11 year directorship ban for restaurant boss who fiddled cash takings
Mrs Sakine Ulas, a director of Milox Limited trading as Divan Restaurant a Turkish restaurant based in Borehamwood Hertfordshire, has been disqualified from acting as a company director for 11 years for deliberately failing to ensure that the company had properly and accurately accounted for VAT and corporation tax.
The disqualification, from 29 March, means that Mrs Ulas has given an Undertaking to the Secretary of State to not be a director of a company whether directly or indirectly, or be involved in the management of a company in any way for the duration of her disqualification.
An HMRC investigation revealed significant suppression of cash takings which Mrs Ulas confirmed stating that she had not recorded and declared all cash takings to HMRC totalling upto £1500 per week. Mrs Ulas further declared that she had not declared the correct takings to her accountant and she had knowingly signed off the Company’s annual accounts which understated the correct turnover.
Mrs Ulas duly received a personal penalty by HMRC for deliberate tax evasion.
At liquidation the company was stated as owing in excess of £220,000 to HMRC in relation to arrears of VAT, PAYE & National Insurance Contributions and Corporation Tax.
Commenting on the disqualification, Mark Bruce a Chief Investigator with the Insolvency Service said:
The period of this disqualification sends a clear message to other company directors that Fraud of any kind will not be tolerated.
Public services are funded by the correct amount of taxes being paid. By not declaring and paying the correct amount of taxes, Mrs Ulas has ultimately deprived the public from receiving the services they deserves. In order to protect the public, The Insolvency Service therefore will not hesitate to remove from the business environment, directors who behave in this way.
Notes to editors
Milox Limited (Company Registration No. 06621934) trading as Divan Restaurant a Turkish restaurant based in Borehamwood Hertfordshire. It was incorporated on 17 June 2008 and was placed into liquidation on 15 May 2014.
Sakine Ulas, 35, date of birth: 1 March 1981, is of Luton.
One of the main purposes of the Company Directors Disqualification Act is to ensure that proper standards of conduct of company directors are maintained and to raise those standards where appropriate.
A disqualification order has the effect that without specific permission of a court, a person with a disqualification cannot:
- act as a director of a company
- take part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of a company or limited liability partnership
- be a receiver of a company’s property
In addition that person cannot act as an insolvency practitioner and there are many other restrictions are placed on disqualified directors by other regulations.
Disqualification undertakings are the administrative equivalent of a disqualification order but do not involve court proceedings. Further information on director disqualifications and restrictions is available.
The Insolvency Service administers the insolvency regime, investigating all compulsory liquidations and individual insolvencies (bankruptcies) through the Official Receiver to establish why they became insolvent. It may also use powers under the Companies Act 1985 to conduct confidential fact-finding investigations into the activities of live limited companies in the UK. In addition, the agency authorises and regulates the insolvency profession, deals with disqualification of directors in corporate failures, assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay employees, provides banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds and advises ministers and other government departments on insolvency law and practice.
Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available.
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