The boss of a scaffolding firm has received a six-year disqualification from acting as a director after failing to pay £209,000 in tax.
Vincent Christopher Larkin received the ban on 18 October in the High Court from Insolvency & Companies Court Judge Jones.
Larkin was the director of a scaffolding company called V Larkin Ltd, which traded as Olympic Scaffolding.
The scaffolding firm went into liquidation in May 2019 and V Larkin Ltd’s insolvency triggered an investigation by the Insolvency Service.
Investigators uncovered that Vincent Larkin caused the scaffolder to trade to the detriment of the tax authorities when V Larkin Ltd failed to pay £209,000 worth of business and employee-related tax from the tax year ending 2016/2017.
Further enquiries revealed that between April 2017 and right up to the point the company was heading into liquidation in May 2019, Vincent Larkin caused the scaffolder to make payments totalling close to £489,000, but no payments were identified as having been made to the tax authorities.
Vincent Larkin did not attend court and in his absence was disqualified and ordered to pay costs of £7,355.80.
Lawrence Zussman, deputy head of company investigations at the Insolvency Service, said: “As a company director, Vincent Larkin had a duty to ensure the scaffolding firm declared and paid the correct amount of taxes due. Our enquiries, however, clearly showed that Vincent Larkin systematically abused the tax authorities when the scaffolders failed to pay more than £200,000 of tax.
“This type of behaviour from a company director is deplorable and we will not hesitate in taking action against tax abuse.”
