Members of a family-run security alarm company have been banned from being company directors for a total of 15 and a half years for failing to pay tax, following an investigation by the Insolvency Service (IS).

Heather Shepherd has been banned is for nine years, her husband Lance has been banned for four years and their son, James Shepherd, has been disqualified from being a director for two and a half years.

All three ran Shepherd Security Ltd, a 24-hour alarm security company in Preston. Between them, they failed to pay tax totalling £186,332.

The IS said the longer term of Heather Shepherd's ban was down to the fact that she also acted as a director while she had not been discharged from bankruptcy, on the petition of HMRC.

Robert Clarke, IS head of company investigations Birmingham said: 'A bankrupt who continues to act as a director when explicitly restricted from doing so, shows a total disregard for the insolvency regime, creditors and the business community. What's more those directors who fail to pay their taxes are gaining an unfair advantage over other businesses and cheating the government.'