Dealing with tragedy

As the grim discoveries continue at the burned out Shropshire home of millionaire Christopher Foster, the events that have unfolded there must be proving a truly testing experience for the local liquidators Butcher Woods, who had been in charge of his assets.

There can be few practitioners who have found themselves in a similar position. I know insolvency people who have dealt with gangsters, international pop stars, Nazi apologists, football stars and top politicians, but none that have seen the key individual, and his family disappear, and the assets destroyed quite so tragically.

Rod Butcher and Adrian Woods, who founded and run the practice in Birmingham, will have to draw on all their experience to get through the next few weeks. They will, of course, take the police through their work in detail, but nothing they have done so far in their working lives will have prepared them for being involved in what is clearly an appalling tragedy. As hard as being a liquidator, administrator, or trustee in bankruptcy is, no one expects to deal with circumstances like these.

While their experience cannot be compared to that of the family of the Forsters, I can only imagine that these events must create some of the hardest professional circumstances imaginable.