A chartered accountant who set up a practice specialising in tax advice has been disqualified from acting as a director for seven years for failing to make sure his accountancy firm kept proper records, dealt with its tax affairs and registered for VAT
Peter Lashmar’s disqualification follows an investigation by the Insolvency Service into the business and affairs of Lymington accountancy firm Lashmars (UK) Ltd.
The firm specialised in offering tax advice to businesses and individual clients and the company’s website said of Lashmar: ‘His passion is to help businesses and private clients minimise their tax bills in any way that is legitimate, simple and straight forward.’
According to the website, Lashmar qualified as a chartered accountant in 1975 having trained in the City. He went on to become a partner in a national chartered accountancy firm until 1991, when he set up his own tax accountancy practice.
Southampton County Court heard that the Insolvency Service investigation found that, among other things, Lashmar had failed to ensure that the company dealt properly with its own taxation, leading to a penalty by HMRC for failing to register for VAT when legally required to do so.
HMRC determined that this failure was dishonest and issued a Civil Evasion Penalty of £35,270 which remained unpaid when Lashmars (UK) Ltd was placed into liquidation. HMRC lodged a claim with the liquidator with regards to unpaid taxes and penalties for £211, 424 in total.
Lashmar did not deliver up records to the liquidator that could explain all of the company’s transactions, the court heard.
Mark Bruce, a chief investigator with the Insolvency Service said: ‘Directors have a clear, statutory duty to ensure that their companies maintain proper accounting records and, following insolvency, deliver them to the office-holder in the interests of fairness and transparency.’
In addition to being disqualified from acting in the management of a company for seven years Lashmar was ordered to pay costs of £5,500.
