The Insolvency Service carried out investigations following the company’s liquidation and found that Azam Ali suppressed and concealed sales figures, which meant the company under-declared and underpaid the correct amount of tax.

Ali was the sole registered director of the company Pabna Restaurant Ltd (Pabna), which traded as an Indian restaurant in Pontefract, West Yorkshire.

The restaurant began trading in 2006 as a family business owned by Ali’s brother before Ali took over the business in 2011. He then incorporated it as a limited company in March 2012.

The company catered to the West Yorkshire area and traded from property which the company owned in Ropergate, Pontefract. But in April 2017, the company entered into voluntary liquidation having not paid the right amount of tax.

As a result, on 7 June 2018 the Secretary of State accepted a disqualification undertaking from Ali where he did not dispute the Insolvency Service’s findings.

Effective from 28 June 2018, Ali is now banned from directly or indirectly becoming involved, without the permission of the court, in the promotion, formation or management of a company for nine years.

Commenting on the disqualification, Lawrence Zussman, Deputy Head of Investigations for the Insolvency Service said: ‘The majority of businesses comply with statutory legislation. However, some companies fail to do so and deliberately underpay their taxes.

The ban of Ali demonstrates our determination to clamp down on those directors who avoid paying the correct levels of tax and we will levy hefty periods of disqualification whether they cooperate or not.’

A disqualification order has the effect that without specific permission of a court, a person with a disqualification cannot:

• act as a director of a company;
• take part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of a company or limited liability partnership; and
• be a receiver of a company’s property.

Report by Rob Munro