A former company director has been sentenced to six months in prison after he was found to be managing a construction company while being disqualified.
Robert Porter, 67, from Hampshire, pleaded guilty to one count of being being concerned in the management of a company whilst disqualified from doing so and one count of the use of a prohibited name.
He was jailed following a hearing at Reading Magistrates' Court.
In addition, his wife Kelly Porter, 45, received a sentence of 150 hours unpaid work and a directors' disqualification order of one year's duration for aiding and abetting the section 13 count.
An investigation by the Insolvency Service, as well as a full criminal investigation and prosecution by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS), lead to Mr Porter's conviction.
Mr Porter was formerly the director of building company ADP Enterprises which traded as A&B Construction.
However, the company amassed large deficiencies and was wound up in August 2008.
During the winding up, Mr Porter offered a Directors Disqualification Undertaking for three years and six months, which ended on 07 December 2013.
Mr Porter was therefore prohibited from acting as a director or being involved in the management of a company for this period. Additionally, as its director, he was prohibited from trading in the name of the dissolved company, or any name it had been known by in the 12 months prior to winding up, or any name so similar as to suggest a connection to the dissolved company.
Following this, Porter & Co was incorporated and operated as a building company on 12 May 2008.
The company amassed debts and was wound up on 26 March 2012.
However, in the course of winding up Porter & Co, the Insolvency Practitioner collected evidence, including invoices and statements from customers, which indicated that although Ms Porter was the sole registered director, in reality Mr Porter had been in control of the company and that the company had used the trading style A & B Construction.
DCIO Liam Mannall, from the Department for BIS, said: "Flouting a director's disqualification has serious consequences. In this case Mr Porter has received a custodial prison sentence at the age of 67, whilst his wife has received a lesser sentence but is now also disqualified.
"This demonstrates how seriously the courts consider the flouting of directors disqualification by banned directors, and those who assist them."
(LM/MH)
Time and date
CONSTRUCTION DIRECTORY
Construction News
18/02/2016
Former Building Director Jailed For Ignoring Disqualification
Latest Construction News
29/11/2024
Helmsley Group secured planning permission for the final part of its Coney Street Riverside masterplan which will bring much needed residential space to the city and realise a 50-year ambition to reconnect York to its riverfront. With work expected to start in the summer of 2025, this approval ...
29/11/2024
Network Space Developments (NSD) has received planning approval from Manchester City Council for a major redevelopment project at its Welcomb Street site in Openshaw, Manchester. The four-acre site, acquired by NSD in 2022, will be transformed into an extension of the adjacent City Works Business ...
29/11/2024
Work has commenced on a new lighting scheme designed to create brighter streets in Digbeth, close to HS2's Birmingham Curzon Street station. The Birmingham City Council project – funded in part through a £210,140 investment from HS2's Business and Local Economy Fund (BLEF) – will see the ...
29/11/2024
Building work has commenced on 14 new modern one-bedroom apartments at Ludwick Green in Welwyn Garden City. The apartments are being developed as part of Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council's (WHBC) Affordable Housing Programme, and its commitment to building new social and affordable homes. Ludwick ...
29/11/2024
River Capital has invested £500,000 in Liverpool-based M&E engineering consultancy, Steven A Hunt & Associates Ltd. The funding was structured to facilitate a management buyout (MBO) by the senior management team of Neil Baines, Anne King, Dave Kelly and Dominic Sibbring from founder Steven Hunt, ...
29/11/2024
Henley Restoration and Remedials has been chosen to carry out extensive external and structural repairs on the Grade II-listed Phoenix Mill, the oldest building in the Rutland Mills complex. Originally a grain store, Phoenix Mill later became a corn mill in the 19th century before transitioning ...
29/11/2024
Dorset County Council's North East Technology Park (NETPark) has been allocated over £11 million towards its expansion. The North East Combined Authority's Cabinet has approved £11.3m of funding for the Sedgefield site from its £160m flagship North East Investment Zone (NEIZ), which aims to drive ...
29/11/2024
Laing O'Rourke, in collaboration with Barnsley College and T3 Training & Development, have opened the UK's first dedicated modern methods of construction (MMC) training facility. The first of its kind training centre represents a groundbreaking step in addressing the UK's construction skills ...
29/11/2024
Aqua Direct are keen to share their support for the Urgent Funding campaign from St Giles Hospice. With a national hospice funding crisis, they need your support more than ever ...
29/11/2024
As we approach the end of 2024, we have been reflecting on what an action-packed year it has been. We have worked with some fantastic clients and sites across the country. We started from our base in Essex over ten years ago, and the demand for trackway has certainly been at its highest ...