Samantha Fairweather, 53, of Stansted Mountfitchet in Essex, was the sole director of Fairweather Construction Ltd, which she had set up in 2014. By April 2022, facing financial difficulties, she sought advice from an insolvency practitioner.

When she engaged with the insolvency practitioner, the company was holding deposits from homeowners worth more than £150,000 for building work such as the installation of new windows or conservatories which it had not finished.

However, despite knowing it was in a perilous financial position, Fairweather Construction proceeded to take a further £177,900 in payments for further building projects it did not complete, including £37,370 in deposits for new work, before the business was liquidated in the autumn of 2022.