The director of a Manchester car spare parts company has been disqualified for 12 years after he spent money from company's bank account using funds that were dishonestly obtained via a fraud on customers
Modussur Khan from Oldham, was the sole director of Manchester Autospares Ltd (MAL) throughout the life of the company. The company was incorporated in December 2011 and sold scrap parts for the motor industry from premises in Failsworth, Manchester.
MAL ceased trading in May 2016 and went into liquidation owing creditors £61,374. A subsequent Insolvency Service investigation found that MAL operated a merchant services account whereby it received card payments from customers.
However, the company took unauthorised payments from customers’ cards between 5 April and 25 April 2016 totalling at least £72,887. These payments were not related to genuine purchases and led to increased receipts into the company’s bank account.
In addition, between 8 April and 22 April 2016, the company made payments totalling at least £71,816 from its bank account using the fraudulently obtained funds, which Khan used to make personal purchases, a bureau de change withdrawal and other cash withdrawals.
Furthermore, MAL’s customers applied for refunds to the merchant services provider as they had not authorised payments to MAL. This led the merchant services provider to suffer a total loss of £56,791.
Robert Clarke, group leader of insolvent investigations north at the Insolvency Service said: ‘This is a serious case of misconduct by the director. The disqualification of Modussur Khan sends out a clear message that where a corporate vehicle is used to facilitate actual or potential fraudulent activity, action will be taken to remove the directors from the corporate arena for a lengthy period of time.’
Report by Pat Sweet
