Television personality Ant Middleton banned as company director over unpaid taxes
Source: gov.uk (2025-03-24)

His company owed more than £1 million in corporation tax and VAT when it went into liquidation

Television personality and adventurer Ant Middleton has been banned as a director after his Sway and Starting Limited company failed to pay more than £1 million in tax

In the same period, more than £4.5 million was paid into the company’s accounts, indicating it had enough income to pay the tax it owed in full

His wife, Emilie Middleton, has also been disqualified as a company director for four years following investigations by the Insolvency Service

The pair ended up owing their company almost £3 million at the time of liquidation due to an overdrawn director’s loan account

Television personality Ant Middleton has been banned as a director after his company failed to pay more than £1 million in tax.

The former SAS: Who Dares Wins chief instructor was the director of Sway and Starting Limited along with his wife, Emilie Middleton. The company, which was described as offering media representation services, was set up to manage income from his television and media work.

But both the directors failed to ensure the company paid more than £300,000 in VAT and over £800,000 in corporation tax between 2019 and 2022.

This was despite more than £4.5 million being paid into the company’s accounts from 2020 to 2022.

The pair had also taken out almost £3 million from the company in the form of a director’s loan account by the time the company went into liquidation in December 2022.

Ant Middleton later agreed to repay £300,000 of the director’s loan as a full and final settlement with the liquidator.

The Middletons, both 44 and with correspondence addresses in Chelmsford, Essex, have been banned as company directors for four years.

Dave Magrath, Director of Investigation and Enforcement Services at the Insolvency Service, said:

Companies not paying the tax they should deprives the government of the money it needs to pay for the country’s defence services, our NHS, schools and universities, and transport systems.

Ant and Emilie Middleton had legal and financial duties as directors to ensure their company paid the corporation tax and VAT it owed. Instead, they were taking millions of pounds out of the company at that time.

This disqualification should serve as a deterrent to other directors that if you do not pay your taxes while directing money elsewhere, you are at risk of being banned.

Ant Middleton formed Sway and Starting in September 2014, with his wife becoming a director of the company in May 2019.

The company, previously known as Middleton Global Limited, failed to pay any of the £869,351 in corporation tax it owed between September 2019 and March 2021.

Sway and Starting also only paid £267,443 in VAT out of a total of £651,961 it owed between March 2020 and September 2022, leaving £384,518 unpaid.

Insolvency Service analysis of the company’s bank accounts showed that £4,592,200 was paid into the company between April 2020 and November 2022.

By the time of the company’s liquidation, the pair also owed Sway and Starting at least £2,961,745 through their director’s loan account.

The Secretary of State for Business and Trade accepted disqualification undertakings from Ant and Emilie Middleton, and their bans started on Monday 24 March and Wednesday 19 March respectively.

It prevents them from being involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the permission of the court.

Further information

Anthony Middleton’s correspondence address is New London Road, Chelmsford. His date of birth is 22 September 1980

Emilie Middleton’s correspondence address is also New London Road, Chelmsford. Her date of birth is 25 April 1980

Sway and Starting Limited (https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/xx-xxxx-xxxx) (company number xx-xxxx-xxxx)

Individuals subject to a disqualification order or undertaking are bound by a range of restrictions (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/corporate-insolvency-effect-of-a-disqualification-order)

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct (https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/insolvency-service)