Ex-insolvency practitioner given two-year sentence for fraud

William Price, a former ICAEW member and insolvency practitioner, has been given a two-year prison sentence and disqualified from being a director or insolvency practitioner for seven years following a hearing at Cardiff Crown Court.

Price pleaded guilty to seven counts of fraud, two counts of theft and one count of false accounting. The offences related to the misappropriation of nearly £48,000 he received as the trustee in bankruptcy of five bankrupts and the liquidator of one company, for the benefit of their creditors and the falsification of his time sheets in relation to his administration of one bankruptcy.

They took place against the background of the restriction and withdrawal of Price’s insolvency practitioner’s licence by ICAEW. Price was banned from the profession in 2013 after a disciplinary committee tribunal found he had failed to hand over more than £88,000 to the Insolvency Service whilst handling the liquidation of an engineering company. Price was held to have caused significant loss to third parties and his behaviour judged to be serious professional misconduct.

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