Crime Solicitors

The director of a plant hire company has been disqualified as a director for a period of seven years for failing to ensure that adequate books and records of the company were maintained, preserved and/or delivered up to the Liquidator.

A&P Melvin Plant Hire Limited was incorporated on 6 February 2008 and its registered office was 34 Irby Road in the Wirral.

Patrick Melvin, 65, from Liverpool was the sole director of A&P Melvin Plant Hire Limited from incorporation until the company ceased trading.

The company went into Liquidation on 12 December 2013, with an estimated deficiency of £322,667.

The matters of unfitness that Mr Melvin did not dispute in the disqualification undertaking were that he failed to ensure that adequate books and records were prepared, maintained and/or delivered up to the Liquidator in respect of A&P Melvin Plant Hire Ltd for the period after 28 February 2012.

The failure to ensure that adequate books and records of the company were maintained, preserved and/or delivered up to the Liquidator means it has not been possible to ascertain the ownership and whereabouts of various assets of the company – including at least 36 vehicles which had been identified as having been insured in the name of the company as at 1 November 2012.

It has also not been possible to ascertain the purpose of numerous transactions made from the company’s bank account between 15 February 2013 and 22 August 2013.

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

“Directors have a duty to ensure that their companies maintain proper accounting records – and following insolvency, deliver them to the office-holder in the interests of fairness and transparency.

“Without a full account of transactions, it is impossible to determine whether a director has discharged his duties properly – or is using a lack of documentation as a cloak for impropriety.

“Mr Melvin has paid the price for failing to do that, as he cannot now carry on in business other than at his own risk.”

On 18 November 2015, the Secretary of State accepted a disqualification undertaking from Patrick Melvin, effective from 9 December 2015, for a period of seven years.

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