Directors’ loan accounts: company money is not a personal cash machine

In McCarthy v Marshall [2026] EWHC 1585 (Ch), the High Court held that a director’s unauthorised use of company funds for personal expenditure through a director’s loan account was a breach of fiduciary duty. Crucially, the Court held that, in the circumstances of this case, the conduct amounted to a fraudulent breach of duty, even though the director intended to repay the money.

Facts