Town MD Ian Milne says the club’s appearance on a Ministry of Justice list of companies being issued with winding-up orders today was a "mistake" relating to an automated process at a service provider and will be dismissed at this morning’s hearing.
"What happened was that a service provider issued a court petition for non-payment between Christmas and New Year whereby their automated processes accelerated this action, despite an agreement for payment to be made in early January,” Milne told Radio Suffolk.
"The creditor subsequently withdrew the petition on receipt of payment and this will be dismissed at the hearing today.
"If they issue a court order then the only way it can be dismissed is back in the court, and that’s what’s being heard today. It’s a storm in a teacup because it was paid at Christmas.”
He added: "I totally understand [fans’ concerns, but] it’s the way the court system deals with these things. It’s listed and it’s listed because it’s the only way to dismiss the application.
"It was a round the Christmas period and they’ve got this automated process between Christmas and New Year when they shouldn’t have done because everything was tied up before then but they still went ahead with it. We got a letter in early January saying we’d paid in full and the application will be dismissed.
"It’s regrettable. Certainly, we don’t like this sort of thing happening and we do try to pay people on time.
"It was a mistake by the service provider because there was an agreement to pay which we duly met."
He says the matter is not an indication of any underlying financial trouble at Portman Road.
"Marcus Evans still continues to put a lot of money into the club,” he continued. "We’re doing well with our attendances, our corporate hospitality, so it’s business as usual. This is just a glitch that hopefully has been explained as a non-event.”
A club spokesperson told TWTD in a statement: "A service provider issued a court petition for non-payment between Christmas and New Year whereby their automated process accelerated this action despite an agreement for payment to be made early January.
"The creditor subsequently withdrew the petition on receipt of payment and this will be dismissed at the hearing today.”