Despite being disqualified, he continued to act as a director
Property developer Vijay Madhaparia, aged 44, of Stanmore, North-West London, was jailed for 27 months after he falsified documents from the tax authorities.
Harrow Crown Court heard that Madhaparia was the director of Laxmi Development Limited, a building development company incorporated in 2010 based in North-West London.
However, Laxmi Development was placed into compulsory liquidation in 2015 after the company failed to pay the tax authorities a debt of £124,000. This was later revised to £4.4 million.
The Official Receiver was initially appointed as Liquidator and further investigations uncovered several instances of misconduct by Madhaparia.
In 2012, Madhaparia was disqualified by the court for three years after committing health and safety offences.
Despite being disqualified, he continued to act as a director and took on various construction and development projects until Laxmi Development was dissolved in September 2013 after the company had failed to file company records.
In order to get Laxmi Development reinstated, Madhaparia submitted company accounts in breach of his disqualification, which he falsely claimed had been audited and prepared by regulated accountants.
This allowed the building development company to be restored to the Companies Register and receive generous VAT repayments from the tax authorities.
Further enquiries revealed that the property developer had taken on two renovation contracts in 2015 even though Laxmi Development was dissolved. He did so without informing the Official Receiver.
Madhaparia then proceeded to divert £91,000 worth of customer payments for the renovation into his personal account.
It was revealed he spent the money on gambling and holidays, depriving his creditors of payment.
In another breach of his disqualification, Madhaparia incorporated Classy Junction Ltd in February 2014.
In September 2015, the company dissolved and Madhaparia failed to file any documents relating to Classy Junction Ltd.
In court, his actions were described as “a sustained, deliberate and repeated pattern of calculated deliberate deceit and dishonesty committed over a number of years” by the judge.
On November 11, 2020, Madhaparia was jailed for 27 months. He was also banned from running limited companies for 10 years.
Ian West, Chief Investigator for the Insolvency Service, said:
“Vijay Madhaparia has been jailed for a significant amount of time after the court recognised the severity of his numerous misconduct offences.
“His sentence should serve as a stark warning to other directors that you could be criminally prosecuted for offences against insolvency and company director law.”
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