A recruitment executive who bought back his failed company's assets in instalments after it collapsed owing nearly £3m has now placed the new firm into liquidation, having quickly fallen behind on the repayments he had promised. The case highlights renewed concern over "phoenixism", the legal but contentious practice of liquidating a company to let its directors relaunch debt-free under a new entity, which HMRC estimates costs UK taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds annually.

Premier Group Recruitment entered administration in September 2025 owing £2.9m, including £647,000 to HMRC. Three days later its assets were bought by PGGBR Ltd, a new company set up by Andrew Woosnam, Premier's 99% shareholder, who paid £10,000 upfront and pledged a further £600,000 in monthly instalments over two years. PGGBR has since made redundancies affecting at least half its staff, with reports that those let go were not paid, while Woosnam – who took a £1.2m director's loan and almost £2m in dividends from Premier – is reportedly planning to launch another new company. Research cited in the article, including a 2014 UK government-commissioned study, shows insolvencies involving connected-party buybacks with deferred payments fail at more than double the rate of other cases.