The director of a meat wholesaling company, Hugo Foods International Ltd (Hugo), has been banned as a director for 13 years for claiming over £600,000 from a bank by raising invoices for undelivered goods.

Grant Richardson's disqualification followed an investigation by the Insolvency Service (IS), which also found that he was in breach of an earlier disqualification order for a similar offence at a family meat wholesale business, Brightblades (1990) Ltd, which went into liquidation in 2000. Richardson should therefore not have been acting as a director at Hugo between 2003 and 2009.

However, the IS found evidence he had continued to act as a director despite the earlier ban, with the full knowledge of his co-director, Nigel Potter.

Potter has also been disqualified for eight years for his part in the invoice scam and for allowing Richardson to be involved in running the company.

The IS investigation found that the meat wholesale company had breached the terms and conditions of its invoice discounting agreement with the bank by failing to obtain a name, date and signature on all proofs of delivery.

The company also operated a 'bill and hold' arrangement with customers, whereby invoices were raised without goods having been delivered.

Hugo went into administration on 18 March 2011. The company was found to have raised 103 credit notes worth £657,718 in a single day despite having obtained insolvency advice regarding the company the previous day.

These were raised against invoices for which Hugo had already received finance under the invoice discounting agreement with credit companies.

David Brooks, a chief investigator at the IS, said: 'This case highlights the seriousness of a disqualified person disregarding the restrictions imposed upon them by the court and the systematic breach of invoice discounting agreements. The result is that the period of disqualification is much higher than would have been the case. He could also lose any protection against personal liability for company losses.'