Frank Gilbride’s new business partner is a financial expert … so what advice would he give to the Brasso Kid?

It’s just as well the Brasso Kid Frank Gilbride is a journalist, or he’d be appearing sometime very soon in an expose in the Sunday Mail or the News of the Screws.

We’ve all seen the type of story I’m talking about - businessman leaves a trail of financial misery behind in the wake of an unexpected business collapse.

Only to resurface a short time later in some new moneymaking scheme, yet somehow remaining insulated from having to pay what he’s due to those who had their fingers burned.

It’s always amazed me how such people get away with. I can only assume it is thanks the kind financial advisers who aren’t too squeamish when it comes to casualties of the accounting process. While it might all be strictly speaking legal, it’s still just a bit unsavoury .

By coincidence, I’ve just  discovered that the Brasso Kid’s new business partner has a strong background in the financial services sector. Bernard Mooney Mellon is now Frank’s co-director in the snappily named company,  Property Solutions Scotland.

He also holds directorships in Brian Mellon Financial Services Ltd and - I kid you not - Money Wisdom Ltd. I wonder if that’s “wisdom” as in he didn’t see Frank coming. Or “wisdom” of the sort that miraculously brought Wee Brasso back from the brink of apparent financial oblivion.

I mean, I was almost starting to feel sorry for Gilbride. First Long-serving and loyal staff were shown the door without even their wages - let along any sort of redundancy money? Then there we Liquidators announcements in the Public Notices sections of the newspaper.  Now those same staff have started  long and drawn out Industrial Tribunal procedures against Gilbride in an attempt to get some sort of settlement.

Indeed, things got so bad that unpaid Newsflash utility bills were being redirected to Gilbride’s former right hand woman, Jenny Morrison - the latest insult visited upon her.

All in all it suggested the financial woes must be genuine - and maybe Gilbride really was feeling the pinch as a result of a tightening newspaper market, as he claimed here.

Forgive me, though, for being just a tad sceptical. He’s not quite in the grubber yet, is he? Indeed, he had his wife and five kids on a luxury break in Florida just days before chucking his staff on the dole with no pay off. And his children (at least the ones of school age) are all pupils at the far-from-cheap Independent School in Central Scotalnd (minimum fees £6500 per year, per child).

Then there’s the new business - complete with fancy-dan website and the proud boast that they’ll “turn your property into cash in your pocket” as well as the rather intriguing claim to “offer debt counselling from experienced advisers”.

(You what? Just let me recap here. A firm that is being run by a man who got into so much business trouble he had to lay off the staff without payment is offering … debt advice. You could not make it up).

Here’s how Property Solutions Scotland puts a gloss on what it does:

If you’re facing repossession, divorce or separation, relocation or are emigrating, we can help. If you’re having financial difficulties or have suffered a bereavement then contact us. If your dream holiday home in the sun has become a nightmare PSS can help end your worries and allow you to move on with your life with our fast and friendly, bespoke service.

Awww. It sounds really nice and cuddly, doesn’t it? Indeed, it even follows up with this absolute pearler:

We can even buy your home and rent it back to you allowing you to stay on as a tenant as part of our “sell and rent back” solution. We may even offer a rent free period. No-one needs to know you have sold , there will be no “For Sale” or “Sold” signs outside.

Jeez, that’s just soo considerate, sensitive and thoughtful.

In fact, I really must stop thinking the worst of Frank. Perhaps he really did wake up one morning and realise that Newsflash was in trouble just a fraction too late to do anything about it, thus leaving him, heartbreakingly, unable to pay his loyal staff.

And that under no circumstances whatsoever did he carefully plan events and painstakingly remove all assets and availabe cash from Newsflash before very, very carefully winding down the business.

Honest guv.