Ex-rock band accountant faces music over missing £2m

The former accountant for the 1970s hard rock band Deep Purple has been banned from being a director for 11 years for misappropriating company funds of at least £2m.

Dipak Rao was the former director of Deep Purple (Overseas) Ltd (DPO) and HEC Enterprises Ltd (HEC), both of which were companies responsible for managing artists’ copyrights. He resigned as a director from both companies on 24 November 2014, and they went into administration on 19 January 2016.

An investigation by the Insolvency Service found that Rao had made numerous payments from the companies’ accounts to his personal accounts between 2008 and 2014.