Newcastle childcares ordered to close after found insolvent by court

Two Newcastle childcare businesses have been ordered to close after a court found they were unable to pay their debts.

Financial issues plaguing The Little Unicorn on Honeysuckle and The Little Unicorn Charlestown surfaced after the centres told families they would not open their doors with less than a day's notice last week.

At the Thursday, September 17, hearing in the Supreme Court of Victoria, Judicial Registrar Woronczak ordered both companies to be wound up in insolvency and appointed a liquidator.

In the Honeysuckle case, the plaintiff's solicitor said, based on information they read on social media, they believed the centre and its Charlestown location had been shuttered and left behind "aggrieved staff".

Judicial Registrar Woronczak said it was not apparent what directly caused the last-minute closure of the two centres.

The court ordered the plaintiff's adjournment costs from September 9 of $1000 to be included in the winding-up costs.

In both the Honeysuckle and the Charlestown case, no parties opposed the wind-up order.

Director of The Better Clean Team, Fiona Morris, brought the wind-up application against the childcare companies in May after she said she was owed $12,000 in unpaid cleaning fees and debt collection costs.

Since taking legal action, Ms Morris said The Little Unicorn centres had paid back the full amount owed to her.

"The educators and families deserved better," Ms Morris told the Newcastle Herald on Thursday.

Accounting firm PKF Sydney initially joined the Honeysuckle application as a supporting creditor, claiming more than $39,000 in unpaid debt. Court documents show it had since resolved the matter with the childcare company.

The NSW Workers Compensation Nominal Insurer replaced Ms Morris as the main plaintiff for the Charlestown site, claiming the centre owed it more than $30,000.

Court documents from September 9 showed that Paul Johnston was the sole director of the Honeysuckle site but a joint director with his daughter, Amy Neary, at the Charlestown site.

The Herald understands Ms Neary was also the general manager of the two childcare locations.

The NSW Early Learning Commission was notified of the closure of the Honeysuckle site by the approved provider last week and it had also received a temporary closure notification for the Charlestown location, the Herald understands.

In an online response to the Herald, Ms Neary said she made the difficult and "heartbreaking" decision to resign from her role with The Little Unicorn more than a week ago after a "particularly challenging professional period".

"I was not involved in the decision to close The Little Unicorn Honeysuckle and only became aware of the closure this afternoon through members of the community," she said last Wednesday.