Birmingham bankrupt disqualified after abusing restrictions

A BIRMINGHAM bankrupt who continued to run a payroll company despite being banned has been disqualified for nine years.

Addrees Ahmed, 46, will be joined on the disqualified directors register by his wife, Robina Shaheen, 42, after she allowed her husband to control the payroll company.

Shaheen will be banned for six years.

Their bans came into effect on January 7. Accordingly, both Ahmed and Shaheen cannot, without the permission of the court, be involved in the formation, promotion or management of a company, directly or indirectly.

Academy Management Services Limited was incorporated in 2016, and Shaheen was listed as one of the registered directors, while Ahmed was not appointed a director and never was during the company’s existence.

Ahmed was made bankrupt upon his own petition in 2016 and that meant, among other restrictions, that he was restricted from acting as a director of a limited company.

But this did not stop Ahmed from acting as a director of the payroll company, while his wife played no role in the management of Academy Management Services, and instead, passed the control over to her husband.

In April 2017, the company entered into insolvency proceedings and despite having a duty to co-operate with the appointed liquidator of the company, Ahmed failed to maintain or deliver up Academy Management Services’ books and records.

This failure has meant that the liquidator and the Insolvency service have been unable to establish why the payroll company failed to disclose to the tax authorities £91,510 worth of funds paid to Academy Management Services by a third party for contracted work.

In signing his undertaking, Ahmed did not dispute that he acted in the capacity of a director of Academy Management Services while being disqualified as he was bankrupt at the time and did not have permission from the court.

Ahmed also did not dispute that he failed to deliver adequate accounting records to the liquidator.

Shaheen did not dispute in her undertaking that she breached her duties to the payroll company by not playing an active management roll and passing control to her husband.

She also failed to promote the success of Academy Management Services, while failing to exercise independent judgment and failing to exercise reasonable care, skill or diligence.

Dave Elliott, chief investigator for the insolvency service, said: “Both Addrees and Robina are culpable for their actions. Addrees knew of his restrictions, while Robina as a registered director failed in her duties to ensure the payroll company was managed properly.

“We will continue to investigate the conduct of the directors and where there is sufficient evidence, as there was in this case, instigate disqualifications proceedings in the public interest.”