The Insolvency Service has reported that Charles Ling of Romford has received a 15-month suspended sentence for fraudulently obtaining a £30,000 coronavirus bounce back loan (BBL). Ling falsely claimed it was his first such loan, despite having already received a legitimate £20,000 loan, and having used £11,500 for personal expenses including cash withdrawals and mortgage payments. He was charged under sections 1 and 2 of the Fraud Act 2006, ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work, and has repaid the fraudulent loan. The case represents continued enforcement action against coronavirus support scheme misuse.

The Insolvency Service has announced Philip John Mottram, aged 55, sentenced to a 12-month community order requiring 80 hours of unpaid work in the community and up to ten rehabilitation activity requirements days for continuing his business while disqualified and failing to hand over company accounts to liquidators. Mottram also had to pay costs of £2,000 and victim surcharge of £60.

The Insolvency Service has announced the disqualification of Scott Dylan and David Antrobus, directors of Oldcoft Ltd and Old3 Ltd, from acting as company directors for a combined period of 23 years following proceedings in the High Court in London. Dylan was disqualified for 13 years and Antrobus for 10 years, with the bans taking effect from 25 December 2025. The court heard that more than £13.9m was transferred through company accounts opened in 2021 using overdraft facilities that had not been agreed with the bank. The funds were subsequently transferred to other accounts, including payments of £1.6m to Dylan and nearly €1.8m to a family member. Barclays Bank later froze the accounts and sought repayment. In October 2024, both men were sentenced to 22 months’ imprisonment for contempt of court after breaching Barclays’ freezing injunctions.

The Insolvency Service has announced that Alex Hope, a director of management consultancy A Hope Ltd and former director of CBD business Virtutum Lid, trading as CBD Asylum, has been sentenced for fraud and money laundering after fraudulently securing a £25,000 Bounce Back Loan and laundering funds from that loan and a separate £56,000 private loan through multiple accounts to help purchase a property in Lanzarote. Hope was convicted of two counts of fraud, one count of money laundering and one count of failing to disclose the value of company shares while bankrupt, receiving a three-year prison sentence suspended for three years, an eight-year director disqualification and 250 hours of unpaid work. His business partner and co-director, Liam Jones, was convicted of one count of fraud relating to the £56,000 loan after both men falsely stated that no litigation was taking place against them despite being pursued in legal proceedings since 2019, and was sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment suspended for 18 months, a two-year director disqualification and 100 hours of unpaid work. The Insolvency Service has also confirmed it is seeking to recover the fraudulently obtained funds under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

The Insolvency Service has announced Christopher Bateman, aged 49, from Knutsford, and Nicola Fairweather, aged 48, from Macclesfield, directors of two connected companies, GCC Management Ltd and Amek Solutions Ltd, have been disqualified for a total of 25 years after abusing millions of pounds of investors’ funds in a care home investment scheme.

The Insolvency Service publishes the banning of three directors for seven years each, following their involvement in misleading investors in a Derby student accommodation development. Fraser MacDonald, Gavin Barry, and Edward Fowkes were found to have: encouraged the promotion of a fraudulent investment offer, resulting in 42 investors losing over £4m; transferred more than £2m of investors' funds to a connected company in breach of the initial agreement and; furnished investors with a lower repayment priority than initially represented.

The Insolvency Service has announced an eight-year directorship disqualification for Hubert Omukhulu, director of Remedy Payroll Solutions Ltd, following HMRC's investigations which revealed that £2.5m in VAT had not been declared. The company submitted returns claiming zero VAT liability for 2020 and £264,276 for 2021, against HMRC's calculated liability of £2.5m. Omukhulu has been disqualified from company directorship until 2033 and is prohibited from being involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the permission of the court.

The Insolvency Service has announced an eight-year ban for Adrian Benedict Sacco, the director of an umbrella payroll company, Best Employment Services (BES), for potentially costing the public purse millions in unpaid Income Tax, National insurance Contributions and Corporation Tax.

The Insolvency Service has announced the eight-year disqualification of Carl Tingley, sole director of Home2Sense Limited, commencing on 15 September 2026. The company was fined £200,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in 2022 for making 675,478 unsolicited marketing calls to numbers registered with the Telephone Preference Service. The fine was not paid and Home2Sense subsequently entered compulsory liquidation with liabilities of £200,000. Following an Insolvency Service investigation, the High Court in London imposed Tingley’s eight-year disqualification.

The Insolvency Service has announced eight-year disqualifications for Frederick and Claire Reeves, the directors behind Solfan1 Limited (trading as The Best Singing Waiters). Despite agreeing to enter liquidation on 28 March 2024, the company continued accepting customer payments—collecting £43,590 from 43 customers. Solfan1 Limited eventually entered liquidation on 1 May 2024, with reported liabilities of £700,000 and assets of £168,000. The disqualification undertakings prevent both Frederick and Claire Reeves from being involved in the promotion, formation or management of any company without explicit court permission. The case serves as a stark reminder of directors' obligations to cease trading when their company becomes insolvent.

The Insolvency Service has announced a five-year director disqualification for former Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) world champion Rob Cross. The ban follows investigations revealing his company, Rob Cross Darts Limited, failed to pay £465,403 in taxes, comprising £403,896 in corporation tax, £49,071 in VAT, and £12,436 in PAYE and National Insurance contributions. The Insolvency Service's investigations found that Cross withdrew £306,403 between March 2020 and November 2023 that should have been paid to creditors. Cross has entered an individual voluntary arrangement to address the outstanding debts. The Secretary of State for Business and Trade accepted a disqualification undertaking preventing Cross from being involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the permission of the court, until June 2030.

The Insolvency Service announces the disqualification of Dale Laverick and Alessandro Da Silva, directors of K and L Restaurants Ltd (trading as Caramba Steakhouse), from serving as company directors for five years. The Secretary of State for Business and Trade accepted their undertakings, with the bans effective from 12 November 2025 and 14 November 2025 respectively. The directors knowingly continued trading while the company was insolvent from May 2022, accumulating debts including £17,080 owed to HMRC, £76,788 in unpaid rent, and £46,744 in business rates. During this period, they also leased several luxury vehicles—incurring £20,440 in lease costs from September to December 2022. Their failure to seek timely professional insolvency advice, instead delaying until June 2023, contributed to an additional debt of over £180,000 before the company was ultimately liquidated in July 2023.