The director of a Glasgow construction and civil engineering firm has been banned for six years for failing to maintain and preserve adequate company records.
David Simpson Duffy was the sole director of Annick Structures, which went into compulsory liquidation in February 2016, following a petition by HMRC.
At liquidation, the company had an estimated deficiency to its creditors of over £900,000.
An Insolvency Service investigation, following the conclusion of the liquidation, found that from March 2014 to February 2016, Duffy failed in his duty as a director to preserve or deliver up to the liquidator adequate accounting records for ASL.
The failure meant it was not possible to verify the true level of income and expenditure to and from the company bank account.
That left question marks concerning:
- whether outstanding loans totalling £308,725 were collected for the benefit of the company or remained outstanding at liquidation;
- whether debtor sums totalling almost £35,000 and stock/work in progress sums totalling over £582,000 were collected for the benefit of the company;
- what the purposes were of transfers totalling £1.8m and what payments totalling £2.5m related to.
Duffy also failed to ensure that ASL prepared and filed annual accounts with Companies House, for the period to 28 February 2015.
Duffy has now been banned as a director for six years until 1 June 2024.
The ban prevents him from being directly or indirectly involved, without the permission of the court, in the promotion, formation or management of a company or limited liability partnership for the duration of his ban.
Robert Clarke, head of company investigation at the Insolvency Service said: “Directors have a 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.
“Without a full account of transactions it is impossible to determine whether a director has discharged his duties properly, or is using a lack of documentation as a cloak for impropriety.”
