A former employee handled the payments now challenged by a liquidator
The person who knew the account has left
A hypothetical business receives a preference claim relating to a customer managed by a former credit controller. Current staff know the payments arrived but cannot explain the conversations around them. Start by locating the business records and identifying what is genuinely missing. Do not fill the gaps with a confident account based only on what usually happened with other customers.
Preserve authorised records promptly
Ask the appropriate internal administrator to locate company emails, call notes and account history within authorised systems. Preserve original dates and attachments. Do not access private accounts or assume the business can retrieve every message from a former employee's personal device. Take any access or retention uncertainty to the relevant adviser rather than improvising a way around it.
Understand why context needs legal assessment
ASIC describes preference claims and available defences, including matters concerning knowledge and circumstances at the time. It recommends independent legal advice on an unresolved claim before repayment. Your lawyer needs accurate contemporaneous information to assess the position. Neither a current employee's lack of knowledge nor the former employee's absence automatically answers what the business knew when a payment occurred.
Separate records from later recollection
If the former employee is appropriately contacted, explain which events need clarification and avoid suggesting the desired answer. Record the source and date of any recollection, keeping it separate from original documents. In the hypothetical example, a remembered phone call may point to an email worth locating. It should not be silently converted into a contemporaneous note that never existed.
Tell the adviser where the gaps remain
Provide an inventory of records found, searches undertaken and unavailable material. Include uncomfortable correspondence rather than filtering the file to strengthen a preferred defence. Ask the lawyer whether additional evidence is needed and how any response should explain missing records. Do not say that no warning signs existed merely because the current team cannot locate the earlier file.
Improve the handover after addressing the claim
Assign responsibility for preserving current collection records and keeping them accessible when staff leave. CRP can help organise the account information for legal review. The immediate objective is an honest reconstruction from identifiable sources, so the response to the liquidator rests on evidence rather than an employee's departure becoming a reason to guess.