Last month, international cannabis operator Cannim collapsed, calling in administrators to sift through the company’s remaining assets and attempt to find tens of millions of dollars to satisfy its increasingly frustrated creditors.
As details continue to emerge regarding Cannim’s questionable handling of finances in the run-up to its collapse, legal challenges claiming ownership of whatever remains of the company are escalating fast.
Jade Proudman, the founder and former CEO of Savage Cabbage, acquired by Cannim in 2023, has now been awarded more than £137,000 after an employment tribunal ruled that she was dismissed in breach of contract without notice.
However, Proudman told Business of Cannabis that attempts to communicate with John Worton, executive chairman of Cannim Group and existing director of Savage Cabbage, about the judgment have gone unanswered, forcing her to commence personal enforcement action in Australia.
The recovery prospects for Cannim’s creditors, owed approximately A$28 million (excluding Proudman’s disputed $7.9 million claim), now depend on an increasingly complex web of competing interests, administrators overseeing the Australian entities, receivers appointed by secured creditor Finstro now controlling trading operations, UK companies outside the administration’s purview, and potential buyers conducting due diligence.
The tribunal
The two-day hearing took place on 26-27 November 2025 at Southampton Employment Tribunal, with Judge K Richardson presiding. Proudman represented herself, while Worton appeared on behalf of Savage Cabbage Limited.
Days before (November 21), the tribunal judge moved to strike Worton out as an individual respondent, which, although opposed by Proudman, meant Worton could not be held liable as an individual respondent in an unfair dismissal case, as Savage Cabbage was technically her employer, not Worton himself.
Savage Cabbage dismissed Proudman on 4 September 2024, citing breach of her employment contract. The company claimed she had violated Clause 7, which prohibited holding ‘another business interest’ without ‘advance written agreement,’ by maintaining a 75% shareholding and directorship in Little Fish Labs Limited, a functional nutrition company.
The dismissal came two months after Proudman sent letters to Cannim Group in July and August 2024 alleging breaches of the 2023 share purchase agreement and threatening insolvency proceedings unless funding was provided to Setala Limited.
Worton admitted Proudman was given no opportunity to contest the dismissal or appeal, and ‘very frankly conceded that this was not a fair procedure.’
Employment Judge Richardson ruled the dismissal was both unfair and wrongful, finding that Clause 7 could not apply to business interests held before the employment contract was signed in September 2023, accepting evidence that even Cannim’s former CEO had invested in the company and was well aware of her involvement before the contract was signed.
“It makes no commercial sense…to put her in a situation where as soon as she executed the contract of employment she was effectively in breach of its terms,” the judge said.
The tribunal rejected Proudman’s alternative claim that she was dismissed in retaliation for threatening insolvency proceedings, noting the dismissal came more than a month after those letters and that Proudman’s own legal complaint made no such allegation.
Proudman, who has previously told us the ordeal has driven her to the brink of bankruptcy, was awarded total compensation of £137,115.66, a sum accruing interest of 8% per annum if unpaid from December 04.
Though providing legal vindication for Proudman, recovering the award from the company she founded, now ‘borderline insolvent’, is another matter.
Standard enforcement mechanisms, such as County Court enforcement, instructing bailiffs, or charging orders, require a company with assets or active trading operations to levy against.
Administrators of the Australian parent companies have indicated they have ‘no oversight’ of the UK entities, leaving Savage Cabbage and its sister company Setala Limited outside the formal insolvency proceedings underway in Australia. Companies House records show both UK companies remain on the register with active status, but with no apparent means to satisfy the judgment debt.
Under UK law, she could pursue the company through standard enforcement routes, but if the company has no recoverable assets, the judgment becomes effectively worthless.
Proudman told Business of Cannabis this has forced her to consider pursuing Worton personally under Australian corporations law, arguing that his alleged failure to fulfil UK directorship responsibilities while the companies remain live constitutes director misconduct under the Corporations Act.
“Because the company cannot seemingly settle the judgment, and that John Worton, as director, made the decisions to remove me as a director and an employee without notice, causing financial hardship, I now seek to pursue John Worton with a civil claim, on the grounds of director misconduct,” Proudman said.
Administrator’s findings reveal governance concerns
The administrators’ report, prepared by Olvera Advisors and dated 24 November 2025, reveals significant concerns about the financial management and governance of the Cannim group during the period leading up to its collapse.
The report identifies total creditor claims of approximately A$28 million (excluding Proudman’s disputed $7.9m claim), with secured creditor Finstro owed A$4.2 million and unsecured creditors, primarily holders of convertible loan notes, owed A$20 million.
Administrators determined the companies were ‘likely insolvent from at least August 2024 and likely earlier,’ based on multiple indicators, including continuing losses, liquidity ratios falling below 1.0, overdue taxes, and creditors remaining unpaid outside trading terms.
The report details A$158 million in investment write-downs recorded between FY23 and FY24, relating to failed ventures including cultivation facilities and ‘unsuccessful expansion into businesses across international markets, including the US, Germany, Jamaica, and the UK.’
Administrators identified A$456,000 in personal credit card reimbursements to directors during the four years before administration (‘relation-back period’), with A$260,776 described as payments ‘contributed to related party business expenses’, and A$195,444 listed as ‘undefined.’
The report flags potential uncommercial transactions totalling A$9m in the relation-back period, including advances to related-party investments and overseas entities. These included A$4.3 million to Jamaica Red Moon Ltd, A$316,000 to Medisun Inc (now in liquidation), and A$3 million to Cannim Canada Limited.
Administrators also raised questions about two property disposals. A 505-acre Queensland property purchased for approximately A$1.2 million in 2019 was sold for A$3.5 million in 2024, but the report notes that only A$508,000 in sales proceeds was recorded as received by Cannim Group.
A separate 488-acre Jamaican property in which Cannim Group had invested approximately A$3.9 million was sold for A$1.4 million to related parties in 2024, with no sales proceeds recorded as received. The property was subsequently listed for sale at A$9.7 million in December 2024, according to the report.
The administrators lodged a report with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) on 24 November 2025 pursuant to their obligations under Section 438D of the Corporations Act, noting potential director offences.
“Based on our preliminary investigations, the Companies were likely insolvent from at least August 2024 and likely earlier,” the administrators’ report stated, listing indicators including the deferral of convertible loan note maturity dates, failure to raise new capital since August 2024, and accumulating overdue creditor balances from January 2025 onward.
The report noted that no significant capital had been raised from convertible loan notes or other equity since August 2024, with existing loan notes having their maturity dates deferred twice.
A comprehensive sale campaign conducted during the administration attracted eight expressions of interest and progressed two parties to final-stage discussions, but no binding offers were received by the deadline. Administrators attributed this to the business being ‘difficult to transact due to the extensive licensing, compliance and regulatory requirements associated with operating in the medicinal cannabis industry.’
A creditors’ meeting to determine the future of Cannim Group and Cannim Australia, originally scheduled for 2 December, was adjourned after late expressions of interest were received. Secured creditor Finstro Securities has appointed receivers WLP Restructuring to pursue recovery of approximately A$4.2 million owed to that lender.
