Former North Point Global director disqualified

The Insolvency Service has barred Antonio Garcia-Walker from being a company director for eight years after he misused more than £4m of investor deposits on schemes in Liverpool and Trafford.

The eight-year disqualification relates to his time as a director of Baltic House Developments and Warwick Road Developments, subsidiaries of Liverpool-based company North Point Global. 

According to the Government’s Insolvency Service, Garcia-Walker was found to have permitted Baltic House Developments to use deposits totalling £2.6m between 14 January 2016 and 25 July 2016 “to make loans and/or payments to connected companies and other third parties for purposes other than those for which the monies had purportedly been released”. 

Those deposits should have been ringfenced but instead, the money was used in a manner “contrary to the marketing material of Baltic House Developments”, the case notes said. 

Baltic House was a proposed 150-bed student accommodation scheme. Work started on site but stalled when the special purpose vehicle behind it was liquidated.  

Crossfield Exclusive, a joint venture made up of Crossfield Developments and Exclusive Investments, bought the Norfolk Street site before completing the scheme last year, creating 130 apartments. 

Warwick Road, The Element, North Point Global

The site of the stalled Element scheme in Trafford

The investigation also found that Garcia-Walker permitted Warwick Road Developments to use £2.3m of investors’ money to “make loans and/or payments to connected companies, for purposes other than those for which the monies had purportedly been released”. 

The 12-storey, 89-apartment Warwick Road development in Trafford was to be known as the Element. However, the project failed to progress when its SPV was placed into administration. 

Garcia-Walker was a director at North Point Global between April 2015 to January 2016, according to Companies House. 

In addition, Garcia-Walker was a director at Pumpfields Regeneration Company, the firm behind the stalled Metalworks development in Liverpool.

New Chinatown North Point Street

New Chinatown was another failed venture by North Point Global

Last year, the Liverpool Echo reported that the Insolvency Service had banned former North Point Global director David Choules for seven years. Choules disputes the ruling, according to the Echo. 

Lee Spencer, another North Point Global director, was banned for six years from serving as a company director in 2016. 

Garcia-Walker, Choules and Spencer were also directors of Chinatown Development Company, the firm behind a failed 800-apartment scheme in Liverpool. That site in the city centre was later acquired by Great George Street Developments. 

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