Blue star Simon Webbe’s company goes bust with £174k debt
BLUE star Simon Webbe is the latest band member to hit money trouble - as his personal company has gone bust with over £170k worth of debt.
All four members of the legendary noughties group have faced financial ruin with Lee Ryan’s personal company due to be dissolved next month after owing £69k to the taxman and bank.
Simon’s business Webbe Industries Ltd was placed in liquidation in September 2021.
According to the latest liquidators’ statement of receipts and payments filed last month, £121,259 is owed to the HMRC in corporation tax, £1,348 in VAT, and £50,000 to Metro Bank Plc.
The debt totals £172,609 and only £960 has been realised from assets with none of the creditors likely to see any of their cash.
Liquidators Quantuma Advisory Ltd are currently investigating the firm regarding “transactions through the company’s bank account”.
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The report reads: "The Joint Liquidators had carried out a review of the Company's affairs during the previous reporting period.
"This assessment revealed matters that the Joint Liquidators considered merited further investigation, which related to transactions through the Company's bank account.
"This matter is currently ongoing, with further enquiries being made with the director of the Company and the Company’s former accountant."
In 2019, Simon, 45, spoke publicly about being declared bankrupt in 2013 after admitting to blowing £40k a week because he was “too young and too busy to actually care and understand”.
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He offered advice to others to stay on a budget, adding: "There is nothing wrong with living within your means.
"It doesn't matter what your neighbours have, just live within your means and you'll be a lot happier. I'm one of those people that because I came up from nothing, it was easy to go back to nothing."
The other three band members - Lee, 40, Duncan James, 45, and Antony Costa, 42 - have also been made bankrupt.
Antony admitted in a chat with the Mail Online in 2013 that he went from earning £250k a month to £45 a week and was left homeless.
He said: "I wasn't saving any of my money along the way and I had champagne taste with lemonade money in the end.”
Duncan went bankrupt the same year as Simon and was forced to live with his mum while Lee was officially broke two years later.
Lee later admitted to pumping his millions into a complicated tax evasion scheme - and lost every penny.
The Blue singer told The Daily Star: "I put my money in one of those fabled tax avoidance schemes, which I was assured was a great idea.
"Instead my tax bill went through the roof and that was it.
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"If I'd known then what I know now, I would have run a mile from it. Hindsight is a beautiful thing.”
Simon declined to comment.