Defence Line Ltd faces a winding-up petition

The most recent insolvency notice for Defence Line Ltd is a Petitions to wind up (Companies), published 02 October 2026 in The London Gazette. The petition was presented by HM Revenue & Customs. The case is before the High Court of Justice (case CR-2026-006456 of 2026). The petition was listed to be heard on 14 October 2026 at 1030 hours — a date that has now passed, and the Gazette notice is not updated afterwards. Its last accounts filed at Companies House, to 29 September 2023, showed total assets of £266k and net assets of £77k. Those accounts were filed 36 months before the first insolvency notice, so they describe the company well before the process began. A winding-up petition asks the court to close a company and place it into compulsory liquidation, most often because a debt has gone unpaid. If the court makes a winding-up order, control passes to the Official Receiver or an appointed liquidator, the company's bank accounts are frozen and its assets are sold to repay creditors.

HMRC is the petitioning creditor, so the debt behind the petition is unpaid tax — most often VAT, PAYE or corporation tax — rather than a trade debt. HMRC petitions usually follow a long run of missed payments and ignored demands.

What happens next

At the hearing the court decides whether to make a winding-up order. Until it does, the petition can still be dismissed or withdrawn — if the debt is paid, if it is genuinely disputed on substantial grounds, if the company has a cross-claim larger than the debt, or if the court is persuaded to adjourn while a rescue or refinancing is put in place. If an order is made, the company stops trading, its bank accounts are frozen, control passes to the Official Receiver and a liquidator is appointed to sell the assets and pay creditors in the order fixed by law.

Quote case number CR-2026-006456 of 2026 and the High Court of Justice in any correspondence about the case, together with company number 12608277.