Documents show HMRC is claiming more than £472,000 while British Gas are claiming just under £80,000
Gill Harris with a picture of her mother Mary Evans(Image: Liverpool Echo)
“It was money that was rightfully hers. He made me feel awful and accused me of harassing him. How am I harassing you when it’s money you owed?”
Gill Harris’s mum Mary Evans was a resident in Corona House, a care home in Birkenhead run by Brighter Bloom Healthcare Group. She said the business had previously been good at responding to issues but in August 2024, she realised her mum was paying money she shouldn’t be for her care.
This is because Gill hadn’t realised Wirral Council were now covering the cost of her mum’s care, which had been paid for previously with money from the sale of Mary’s house. More than £4,500 was taken from her bank account.
When Gill realised double payments were being made for her mum’s care, emails seen by the ECHO suggest there was a months-long battle to get the money back. She wasn’t paid until April 2025, several months after her mum died in November.
When Gill first raised the £4,544 she was owed, the emails she provided to the ECHO suggest she repeatedly raised the situation with the company but was told the matter needed to be investigated. Brighter Bloom’s solicitor Peter Sealey claimed “within two weeks of my and Tom being aware of the claim it was paid in full with no disagreement” but the emails suggest Tom Donohue, the company director, was aware in November.
The situation continued after her mother’s death in November 2024 where the company told Gill she needed to apply for probate. However, probate is often not considered necessary if the person who died only had savings.
Gill wasn’t the only one in dispute with Brighter Bloom at the time. In January, a winding up petition was filed against the company by HMRC. While it didn’t comment on individual cases, HMRC said they “only file winding-up petitions once we’ve exhausted all other options in order to protect taxpayers’ money.”
Gill’s emails went back and forth, eventually being passed onto lawyers. Despite assurances that the legal action by HMRC was “old news and does not reflect the business” in February, the company said it couldn’t release the money yet and there was disruption as the company was moving to new accountants.
In February, Gill wrote an email detailing her frustration, how she felt fobbed off and wanted closure. Later that month, a letter was sent to Gill from Mr Donohue saying due diligence had to be carried out and told her “please refrain from harassing my employees and the group as a whole, as you are delaying and causing unnecessary defamatory regard without warrantee.”
Gillian Harris said she had had sleepless nights over the dispute(Image: Liverpool Echo)
She was promised the money would be paid but this didn’t happen until April after Gill said she would approach Begbies Traynor, an insolvency firm advising Brighter Bloom at the time. She believes this was the only reason she was paid.
She told the ECHO: “It took so many months and he could have just paid it like that. There were excuses in every step of the way. It was horrible.
“It was money that was rightfully hers. He made me feel awful and accused me of harassing him. How am I harassing you when it’s money you owe?”
She said the doubts over the money meant she hadn’t been able to properly deal with her mum’s death, adding: “I was distraught thinking if they are going to sort it. We cleared every hurdle along the way. I have had sleepless nights.”
She added: “To start with they did well and after then, they have gone down hill. They have lost all the staff bar one. Staff who had been there for 15 years, all of them gone.”
In Gill’s case, Brighter Bloom’s solicitor Peter Sealey said it was historic, adding: “You only have one side of the story and time does not permit me to go into matters which frankly are now irrelevant.”
According to documents produced by insolvency firm Begbies Traynor for Brighter Bloom in April, the money claimed by HMRC is now more than £472,000 while British Gas are claiming just under £80,000. An agency care home company called Love to Care is listed as a creditor too, claiming it is owed more than £91,000, though this claim is understood to be disputed by Brighter Bloom.
The company has also had nine county court judgments, a court order requiring someone to pay a debt, filed against it since April 2024. According to a Trust Online search on May 14, six of these are unsatisfied and a September 2024 assessment by business data firm Red Flag Alert suggested the business could be deemed high risk due to a low credit score.
Brighter Bloom Healthcare Group said it was in negotiations with HMRC over its debts(Image: Copyright Unknown)
When the ECHO reported in March HMRC were taking legal action, Brighter Bloom said the HMRC debt was “the only liability of any significance.” The company said HMRC had approved a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) which would outline how the company would pay back debts.
The arrangement put forward by the company proposed paying back the debt over 60 months. The document seen by the ECHO said the agreed claims with British Gas and HMRC would be paid in full.
However this CVA, dated March 26, seen by the ECHO and confirmed by the company, was rejected in April by HMRC as well as British Gas and Love to Care. A revised offer put forward by the company was also rejected.
The case has been adjourned until June 4 after Brighter Bloom claimed they have an investor who will be able to pay off all of the debts. If no agreement is reached, the company will be wound up.
Brighter Bloom currently operates three care homes in Hoylake, Prenton, and Birkenhead as well as a training hub in Hoylake. According to the CVA in March, the company had over 40 residents paid for by Wirral Council and one paid for by Rochdale with 52 full time staff and 60 agency staff.
While the company’s revenue grew from over £500,000 in its first year to £2.1m by September 2024, the CVA said it’s also seen accumulating losses and Companies House accounts suggest money owed to creditors had increased significantly.
Brighter Bloom was paid more than £2m by Wirral Council for health and social care services in the last year(Image: Liverpool Echo)
According to the CVA, the company claims its issues started after its financial director left in December 2022. Since December 2022, payment records show Wirral Council has also paid more than £3m to the company for health and social care services, much of this in the last year with £2m paid between April 2024 and May 2025.
A Wirral Council spokesperson said: “Wirral Council Adult Social Care has a robust Contract and Quality management system to ensure the safety of residents. Quality checks are currently underway and this includes working closely with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to ensure resident safety. The comfort and wellbeing of residents remains our top priority.
“As with all commissioned care providers, payments are checked and validated on a monthly basis to ensure that public funds are spent on delivering high quality care to residents.”
Mr Donohue, the company director, has previously run a number of businesses. After his car and ice cream business Frozen Moments were targeted by vandals, Mr Donohue he told the Wirral Globe in March this year he owned seven businesses and employed 150 people.
While Brighter Bloom still remains open for business, a similarly named company was set up the same day the CVA was rejected. Company lawyer Peter Sealey said it was “part of a planned reorganisation in line with addressing HMRC’s management concerns.”
In April, there was an application to strike off the business behind Frozen Moments, The Thomas Donohue Group Ltd, just over a year after it was set up. However on May 21, Companies House shows this was not allowed to go ahead as “cause has been shown why the above company should not be struck off the register.”
Before starting Brighter Bloom, Companies House suggests at least six companies linked with Mr Donohue all opened and closed within a short period of time. Mr Donohue was the sole director of each company bar two.
On top of this, a disputed claim has been put forward by the landlord for two of the company’s care homes Hilbre House and Hilbre Manor. Delrose McManus, the director of Hilbre Commercial Properties Limited, is currently taking legal action against the company claiming £54,000.
Brighter Bloom had taken over the homes including turning one from an inadequate rating to good but Ms McManus is claiming in 2021 she provided a loan of £30,000. According to her particulars of claim, she discussed with Mr Donohue paying this back “but despite various assurances from the defendant that the loaned sum would be repaid, no repayment has been forthcoming.”
Ms McManus also claims she is owed money from consultancy fees of £23,000 and payments were made for three months between July and September 2022. According to the CVA, the company never entered a consultancy agreement over the payments and the company has been in a two-year legal battle over the properties.
The CVA said the landlord had contacted the council and CQC “advising that [Brighter Bloom] are offering poor levels of care and in breach of [Brighter Bloom’s] obligations due to the Company’s financial problems, seemingly to try and cause problems so that they can get the lease back. Cease and desist letters have been issued against both parties for defamatory slander against the company.”
In Brighter Bloom’s defence against the claim, they point to a previous company run by Ms McManus entering liquidation in 2022 and when the company took over Hilbre Manor, it was losing money with investment needed for maintenance and repairs. They claim the £30,000 loan was due to be paid at the end of Brighter Bloom’s 10-year lease.
Regarding the claim related to consultancy fees, Brighter Bloom argued in the defence Ms McManus “was the last person that the Defendant would have wanted to engage to deal with day to day management of Hilbre House and Hilbre Manor” and Brighter Bloom had no need for a consultant.
The company did acknowledge it made three payments which were directed to a charity but said they were not for consultancy services or part of any contractual arrangement. Brighter Bloom claim in the court document this was to keep Ms Manus “happy and quiet.”
When the ECHO put all of its findings to Brighter Bloom, Mr Sealey said the CVA seen by the ECHO was accurate but negotiations were ongoing behind the scenes. He accused HMRC of “jeopardising the homes of residents and thereby writing off the taxation arrears rather than take the commercial view that the CVA even in its original form provided a payout of 100% of the debt.”
At the upcoming hearing on June 4, he said: “We will be submitting a revised proposal to deal with the managerial concerns that HMRC have expressed and ensured the interests of the residents are put to the forefront.”
Nichola Thompson, Rochdale Borough Council’s director of adult social care, said: “Wirral Council is the lead authority on this issue and we wouldn’t comment on individual cases.”
It’s understood Begbies Traynor are no longer advising the company after the CVA was rejected. The firm was also approached for comment and British Gas declined to comment.