Optometrists chase payment from Baxter & Cooke domiciliary

A group of four optometrists are attempting to gain payments from domiciliary firm Baxter & Cooke Ltd of Bromsgrove, Worcestershire which is in insolvency proceedings.

The practitioners, who are owed thousands of pounds in total, received letters as creditors from The Insolvency Advisory Service (IAS) in Hook, Hampshire in late May, stating it was ‘considering various options with our clients (Baxter & Cooke Ltd), pursuant to the Insolvency Act 1986’.
Two of the four practitioners, optometrists Tom Fitzpatrick and Tim Watson have taken Baxter and Cooke Opticians, run by optometrist Corey Baxter and dispensing optician John Cooke, to court and have obtained judgements against Baxter & Cooke. Another, Gurdip Singh is in the process of legal action.

A check at Companies House reveals that the two directors, Baxter and Cooke are now partners of OptiCall LLP, incorporated on May 10, which operates from the same premises in Bromsgrove.

In his case, Fitzpatrick of Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, won an interim third party debt order at Birmingham County Court for the sum of £5,895 on May 15, but the application for a final order to be heard on June 30 was cancelled.

‘We all feel especially aggrieved as we had all worked with the company through a period of financial instability due to a failed expansion programme, each of us being assured that we would be paid once the company’s fortunes improved. Instead, we are thousands of pounds out of pocket and have, certainly in my case, had to endure real financial hardship as a result,’ said Fitzpatrick.

Worcester-based optometrist Watson had a Notice of Judgement Entered in the Northampton County Court against Baxter and Cooke Opticians on May 9. In his case, the claim was for a sum of £715.

He added: ‘Numerous calls to IAS have revealed absolutely no mention of any payments being forthcoming.
‘The news that following the demise of Baxter & Cooke the company has apparently re-emerged under the new title of OptiCall LLP is irksome in the extreme.’

Fitzpatrick added that he had also made a complaint to the Association of Optometrists.