The director of KAD Consultants, a surveyor company in Essex has been banned for five years after they failed to provide “adequate accounting records and not complying with tax obligations”.
Keith Alan Da Costa, was the sole director of KAD Consultants Limited since its incorporation in May 2011. The company traded as surveyors providing services to general building contractors and the construction industry until it went into liquidation in June 2017.
However, the firm’s liquidation triggered an investigation by the Insolvency Service, leading the group to uncover “instances of misconduct”.
It was found that for the last 15 months of trading, Da Costa “did not maintain adequate accounting records which made it difficult to determine legitimate trading activities”.
During this period, the company bank account revealed that in excess of “£177,000 had been paid in and removed but it was not possible to determine whether this was legitimate business income and expenditure”.
Payments of almost £76,000 were made to three individuals, including more than £40,000 detailed as wages, but investigators “were unable to verify whether these payments were for genuine business expenditure or wages”.
The 2016 company accounts revealed Da Costa owed the company just over £91,000 in the form of loans but at liquidation, “the statement of affairs signed by the director showed none of his loans being outstanding”.
Further enquiries uncovered that from at least November 2015 onwards Keith Da Costa’s surveyors firm had not paid VAT, Corporation Tax and PAYE. At liquidation in excess of £133,000 was also outstanding to the tax authorities.
Following legal proceedings at the High Court, it was ruled that Da Costa would receive a five year ban for acting as company director.
Lawrence Zussman, deputy director of insolvent investigations at the Insolvency Service, said: “Despite numerous requests from the liquidator, Keith Da Costa produced very little in terms of his business’s accounting records and eventually admitted he had shredded his company’s paperwork as he considered it was no longer of any use”.