A husband and wife who were directors of a company which marketed tax avoidance schemes have been disqualified for a combined nine years for moving assets out of the reach of creditors, including more than £130,000 owing to HMRC
Timothy Edmunds has been disqualified from acting as a director for five years and Annette Edmunds for four years.
The pair were directors of ESP Strategies Ltd, based in Swansea, which went into liquidation in November 2015.
An Insolvency Service investigation found that ESP Strategies Ltd had entered in to a tax avoidance scheme involving the issue of shares totalling £240,000 to directors which were only partly paid for.
Mr and Mrs Edmunds agreed to a number of transactions ending with the surrender of the shares, which resulted in £230,400 of uncalled share capital becoming unavailable. The transactions took place at a time when the directors knew that the company had an outstanding debt to HMRC, the sole creditor in the liquidation, with a claim of £133,245.
Sue MacLeod, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: ‘If your business engages in transactions in the run up to liquidation which are detrimental to any of its creditors, the Insolvency Service may investigate you, leading to your removal from the business environment.’
