The director of an Essex construction firm has been disqualified as a director for eight years after taking more than £300,000 in deposits for home improvements that were never completed.
Samantha Fairweather, 53, was the sole director of Fairweather Construction Ltd when it sought advice from an insolvency practitioner in April 2022, owing more than £100,000 in unpaid tax.
The company had taken deposits from homeowners worth more than £150,000 by this time for building work such as the installation of new windows or conservatories, which it had not finished.
However, Fairweather Construction then proceeded to take a further £177,900 in payments for further building projects it did not complete, including £37,370 in deposits for new work, before it was liquidated in autumn 2022.
Numerous excuses
One couple from South London paid Fairweather Construction £12,500 for new windows in July 2022, but the order was never placed with the manufacturer.
In August 2022, the company took £18,000 from customers in the Bishop’s Stortford area for a new conservatory and extensions to an existing one which were not built.
The company made numerous excuses for not fulfilling the orders.
Fairweather also caused her company to breach the terms of the covid Bounce Back Loan Scheme in May 2020 by using £11,000 of the £50,000 she obtained to repay a director’s loan.
Under the rules of the scheme, BBL payments were not to be used for the economic benefit of the business.
‘Public needs protection’
Fairweather Construction entered liquidation in September 2022 with liabilities of more than £700,000.
Neil North, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: “Samantha Fairweather knew, or ought to have known, that the company she was a director of had unpaid debts to HMRC and had been unable to fulfil its obligations to existing customers.
“The company then took significant amounts of money from homeowners for house extensions and projects which were never done.
“Members of the public need protection from this kind of activity which is why Fairweather will no longer be able to act as a company director until October 2032.”
