Carole Middleton criticized for the galling way she screwed over vendors, creditors

I still can’t get over the story, this weekend, about a “malicious poster campaign” in Bucklebury. Carole and Michael Middleton’s business, Party Pieces, went bankrupt earlier this year, and the dying shell of PP was sold off for pennies on the dollar. The Middletons stiffed creditors for over £2.5 million, including government loans, bank loans and tons of small businesses which had extended credit to Carole specifically because she is the “future queen’s mother.” Carole left a lot of anger and debt in the wake of her financial mismanagement. Now someone is putting posters up all around Bucklebury, demanding that the Middletons pay their creditors. The Middletons own a £5 million manor home in Bucklebury as well as commercial real estate in the area. Well, I just wanted to follow up with the Sun’s exclusive coverage, which had a couple of other quotes and an interesting aside:

Kate Middleton’s parents are the target of a cruel poster campaign — after the collapse of the family party business. Malicious messages have been put up on lampposts and trees around the couple’s home village, with Kate’s brother James seen tearing some down. Angry suppliers are still owed money after the closure of Party Pieces, which was sold by Kate’s mum Carole, 68, and dad Michael, 74, shortly before it went bust earlier this year. Some want the couple — also parents to Pippa, 40 — to pay debts out of their own pockets.

However locals have been appalled by the posters, plastered around Bucklebury, where the family have lived for several decades, and the neighbouring West Berks village of Yattendon.

A source said: “Carole and Michael are incredibly popular. Everyone is horrified by these posters. It’s unfair to do this in their home village, just yards from where they live. Their son James lives nearby and so does Pippa who has moved around there recently with her family so they all have to be confronted by this. They are doing their best to make things right and don’t deserve this kind of abuse.”

Carole, a former British Airways stewardess, was said by a friend to be “desperately sad” to see the company flounder under “a new management team”. Pals claimed she was trying to make sure creditors were paid. Kate’s parents are believed to have stepped away from the day-to-day running of the firm several years ago.

However suppliers have criticised the couple for the “galling” way invoices were left unpaid before the firm went bust, and have called on them to pay outstanding debts. The administrator’s report made it clear that creditors — including small companies supplying balloons, toys and party bags — were unlikely to be repaid cash owed.

[From The Sun]

Here’s my thing – in all of the analysis and ass-covering after Party Pieces crashed, it was clear that Carole was desperately trying to say that she handed the management of PP over to other people years ago. That was directly contradicted by vendors and creditors, who said Carole was personally contacting them in recent years, promising them that they would be paid eventually. “Suppliers have criticised the couple for the ‘galling’ way invoices were left unpaid before the firm went bust” – in fact, the Middletons continued to rack up even more and more debt because Carole was making personal promises to small businesses, vendors and banks. “Carole and Michael are incredibly popular. Everyone is horrified by these posters.” The Middletons fancy themselves the king and queen of Bucklebury and their house of cards collapsed. There are businesses within Bucklebury affected by PP’s collapse as well, so no, I don’t think the Middletons are really “incredibly popular.” I would imagine the village has been highly amused, actually. I still think it’s interesting that the coronation was the last time anyone saw Carole – she’s been in hiding for months now. She’s humiliated and she deserves it.

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Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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