Two company directors have been disqualified after failing to keep adequate accountancy records.
They were directors of a firm which was incorporated in 2007 and acted as investment adviser to an arts fund. The fund was unsuccessful and one of the directors resigned in March 2009. The company ceased trading in October 2009.
The only formal accounts were to 31 January 2008.
The company went into liquidation and an application was issued for the directors to be disqualified. Following an investigation they were disqualified for a minimum period of two years. The deputy registrar found that they had failed to keep accurate records and failed to deliver the records to the liquidator.
One of the directors accepted the decision but the other appealed, saying that the deputy registrar had not properly proved that his misconduct justified a finding of unfitness.
However, the judge ruled that the deputy registrar had followed the correct procedure when making his decision.
He said the failure to maintain adequate accounting records made it very difficult, if not impossible, to fully understand the financial position of the company.
While the findings, taken individually, may not have meant the directors were unfit, the cumulative effect was serious enough to justify the disqualification. The appeal was dismissed.
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