The trial judge (Sir Edward Evans-Lombe) granted the application: the directors were found to have displayed a "serious lack of commercial probity". His decision is of interest because he commented on the scope of the courts' discretion under Section 124A following the Court of Appeal decision Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform v Amway (UK) Ltd [2009] EWCA Civ 32. His Lordship observed (at para. [61]):
... the judge hearing such a public interest petition has a complete discretion as to whether to make a winding up order in the light of the facts, including past conduct, existing at the time the petition comes to be heard and including the fact that, at the time of the hearing, undertakings are being offered by the company to seek to ameliorate criticisms of that conduct and to indicate an intention, in the future, to change it for the better. It will be a rare case where the court declines to make a winding up order where the Secretary of State has rejected the undertakings and pressed for a winding up order. Nonetheless it is open to the court in such a rare case to do so where the facts, in the court's judgment, require it".
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