Morning all, this is Tom Riley, and welcome back to The Fast Charge, a British EV newsletter.
Today, I bring you an update on a story I first covered just over a year ago: the collapse of Green.TV Media.
Here’s some context as a reminder…
For many years, Green.TV was a central fixture of Britain’s EV landscape. Set up by Ade Thomas, his sustainability media company ran initiatives like World EV Day and Top Women in EV, the trade publication ElectricDrives, and hosted an annual EV Summit.
Ade’s outfit was generally the go-to EV media brand. The company was supported by major businesses, including Autotrader, Nissan, Octopus, Cox, EY and many others. But on 15 August 2025, HMRC presented a winding-up petition against Green.TV Media Limited over unpaid taxes, with a court hearing set for 1 October.
A month later, the EV Summit went ahead in Oxford. On its final day (18 September 2025), Ade signed a statement of affairs to begin liquidating the business. The next day (19 September), he set up a new company, Electricglobalmedia Limited. That same day, the petition was published in The Gazette, and it wasn’t long before staff became aware.
The following week, on 26 September 2025, the company entered liquidation, leaving debts of more than £650,000. Most of that is owed to HMRC, with the rest owed to suppliers and freelancers.
I’ve written many stories in this newsletter, but the ones about Green.TV brought a huge response. Many came from team members who’d lost their jobs, suppliers who hadn’t been paid, former colleagues, and sponsors trying to avoid being caught up in the unfolding drama.
For those involved, the whole episode was distressing. Though the real anger across the industry was that Ade not only shut Green.TV, but that he was able to buy back the company’s assets through his new company. This practice, known as “phoenixing”, isn’t in itself illegal. Though it has meant that taxpayers lost out on a huge sum, and former staff and suppliers have also lost out.
Meanwhile, Ade has been able to carry on. Through his new company, he has since set up the World EV Forum. And despite the history of Green.TV, this new enterprise has attracted a large number of senior leaders to its council, and sponsors including Applegreen, Geotab and the law firm BCLP.
So, what’s new today?
Last month, Green.TV’s liquidator, Arafino Advisory, filed its first annual progress report at Companies House. It sheds new light on what happened to the company’s money, and on the action the liquidators are taking against Ade.
Let’s begin with the director’s loan…
According to the report, Green.TV’s records showed its former director (Ade) owed it £59,044.68 through an overdrawn director’s loan account. Put simply, that’s money taken out of the company that wasn’t salary or dividends, and that must be paid back.
In the report, Arafino says the figure has been disputed by Ade, and that solicitors Brecher LLP have been instructed to recover it. The liquidators add that they “hope to agree a settlement of the claim shortly”. This follows my disclosure in May, when Arafino told a creditor it was “taking action against the director”. This is the first time the nature of that action has been made public.
Next up, the missing cash…
When Ade signed Green.TV’s statement of affairs, he listed £40,460 as cash at the bank. However, when the liquidators closed the company’s accounts, they recovered just £256.69.
I asked Arafino whether the missing money in the company account and its own claim were linked. A spokesperson told me:
“The two matters are related but distinct. Part of the difference you refer to is reflected in an increase in the director’s loan account claim, which the Joint Liquidators are currently pursuing. As those claims are ongoing, I’m not able to comment further.”
In other words… the claim against Ade may now be higher than £59,044.68, because part of the cash shortfall has been added to it. Though Arafino didn’t say how much.
As I reported at the time, former Green.TV employees alleged that, in the final month before the collapse, a “five-figure” transfer was made from company accounts to Ade’s personal account. Ade did not respond to questions about it at the time. The liquidators’ report does not refer to the allegation.
Bought back for £10,000…
What we now know from the new liquidator update is that Ade’s new company, Electricglobalmedia, bought back Green.TV’s business, brand and client base for £10,000. The deal completed on 1 October 2025.
More in fees than it paid…
One unsettling thing in the report is that Arafino has made an agreement so that Electricglobalmedia could help collect money owed to Green.TV from its customers, in return for 20% of whatever it recovered.
According to the liquidators’ report, Electricglobalmedia has earned fees from this which total £12,860.40, which is more than it paid for the business. Though, it states they haven’t been paid yet.
Not a penny to creditors…
More than a year on, no creditor has received any money. HMRC has claimed £507,528 in unpaid VAT and PAYE. Six other creditors have claimed £152,746 between them. Elsewhere, it’s now clear former staff were paid some of what they were owed by the government’s Redundancy Payments Service, which caps payments at £719 a week.
Meanwhile, as their work continues, Arafino has asked creditors to approve an increase in its own fees, from £41,065 to £71,205 plus VAT.
What happens now?
Arafino has sent a report on the conduct of Green.TV’s directors to the Insolvency Service, as all liquidators have to do. These reports are confidential, and the Insolvency Service has until September 2028 to decide whether to seek to disqualify a director or not.
When I approached Ade and said I was writing a story about the liquidators’ report, he responded from his World EV Forum account with…
“No comment.”
I remain blocked by him on LinkedIn.
By Tom Riley | Add me on LinkedIn | Drop me an email
Btw… Apologies, the editions have been quite sporadic in nature over the past few months. I have been working on a big bit of research, something I’ve never done before but always wanted to do. It will be published very soon!