David Spencer-Percival, the recruitment entrepreneur who sold almost everything he owned to build a business empire, is facing a High Court battle against bankruptcy.
The 55-year-old founded the recruitment firm Huntress from scratch and built it into a £100 million a year business before selling his stake for a seven-figure sum. He then took an extraordinary gamble 16 years ago, selling his country home, antiques, watches and a collection of classic cars, including a Ferrari, a Bentley and two Aston Martins, to raise money for his next venture.
The proceeds helped launch Spencer Ogden, a recruitment business that became a global success before Spencer-Percival sold his stake in 2020.
His most recent recruitment venture, Life Science People, has fared less well. The company was compulsorily wound up last summer after HMRC petitioned the courts over money it was owed.
Less than three weeks after the winding up, Alexandra Vintila, who business records show was a recruitment consultant at the firm, launched proceedings seeking Spencer-Percival’s personal bankruptcy. Her creditor’s bankruptcy petition was filed at the High Court in August last year before the case was transferred to Central London County Court.
The precise nature and value of the debt claimed by Vintila is not disclosed in publicly available court records.
Spencer-Percival, who appears to be representing himself, has now taken the fight back to the High Court by launching an appeal against Vintila. The Chancery appeal was filed in July and remains open, court records show.
The case is a reminder that a director’s personal finances can come under pressure once a company has been wound up. Under government guidance for creditors, an individual or business can apply to make someone bankrupt if they are owed at least £5,000, or a share of debts totalling at least £5,000, and the process requires a £1,500 petition deposit and £352 in court costs. The guidance notes that presenting a petition can be complicated and that most people use a solicitor or other professional to do so.
Creditor petitions remain a small share of personal insolvencies. Figures from the Insolvency Service show there were 664 bankruptcies in England and Wales in July 2026, of which 132 were creditor petitions, 23 per cent lower than in July 2025, while 532 were debtor applications.
Life Science People is not the only recruitment business to have run into trouble with the tax authority. HMRC is currently chasing around £90 million in unpaid taxes after the collapse of the staffing group Challenge, another recruitment business, where four group companies in administration owe it around £34 million.
The wider backdrop is a difficult one for UK companies. BTG, the insolvency and restructuring group formerly known as Begbies Traynor, reported that the number of firms in critical financial distress rose 9 per cent to 53,756 in the three months to the end of June, compared with 49,309 a year earlier. BTG defines critical distress as companies facing severe liquidity shortages, active creditor enforcement or formal legal action such as winding-up petitions.
The scale of the gamble Spencer-Percival took to build his second business was set out in a 2014 interview with Forbes, in which he described a car collection that included a vintage Ferrari GT, a Bentley, an Aston Martin DB6, an Aston Martin DB7 and another three classic cars, joking that there was “one for each day of the week”.
Those cars, along with the country home and other possessions, were sold to fund the launch of Spencer Ogden. Twelve years on from that interview, court records show the appeal against the bankruptcy petition remains open.
