EXCLUSIVE: Oliver Davis Bankrupt – £676,225 in the Red, £21 in the Bank and Still Listed as a Company Director
shepwayvox
Kent property developer Oliver Gordon Davis has been declared bankrupt (pictured) after a London finance company took him to court. But seven years of company accounts reveal something equally concerning: nearly half a million pounds written off, loans personally guaranteed by Davis and serious doubts about whether his company can survive. Yet Companies House still lists him as a director of three businesses.
On 29 September 2026, at 10.10am, Canterbury County Court made a bankruptcy order against Oliver Gordon Davis. The order followed a petition filed on 16 December 2025 by Altus Nominees Limited, a London finance company. Davis is currently due to be automatically discharged on 29 September 2027.
Under Section 11 of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986, an undischarged bankrupt cannot act as a company director or take part in managing a limited company without court permission. Yet, as of 10 November 2026, Companies House still lists Davis as the person of significant control of Oliver Davis Group Ltd, Dace Limited and Mulberry Tree Holdings Ltd. The last is already in liquidation.
That does not prove he has broken the law. The records could be out of date, he might have obtained permission, or he may have stopped acting as a director.
Nevertheless, it raises questions.
£21 in the bank. And £720,933 to pay
Oliver Davis Group Ltd‘s latest accounts, covering the year ending 31 August 2025, were signed on 1 September 2026 and filed a week later.
They show £21 in the bank.
Not £21,000. Just £21.
Against that, the company recorded £720,933 owed to creditors within twelve months, plus another £7,502 falling due later. Its assets totalled £52,210, including £51,557 owed to it by others. After deducting everything owed, the company reported net liabilities of £676,225. In everyday English, its debts exceeded its recorded assets by more than two-thirds of a million pounds.
These are figures from 31 August 2025, not today’s bank balance. But they reveal just how precarious the company’s finances had become.
Seven years of financial decline
Oliver Davis Group started its accounts history with shareholders’ funds of £124,793 in 2019. By August 2024, that had fallen to precisely £1. A year later, the figure was £676,225 below zero.
The value recorded for its investments also collapsed, from £154,066 in 2019 to just £632 in 2025 — a fall of 99.6%. These were investments in other businesses, not cash sitting in a bank account. Changes in their recorded value do not necessarily represent equivalent cash losses.
From 2021 onwards, the company’s year-end bank balance remained remarkably small. Meanwhile, much larger amounts were owed both to and by the company. Its finances depended heavily on loans and money moving between connected businesses.
And that brings us to one of the most revealing discoveries.
Where did £473,625 go?
Buried in the small print of the 2025 accounts is an extraordinary figure.
£473,625 in loans to an associated company was written off as irrecoverable.
Put simply, Oliver Davis Group had lent money to another business in its network and concluded that this amount could not be recovered.
Which company? The accounts do not say.
In 2024, associated companies owed Oliver Davis Group £475,205. By August 2025, nothing remained outstanding from those businesses, following the substantial write-off. The published accounts do not fully explain how the difference between those two amounts was dealt with.
Was the money owed by Mulberry Tree Holdings, the failed housebuilder? Another development company? Or several businesses? We cannot establish that from the published accounts.
There is another figure worth noting. Davis himself had an outstanding balance of £37,590 under directors’ advances and credits at the end of August 2025. That is separate from the associated-company loans.
The numbers are complicated. The questions are not.
Who borrowed the money? What happened to it? And why could nearly half a million pounds not be recovered?
The personal guarantees
Another passage in the accounts makes the bankruptcy particularly significant.
Oliver Davis Group states that it prepared its accounts on the assumption it would continue operating because the director had personally guaranteed company borrowing. The same explanation appeared in its 2023 and 2024 accounts. A personal guarantee can leave a director personally responsible for company debts if the relevant terms are met.
That matters now because Davis is personally bankrupt. However, the accounts do not identify which lenders held those guarantees or the amounts covered.
There is significant uncertainty as to whether the company will remain as a going concern for a minimum period of 12 months from the date of signing the accounts.
In plain English, there was serious doubt about whether the company could survive another year.
Those accounts were signed on 1 September 2026. Twenty-eight days later, the bankruptcy order was made.
Altus Nominees: the financial connection
There is an important connection between the creditor who brought Davis’s bankruptcy proceedings and his company.
We have not identified another Altus charge in the Davis company records examined. However, company charges do not reveal every possible loan, guarantee or financial arrangement.
The connection is clear: Altus held security over Oliver Davis Group before petitioning for Davis’s personal bankruptcy. What remains unproven is whether the two arrangements concern the same debt.
A failed housebuilder and £6.68 million in claims
Davis’s financial problems extend beyond Oliver Davis Group.
Mulberry Tree Holdings Ltd, formerly Oliver Davis Homes, entered creditors’ voluntary liquidation in January 2024. By January 2026, its liquidators had received 38 unsecured creditor claims totalling £6,680,074.57. None had been agreed at that reporting date. The liquidation account held just £6,434.82. These are company claims, not automatically Davis’s personal debts.
Our June investigation also revealed £124,295 owed to Mulberry by three connected companies. The liquidators had negotiated a proposed £73,181 settlement linked to a nutrient-credit transaction, although completion had been delayed. Whether the money has since been paid remains unconfirmed.
The green business promising thousands of homes
That connection leads to another business publicly associated with Davis.
In April 2026, Ashford Borough Council announced that an environmental scheme involving Dace Environmental and Greenshank Environmental could unlock between 3,000 and 5,000 homes. A second phase could take the total to 8,000. The environmental improvements are intended to last more than 80 years.
Davis was publicly identified by the council as representing Dace Environmental.
There are two distinct businesses here.
Dace Limited still lists Davis and Rory James Brace as directors. Its accounts and confirmation statement are overdue, its registered office is now Companies House’s default Cardiff address, and it faces a proposal to strike off.
Dace Environmental Ltd, incorporated in March 2025, lists Danielle Davis, Oliver’s wife, as director and controlling shareholder. Oliver is not listed as a director. The question is whether he exercises any management control behind the scenes, potentially acting as a shadow director.
None of this establishes that Dace Environmental has acted improperly or that its environmental commitments will fail. But with thousands of homes potentially depending on these schemes, understanding who manages the business and who carries responsibility matters.
The figures tell a story. But who is accountable?
The Shepway Vox Team has investigated Davis before, including his involvement in the £1.8 million sale of Ross House to Folkestone & Hythe District Council and the problems subsequently identified with the building. His bankruptcy establishes no fresh liability arising from that transaction.
Business failure is not a crime. Nor is bankruptcy.
But accountability does not disappear simply because the money has.
Seven years of accounts reveal falling investment values, substantial loans to connected companies, nearly half a million pounds written off, personal guarantees and serious doubts about the future of Oliver Davis Group Ltd. The bankruptcy is confirmed. So are the continuing Companies House director entries.
There may be a perfectly straightforward explanation for those entries.
But when a company has £21 in the bank, £676,225 in net liabilities and its only registered director has been declared bankrupt, asking who is actually running the business is hardly unreasonable.
After all, Companies House is supposed to tell the public who runs a company.
