Reply To: This saga is unending but I hope it resolves like this

[Interested Bystander]

I don’t know Simon Elliott and I have never met him but I’ve known of him for a number of years because he’s friendly / friends with a fairly prominent figure in my neck of the woods. Based on my dealings with this individual, I’m not sure why Simon would want the association on any basis, but each to their own.

Given that Simon is a former director of the club who has done all right for himself compared to the majority, most supporters will trust his judgement and with it, whether he likes it or not, comes a degree of responsibility. In respect to his own judgement regarding Hilton and his public backing of him, he has been totally irresponsible.

All this, I know what I saw doesn’t wash with me. Simon is an experienced operator and he will have met people from all walks of life. In other words, by now he should have the ability to see through people and be able to establish when further clarification on a subject is required.

Putting to one side Hilton’s background, here are some topics that I would describe as basic issues which, in my eyes, should have required further investigation on Simon’s part or certainly should have raised alarm bells well before he showed his support:

The £3M which Hilton claimed to have put into Ilkeston. I can’t find one iota of evidence in their accounts to support this claim.

Hilton’s claim that any money he was putting into Scunthorpe would not be in the form of loans. This would suggest that he had his own liquid funds to hand and was not reliant on any third party. Yet if Simon had looked at the last set of accounts filed for Hilton’s company for y/e 30/06/20, he would have noticed that Hilton’s business was reliant on the best part of £2.4M worth of secured loans provided by third parties, totally at odds with how Hilton claimed he was going to be funding Scunthorpe. If Simon had also taken the trouble to see who had provided those secured loans, cross referenced their accounts with land registry records relating to the assets the loans were secured against, it would have raised a further issue which required clarification. Simon would have also noticed that the accounts were overdue due (now 18 months), the negative net worth of £455K as well as a bank balance of £2K, another red flag.

Had I been Simon, I would have checked Hilton’s own residential status too which would have raised another question.

Put it this way, if I woke up tomorrow and announced to the World that I was prepared to throw seven figures at a football club and look the part by driving a flash car, it would be on the basis that I had no loans, no mortgages and a bank balance that would make your eyes water but perhaps I’m old fashioned.

I have said it before on here and I make no apologies for saying it again, high net worth individuals, the sort who have sufficient funds to throw at football clubs are not reliant on third party funders, they are the bank. They provide the funds and they charge the interest, they don’t pay interest. They also have a tangible background which demonstrates how their wealth has come about.

I don’t think Simon is a bad person but I am undecided as to his reasons for backing Hilton. Does he have similar character flaws to Hilton’s biggest supporter or was he desperate for Hilton to come good because the spotlight and burden would no longer fall on him? Either way, he should conduct some due diligence in future before opening his mouth and if he doesn’t know how to, he should ask.

I will leave it there.