Dark Horse landlord denies dispute

The landlord of the premises occupied by Dark Horse says there was no dispute, “other than his lease had run out and he was behind with his rent”.

 

Dark Horse owner Stephen Roberts cited a dispute with the landlord of the building in Mornington as the reason why he liquidated the business at 4.55pm last Friday and left the building on the same day.

 

However the landlord of the premises told Print21 that, “He hired an insolvency Rottweiler lady to hide behind, wouldn’t talk to us about his rent arrears, and basically did a bunk.”

 

The Dark Horse liquidation is causing uproar in the Melbourne printing community as it realised Roberts' fiancee Sorcha Hopmans had registered a new business, Maverick Print Group, five weeks prior, which had then allegedly received the majority of the Dark Horse printing equipment.

 

The Dark Horse premises in Mornington were shared with Australian Trade Printers, which has now also moved into the same Seaford premises as Maverick. Roberts fiancee Hopmans is sole director of Maverick and is also a director of Australian Trade Printers.

 

Dark Horse was established in 2005 and had around 20 staff.