The company wanting to buy and revive the Britishvolt project in Northumberland has had its Australian offices raided by police, reports say.
An investigation into alleged tax fraud has seen the offices of Scale Facilitation and SaniteX raided. Scale Facilitation is the parent company of Recharge Industries, which has been named as the preferred bidder for Britishvolt after its collapse earlier this year.
Recharge - which denies any wrongdoing - wants to revive the Britishvolt scheme to build a battery gigafactory at Cambois, near Blyth, and create up to 3,000 jobs. But despite the deal being announced in February, it has not yet completed.
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The gigafactory scheme would create thousands of jobs in a disadvantaged area of the North East, as well as helping the UK’s net zero ambitious. But in an unfortunate echo of some of the travails that afflicted the Britishvolt project during its tumultuous efforts to get the gigafactory project off the ground, it has been reported that staff wages at the firm’s Australian offices went unpaid for two weeks. Payments are now understood to have been met.
Recharge acquired Britishvolt’s assets for £8.6m in March but has been negotiating with Northumberland County Council over the actual site as the authority has a buy-back clause over the land in the event a battery plant was not built there.
In a statement to The Journal last month, Recharge insisted the project was on track. That statement said: “We’ve developed a great working relationship with the council in a short space of time and share a joint vision for the huge benefits a gigafactory could bring to Northumberland and the wider North East. The council has been good to its word to ‘bend over backwards’ in helping us to deliver a gigafactory project on the site and the thousands of jobs it will secure.
“Recharge Industries continues to work collaboratively with the NCC and Grant Thornton has been appointed by the Council to review the valuation of the buy back and provide recommendations to them.”
The original Britishvolt scheme foundered due to its inability to attract sufficient funding for the massive outlay involved in building a gigafactory. Though Government backing of £100m had been agreed, unlocking £1.7bn from private investment groups, the funding never materialised due to the firm’s inability to meet certain milestones.
The company’s reputation had also been rocked in its early days after the revelation that its chairman and co-founder Lars Carlstrom had a conviction in Sweden for tax fraud. After Britishvolt’s collapse into administration in January, critics pointed to the firm’s lack of experience in setting up such a massive project only a few years after it had been founded.
In a statement, Recharge owners Scale Facilitation said: "We have and will continue to fully cooperate with the ATO (Australian Taxation Office) and now the AFP (Australian Federal Police). We deny any wrongdoing and will continue working with our legal and other advisors to defend any matters arising from these discussions."
Wansbeck MP Ian Lavery said: "Any development that may jeopardise or hold up the development of the gigafactory in Cambois is a concern. I have been in close touch with Mr Collard over the weekend who has assured me that the Australian tax authorities are looking at other stand-alone entities and not Recharge or Scale Facilitation.
"I remain in contact with the CEO and despite these reported concerns I remain confident that this storm will pass and progress will continue on the much needed gigafactory which will create thousands of secure well paid, secure, local jobs for the people of Wansbeck.”
A spokesman for Northumberland County Council said: "We are continuing to work closely with representatives of Recharge on a range of financial and legal points associated with this significant transaction and investment into our county. The future prosperity of this site is vitally important to us as a council, as well as the local area, the wider county and the North East region."
