{"id":958899,"date":"2026-05-14T08:41:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T08:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/958899\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T08:41:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T08:41:17","slug":"bristol-ambulance-firm-facing-collapse-over-1m-tax-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/958899\/","title":{"rendered":"Bristol ambulance firm facing collapse over \u00a31m tax bill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The winding\u2011up petition brought by HMRC appears to relate to an alleged dispute over unpaid VAT. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Robin Hughes, branch secretary of Unison South West Ambulance, said he was &#8220;disturbed&#8221; by the situation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It begs the question of whether this area is being properly regulated, and whether the people who commission these services are paying close enough attention to what is going on,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Pillinger has been approached for a comment in relation to the claim by HMRC that his company owes more than \u00a31m in VAT.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He told staff in a memo on Wednesday that the company faced some financial pressures as a result of a reduction in how frontline A&amp;E staff operate.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Pillinger described the HMRC winding-up petition as a &#8220;serious matter &#8230; being actively managed with support of partners&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He added: &#8220;I am pleased to confirm that all critical financial commitments, including wages &#8230; through the end of May, are fully supported.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Importantly, there has already been strong interest from a number of established operations within our sector regarding a potential investment in or acquisition of the business.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Pillinger also promised minimal disruption to staff and patients.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In a statement HMRC said it could not comment on businesses due to taxpayer confidentiality laws but added: &#8220;We take a supportive approach to dealing with customers who have tax debts and only file winding-up petitions once we&#8217;ve exhausted all other options, in order to protect taxpayers&#8217; money.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The winding\u2011up petition brought by HMRC appears to relate to an alleged dispute over unpaid VAT. Robin Hughes,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":958900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-958899","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116572041557927876","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=958899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/958900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=958899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=958899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=958899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}