COMMISIONERS investigating the extent of the financial woes of Thurrock Council are to take an extra month as they are continuing to uncover more shocking information.

It was expected that the investigation by a team from Essex County Council, appointed by the government, would conclude its 'best value inspection' into Thurrock's financial activities and deliver a report to the government and council in early January.

However, on the day the council confirmed it has gone bust and submitted a section 114 order to the government, it has also been announced that the investigators still have things to uncover and mull over.

The council's accounts have not been signed off for the past two years and Thurrock Nub News understands that the team looking into the financial affairs – as well as the governance process within the authority, are now delving even further back into historic documents.

It could be that the debt of the council, currently expected to be around £1.5 billion because of its failed 'borrow to invest strategy, could be even higher.

The council has already gone cap-in-hand to the government asking for a around a billion pounds in loans to help plug its financial shortfall.

Cllr Mark Coxshall, fronted up today's submission to the government.

An example of the folly the council entered into is its investment into a number of companies connected to flamboyant entrepreneur Liam Kavanagh.

He has been widely damned for his multi-million pound lifestyle which includes fast cars and expensive homes in the sun.

And investigations have linked him with meetings in a London Mayfair hotel with the council's then finance director Sean Clark – who has since been suspended but has disappeared off the public radar for several months.

He, unlike chief executive Lyn Carpenter whose resignation was accepted this week, remains on the council's payroll.

However, it appears he is intrinsically linked to the investment in Toucan Energy Holdings which has gone into administration – owing Thurrock around £655 million!

It is likely the investigators delving into council affairs will be looking in great detail at the Toucan investment – and many more aspects of the council's spending. There are no boundaries to what the inspectors can look at – and it seems likely that many other financial aspects of the council's business are now under the microscope.

That may include the council's scheme to borrow money from Topland Olympus Ltd – part of the wider offshore-registered Topland Group, whose senior officers have something of a chequered and sometimes disreputable history.

The council has signed deals that see Topland finance property-buying in the borough – with the council paying it back in a deal stretching over many years. Many millions have already been paid back, but whenever pressed about the detail of the deal by Thurrock Nub News the council has refused to add any clarity to what has been agreed.

The role of senior officers including Mr Clark and Ms Carpenter is still being investigated and though Ms Carpenter is no longer 'on the books', what she did or didn't do can still be investigated.

It is believed that she will receive a payment of around £50,000 in lieu of notice and her pension rights will remain intact. Sources within the council say there is no 'severance deal' nor agreement in place other than that in her original contract.

Like Mr Clark, Ms Carpenter has been linked with another financial advisor associated with a company that also crashed and burned - owing Thurrock Council millions.

In December 2020 Thurrock Nub News reported on the links between the two after the council spoke optimistically about its investment in a compnay called Pure World Engergy. Thurrock invested £30m in PWE Holdings, described a sustainable energy business that supplies eco-friendly generators to leisure centres. 

The company remains in business, despite having recorded successive losses of several milion pounds and it is believed to owe Thurrock around £20 million.

The deal with Thurrock is believed to have been brokered, at least in part, with Tim Hewett who joined PWE as a non-executive director in July 2016. The company says he has "a particular interest in assisting businesses, particularly those that are in their early growth stage, and that want to provide services to the UK leisure market."

Tim Hewett and Lyn Carpenter (not pictured together) have historic links.

Mr Hewett was featured on the personal Linked-In page of Thurrock Council CEO Lyn Carpenter. When he was working for another company the two were involved in a transaction involving Pure World Energy when she worked for Elmbridge Borough Council. Ms Carpenter has a long career history working in the leisure industry both in the private and public sector.

Mr Hewett, from Southbourne, Dorset who enjoys a very comfortable lifestyle with exotic holidays and has a large seagoing motorboat, wrote: "Lyn was our client at both Crawley and Elmbridge Councils and was highly regarded as our client and as a leisure professional. Whilst at Elmbridge Borough Council, Lyn was instrumental in driving a major new build Leisure Centre PPP from start to finish.

"Without Lyn's sheer determination, professionalism and commercialism, this PPP project would never have got off the ground never mind being completed thus producing one of the most successful leisure centres in the country.

"Lyn would be a great asset to any organisation she worked for and I highly recommend her."

It is likely the dealing with Pure World Energy form a significant part of the probe into governanance and due diligence despite the fact the council says it is working with PWE to find a way of recouping the £20m owed. Why would the council invest in a compnay that made losses of nearly £1m in 2016, £1.8m in 2017 and £3.1m in 2018?

So too are dealings involving a company called the Just Loans Group, which went into administration earlier this year. It is linked in deals worth hundreds of millions with Thurrock Council.

The council – and Essex Police – have not ruled out a possible criminal investigation into activities at the council, though it is unlikely the police would step in until the government's inspectors have concluded their probe.