CH282220 - Director disqualification: examples
Source: gov.uk (2025-02-13)


This page and chapter are under review as the relevant content is also published in the technical guidance chapters of the Compliance Handbook (https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/compliance-handbook), within Compliance checks factsheets (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hm-revenue-and-customs-compliance-checks-factsheets) and in Compliance checks guidance (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/hmrc-compliance-checks-help-and-support). If you use particular pages regularly, please email xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx) to let us know the specific content you find useful.

Example 1

Mrs B, was the sole director of Spitari Limited and Spitari (at Wembley) Limited, operating Chinese restaurants in London and on the South Coast.

Each company had an annual turnover of more than £1 million. However, they were registered falsely with HMRC, describing them as arts-based businesses with estimated annual turnovers of £10,000 and £80,000.

Mrs B failed to file VAT returns for either company, which caused HMRC to raise assessments on the companies’ under-declared estimated annual turnovers. The assessments raised were therefore for minimal amounts – sometimes only for hundreds of pounds – which the company paid. This meant over £1 million in tax went unpaid over a four-and-a-half year period.

An HMRC investigation uncovered the fraud, and the restaurants ceased to trade soon after with both entering liquidation. As a result of Mrs B’s involvement, she signed a director’s disqualification undertaking for a period of 12 years in relation to her misconduct.

Example 2

Mr K was the sole director of BMX Construction Limited, a construction company based in the West Midlands.

HMRC made unannounced visits to the company and found that it had under-declared its VAT liabilities by failing to disclose all its sales. In addition, the company failed to operate PAYE correctly by failing to register all eligible employees.

Furthermore, an additional bank account was identified in which sales income was deposited. HMRC raised an officer’s assessment for additional VAT liabilities of £200,000 as well as applying civil penalties of £90,000 to the company.

The company later entered liquidation owing £650,000 to creditors, including at least £365,000 for VAT and £55,000 for unpaid PAYE and NIC. Following the company’s liquidation Mr K agreed to a director’s disqualification undertaking for a period of 7 years.

Example 3

Mr X was the sole director of Crasstech Ltd, a carbon emissions allowance and metals trader based in Buckinghamshire. The company made sales of more than £38 million in the wholesale trade of carbon emission allowances and metals.

As part of an MTIC scheme, the company acted as a “buffer” and filed quarterly returns with HMRC attempting to fraudulently reclaim UK VAT that ‘missing traders’ earlier in supply chains had failed to pay to HMRC.

The company entered into trading arrangements which were “too good to be true”. Mr X caused the company to make payments to unconnected third parties totalling at least £7.38 million, despite having been warned on more than one occasion by HMRC officers of the risks of third party payments in the context of MTIC fraud.

The VAT fraud, including wrongful VAT reclaims against HMRC, resulted in tax losses of over £7.1 million.

Mr X was the sole director with responsibility for all aspects of the company’s trading, He was involved in pricing decisions which ran against any commercial logic and could only be explained in terms of this fraudulent scheme. His checks on trading partners were superficial and inadequate. He failed to act on indicators of commercial risk and continued to trade regardless.

The court decided that a Mr X must have been a knowing participant in this MTIC fraud and that a 15 year ban, the maximum period of disqualification, was appropriate.