Paul Cosgrove, a director of TBP & Son Ltd, has been disqualified for eight years failing to ensure the company maintained its books and records after his waste management company went into liquidation owing over £680,000 to HMRC
The total owing at liquidation of the Nottinghamshire-based company was £1.745m, of which just over £1m was owed to trade and expense creditors.
An Insolvency Service investigation found that Cosgrove had failed to maintain, preserve or deliver up the books and records of the company, which meant it was not possible to determine the reason for company expenditure totaling £4.2m, explain what happened to assets totaling £5.3m or determine the true level of VAT due to HMRC.
Purchase invoices for the company showed that between October 2013 and December 2014, TBP purchased scrap metals for the sum of £5,004,477 against corresponding sales invoices in the sum of £2,133,430, resulting in scrap metal with an invoice value of £2,871,047 being unaccounted for; while over the same period TBP purchased waste paper and plastics for the sum of £2,634,076 against corresponding sales invoices in the sum of £262,278 resulting in waste paper and plastics with an invoice value of £2,371,798 being unaccounted for.
Martin Gitner, deputy head of investigations with the Insolvency Service said: ‘Failure to deliver up the books and records of a company to the liquidator which results in a loss to creditors and the public purse will be rigorously investigated by the Insolvency Service in liaison with HMRC.
‘Even where the director chooses not to engage with the investigation process, disqualification as a director is the likely outcome of such activity.’
Report by Pat Sweet
