A building contractor from Irvine has been banned for seven years after failing to carry out his legal duties as a director of a limited company to keep adequate records, with an Insolvency Service investigation finding some £500,000 unaccounted for and £120,000 owing in tax
Brian Anderson Snr (was appointed a joint director of Anderson Builders Ltd in August 2014 before becoming the sole appointed director in June 2015. The company was involved in the construction of commercial buildings but its performance struggled before it had to cease trading in February 2017.
Independent insolvency practitioners were appointed to wind-up the company but were hampered as Anderson Builders had failed to maintain or preserve adequate company records.
Further investigations by the Insolvency Service into the company and Anderson’s conduct while a director confirmed that between August 2014 and February 2017 the company failed to maintain or preserve adequate company records.
This meant that it was impossible for investigators to verify more than £930,000 worth of expenditure from the company’s bank account.
This included receipts worth £286,000 and if they were a true representation of all sales made by the company, details of fixed assets totalling close to £16,000 in the last set of accounts and what was the position of more than £50,000 withdrawn from the directors loan account.
Of the £930,000 worth of expenditure, more than £592,000 remains unexplained, including 36 cheques totalling £26,660 and cash withdrawals worth just under £22,000.
Investigators were also unable to confirm the accuracy of tax assessments submitted by Anderson Builders between April 2015 and January 2017, resulting in the tax authorities being owed more than £120,000 in the liquidation of the company.
Robert Clarke, chief investigator for the Insolvency Service, said: ‘Maintaining proper accounting records is non-negotiable when you are a director of a limited company. But Brian Anderson clearly failed to do this and as a result, we cannot explain the exact nature of thousands of pounds that went through the company or whether a lack of documentation was a cloak for other misconduct.
‘Being banned from running companies for seven years is a significant amount of time and Brian Anderson risks a substantial fine or even prison time if he breaches his disqualification.’
Report by Pat Sweet
