The director of a company engaged in cold call marketing has been disqualified for seven years for failing to keep adequate accounting records, after an Insolvency Service investigation found it was not possible to account for some £500,000 of payments made
Stephen Greenall was director of Optima Energy Solutions Ltd (Optima), which sold and installed heating systems to domestic customers. Optima was set up in 2013 and went into liquidation on 23 April 2015 owing £895,352 to creditors.
The Insolvency Service’s investigation concluded that Greenall failed to ensure that Optima maintained adequate accounting records. As a result, it has not been possible to determine the purpose of payments made to individuals totalling £522,342.
In addition, Optima was unable to provide any evidence to the Advertising Standards Authority to verify the truth of claims made regarding the energy saving performance of the radiators it marketed and sold, and was found to have distributed advertising and marketing material in breach of advertising industry codes.
Robert Clarke, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: ‘It is a legal requirement for a limited company to maintain adequate accounting records to explain the financial position of that company at any given point in time.
‘On insolvency directors are required to deliver those records up to the appointed insolvency practitioner. A failure to maintain or deliver up adequate records can severely hamper an insolvency practitioner’s attempts to recover assets for the benefit of creditors as well as the Insolvency Service’s investigations, with disqualification as a company director a likely outcome.’
