The director of a search engine optimisation company has been disqualified for seven years for failing to keep adequate accounting records following an investigation by the Insolvency Service which found she owed around £140,000 in unpaid tax.

Karon Crone was the director of Coatbridge-based Micrositez Digital Ltd, which was set up in July 2011 and went into liquidation a year later. The Insolvency Service investigation found that during that period around £892,289 was paid from its bank account including £268,217 paid to the director's husband and an associated company.

Crone's husband and the company are located in Florida in the US, where she has since moved. At the time Crone left the country, Micrositez Digital Ltd owed £139,497 to HMRC in unpaid tax.

Robert Clarke, head of insolvent investigations north, at the Insolvency Service, said: 'Companies are under a legal duty to account for their income and expenditure and fulfilling that duty is a key component of the role of a director; there is no place in the business environment for those who neglect their responsibilities in this area. All too often, the lack of records to explain transactions is used to cover up other, more serious misconduct and we cannot determine whether that was the case at Micrositez, a fact which is reflected in the lengthy ban now in place.'