Email to Bank of America director and Brighton Councillor Jacob Taylor: the Nightcap scandal

Brighton Council effectively loaned the former owners of the 1-360 attraction on the seafront in woke City, £36 million and by the time it went bust a year ago, it was owed, with unpaid interest, £51 million. The loans were made when the party lead by the breast enlarger via hypnotism was in power. But the new Labour administration wrote off the entire sum as part of a deal which saw Sarah Willingham’s Nightcap pick up the 115 year lease for just £150,000.

Councillor Jacob Taylor spearheaded that deal, supported by both the town’s MPs Labour’s Peter Kyle and Green Sian Berry, praising Nightcap as “a superb company with a proven track record of successfully operating hospitality venues locally and across the country.” He also promised a full enquiry into the £51 million that had been written off. That will be amusing when it emerges.
NightCap changed its year end from July 2 to September 30 meaning that it did not need to report 15 month results to September 30 2024 until September 30th this year. But it has missed that deadline and still not filed. I have dropped Councillor Taylor an email.

Ref 1-360 and NightCap Limited

Cllr Taylor

I write regarding NightCap Limited run by Sarah Willingham which now, thanks to you, has a 115 year lease on the 1-360 which it picked up for just £150,000 with your council writing off £51 million of debt. At the time you lauded Nightcap as a “superb company.”

1. Did you do any due diligence at all on NightCap? On how it had been forced to delist from AIM, on how senior managers raided its tronc to pay for luxury ski trips, on how it was drowning in debt and repeatedly as an AIM Company missed forecasts and burned cash? Might you publish that due diligence in full?

The Shareprophets.com website which I edit published numerous articles showing that NightCap was anything other than a “superb company.” The evidence of ballooning cash burn and shareholder value destruction as well as executive greed was all out there.

2. On signing the deal, you assured residents that 1% of ticket sales would be remitted to the Council by NightCap Limited. Is Nightcap, which still appears to be drowning in debt, up to date on payments?

3. Are you aware that despite extending its year end which, in effect gave it an additional six months to file accounts, NightCap has still not filed accounts for the , extended, 15 months to 30 September 2024. It is now in breach of Companies House rules. Have you sought assurances that the company is still solvent and found out the reason for the delay?

4. Should Nightcap’s finances be so poor that it cannot honour its 115 year lease commitments would not that make the deal you negotiated involving the £51 million write off look extremely poor? Could you not have done a better deal?

I look forward to your responses.





Tom Winnifrith
www.ShareProphets.com