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Company director disqualified for seven years, after failing to deliver up company accounts to the Liquidator (7 March 2017)

Date: 07/03/2017
Duncan Lewis, Crime Solicitors, Company director disqualified for seven years, after failing to deliver up company accounts to the Liquidator

A company director has been disqualified for seven years after an investigation found he had breached his statutory obligation to co-operate with the Liquidator and deliver the company’s accounting records.

Christopher Ireland, 34, from Dundee was the director of Scotboys Group Plc.

The company was incorporated to provide wired telecommunications and travel agency activities.

On 22 September 2015, Scotboys Group Plc was placed into compulsory liquidation with liabilities of £52,106, following a winding up petition lodged by Direct Response Limited.

Mr Ireland was the sole director of Scotboys Group Plc at the time.

Following the Liquidator’s appointment, the investigation found that, as a consequence of Mr Ireland’s failure to co-operate and deliver the company’s accounting records, it was not possible to verify why Scotboys Group Plc had failed to meet the legal requirements of a Plc or the true nature of the company’s trading business and history.

Investigators were also unable to establish the financial position of the company at any given time, between incorporation on 7 August 2013 and its Liquidation on 22 September 2015.

It was also not possible to establish what had become of unpaid goods supplied by creditors, totalling £24,958.

The Insolvency Service said that Mr Ireland had given an undertaking to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy that he would not act as a director of a company for a period of seven years from 21 March 2017.

Head of Company Investigation at the Insolvency Service, Robert Clarke, said:

“Keeping proper records is a pivotal duty for directors – and there is no place in the business environment for those who neglect their responsibilities in this area and thereby cover up the activities of the companies they manage. The lack of records in this case made it impossible to determine whether there was other more serious misconduct at Scotboys Group Plc – and that is reflected in the lengthy period of disqualification. This ban should serve as a reminder to any directors tempted to do the same – the Insolvency Service will vigorously investigate you and seek to remove you from the marketplace.”

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