of this case involve the uncertainties concerning the accounting of connected party transactions.

“That position includes the reduction in the director’s loan account from £103,813 to £3,813 being a reduction during the year to December 31, 2021 of £100,000.

“I have to date been unable to discover the transactions responsible for the reduction which seems reasonably material.”

Transactions with connected parties are a red flag area in insolvency because they can be used to move value out of the company at the expense of creditors, or to favour some people over others.

Sami Mahfouz. the owner of Glut restaurant (Image: Andy Ffrench)

In the case of Glut, it’s still not know what has happened, hence the investigation being carried out.

Mr Green is getting legal assistance from a solicitor from Freeths LLP as part of his investigation.

He added: “My investigations appear to have been hampered by an absence of completed books, papers and records to fully explain the transactions flowing through the company’s bank account.

“There therefore appear to be a number of insufficiently explained, unevidenced and thereby unaccounted for transactions, revealed from review of the company’s accounting records relating to the connected parties.

“A material absence of underlying records, particularly to explain and evidence the same, does appear to me to have hampered these investigations.”

Since being appointed liquidator in January 2024, Mr Green has built up an estimated fee for his work of more than £15,000.

When Mr Mahfouz opened Glut, he told this newspaper about the “big investment” he made to bring the bar to the city centre.

The circumstances of Glut’s closure remains unknown.