The entrepreneur behind a botched rescue deal for parcel courier Yodel has been criticised for leaving behind a trail of debts worth millions of pounds.
Jacob Corlett has been accused by workers and suppliers of leaving them to bear the brunt of the collapse of one of his other delivery businesses, Shift Trading.
Company filings reveal Shift Trading, which lists Mr Corlett as a director, collapsed in July last year with more than £8m owed to more than 100 creditors, including £2.2m to HMRC.
Others include smaller logistics companies across the UK, some of which are owed more than £130,000.
One supplier, who claims to be owed tens of thousands of pounds from Shift, said the missing payments have had a “devastating impact” on their business.
It is understood creditors are particularly outraged after Shift held video calls with suppliers last year, promising to make payments in full.
At the time, Shift bosses claimed the Yodel takeover would free up cash and create more work, although this never materialised.
The Telegraph understands that a large group of creditors have now banded together to explore ways of retrieving their cash.
The revelations increase pressure on Mr Corlett amid growing questions over his botched takeover of Yodel, which fell apart in June 2024 after just five months.
The collapse of Shift Trading also raises questions about the Barclay family’s initial decision to sell Yodel to Mr Corlett for £1. The deal was completed just months before his Shift Trading business collapsed.
Mr Corlett was a relative unknown at the time of the transaction, yet he was hailed as a “white knight” for saving thousands of jobs at the Liverpool-based business.
He stepped in after Yodel was pushed to the brink of insolvency under the Barclays, who sold the business in a cut-price deal after coming under pressure from their lenders at HSBC.
However, the deal quickly fell apart. Mr Corlett resigned from Yodel’s board in June 2024 and sold his stake to chief executive Mike Hancox.
The botched takeover has since sparked a bitter legal battle between Mr Corlett and Yodel, with the entrepreneur accused of extracting millions of pounds from the business under the cover of “spurious invoices”.
Yodel, which is now owned by Mr Hancox, has also claimed the entrepreneur tried to evade tax by funnelling money into an offshore company that listed Mr Corlett and his mother as directors.
Mr Corlett has rejected the claims and instead accused Mr Hancox of forcing him into selling his stake. He has launched a counter-claim alleging Mr Hancox rowed back on an agreement to hand over lucrative shares.
Mr Corlett has sought to blame Shift’s financial struggles on the decision by Yodel to cancel all existing contracts with the business, while also claiming he has fallen victim to a “smear campaign”.
Despite the collapse of his Shift Trading company, Mr Corlett’s other Shift-branded businesses are still trading.
He said: “Seven months ago we completed a restructure after the Yodel merger was cancelled without notice. Yodel cancelled all contracts with Shift and didn’t pay outstanding balances, topics which are the subject of litigation.
“As has been previously reported, Shift refocused the business away from B2C [business to consumer] to focus on its technology platform for Carriers and its Locker Network and it is now trading profitability at a cash level.
“The recent press interest in Shift, and today’s questions regarding its historic corporate activity, has led the board to believe there is a smear campaign in motion to distract from other legal proceedings against Yodel’s chief executive, Mike Hancox, and questions over Yodel’s true ownership.”
Mr Corlett is now attempting to regain majority control of Yodel with the help of his investors, who include the Duke of Norfolk, Edward Fitzalan-Howard, who was responsible for the state funeral of Elizabeth II in 2022 and the coronation of the King the following year.
Other high-profile backers include Lord Nash, a Tory peer and venture capitalist.
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