"Singh tried to cloak his actions through a lack of records"
The director of Lady Fashion (UK) Limited, Surinder Singh, aged 62, has been banned from being a director and has had a disqualification undertaking made against him for failing to pay a £98,000 tax bill.
Born in June 1958, Singh from Leicester was trading as Lady Fashion from the city. The company was set-up in September 2017 and it manufactured women’s fashion clothing.
In July 2019, the company was placed into compulsory liquidation after it ceased trading and did not pay the tax bill which had accumulated in tax owed from April 2018.
To investigate Singh’s conduct as the director of Lady Fashion, the Offical Reciever was appointed.
Further to the investigation by the Official Reciever, it was discovered that Surinder Singh had not been keeping accounting records for Lady Fashion (UK) Ltd.
Between November 2017 and March 2019, it was found that Singh had withdrawn £180,000 in cash from the company accounts.
When quizzed by the Official Reciever about the withdrawals, Singh could not provide valid reasons for taking the money from the firm’s books.
During the probe, Singh did not at all dispute that he did fail to maintain and/or preserve accounting records which would be adequate.
He also admitted trading in the name of the company without paying tax to the appropriate authorities.
After the investigation, the action taken against Surinder Singh was that he is banned from acting as a company director for a period of six years.
Surinder Singh signed the disqualification undertaking on December 1, 2020. The order came into effect as of December 22, 2020.
Speaking about the case, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, Rober Clarke said:
“Surinder Singh tried to cloak his actions through a lack of records and attempted to gain an unfair competitive advantage by not paying the tax due.
“Directors have a clear obligation to make sure they maintain full and accurate records for their business, and we will take robust action against those who fail to maintain these required standards, as this case shows.”
Disqualification undertakings are equivalent to a disqualification order but the administration involved for it does not involve court proceedings.
Director disqualification undertakings were introduced in 2001, prior to this time, a director could not be disqualified unless there was a formal court hearing.
However, Singh could go to prison if he breaches the conditions of the disqualification undertaking.
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