Day: October 13, 2017

Moyes’ disqualification follows an investigation by the Insolvency Service into Glasgow-based Professional Pre Season Tours Limited, which ceased trading in April 2014.

The company had been involved in arranging pre-season tours for various football clubs, including Everton, Chelsea, Liverpool, Leeds United, Sheffield Wednesday, Nottingham Forest, Norwich City, Aberdeen, Hibernian and Celtic.

The investigation found that Moyes transferred over £300,000 from the company to himself as a ‘bonus payment’ shortly before the company stopped trading. However according to the company accounts, no money was actually transferred, although it allowed him to claim a loan account debt was settled. In reality, this money had already been withdrawn for his personal use.

Investigators established that he withdrew at least £420,400 in cash from the company while it was trading, but failed to declare the full amount.

Because the fictitious transfer resulted in a nominal asset of the company being turned into a liability, it was unable to pay its obligations to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in terms of PAYE and National Insurance contributions. At liquidation it owed £271,180 to creditors, of which all but £4,067 of which was to HMRC.

Commenting on the disqualification, Cheryl Lambert, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:

This is a simple case of a director trying to avoid repaying their loans to a company and avoiding their proper tax payments. It was a cynical attempt to maintain personal wealth, with the consequence of depriving the public of tax receipts, and he abused the privileges and benefits of limited liability trading.

Kenneth Moyes also kept HMRC in the dark by not filing all returns on time, including partially paying VAT assessments at a sufficient level to avoid attracting priority attention.

Taking action against him is a warning to all directors that such behaviour will result in a very significant sanction, with a personal consequence. A limited company Is not a personal piggy bank for directors.

On 18 July 2017, the Secretary of State for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy accepted a disqualification undertaking from Kenneth Moyes. The disqualification commenced on 8 September 2017.

Notes to editors

Professional Pre Season Tours Ltd (CRO SC311860) was incorporated on 14 November 2006. Its registered office was c/o McLay, McAlister & McGibbon LLP, First Floor, 145 St Vincent Street, Glasgow, Strathclyde, G2 5JF. It traded from 15 North Claremont Street, Glasgow, G3 7NR

Professional Pre Season Tours (PPST) Ltd was placed into liquidation on 8 October 2014 with Donald McKinnon of Wylie & Bisset, 168 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 4TP appointed sole liquidator.

Kenneth Moyes is of Glasgow and his date of birth is February 1968.

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

Disqualification undertakings are the administrative equivalent of a disqualification order but do not involve court proceedings.

The Insolvency Service investigation established that:

• In the annual accounts for PPST for the year ended 31 December 2012 Mr Moyes had an outstanding director loan due to PPST of £172,597 which was repayable by 30th September 2013.
• Mr Moyes declared remuneration, reflected in p60 returns to HMRC and PPST’s accounts, for the six years from incorporation to April 2013, totalled £90,464
• On 26 March 2014, shortly before PPST ceased trading in April 2014, a “bonus payment” of £329,936.02 was recorded (including in a pay slip) as being made to Mr Moyes. No moneys were transferred.
• Mr Moyes received at least £420,400 in cash from PPST during its trading, of which only £90,464 had been declared to HMRC for taxation purposes prior to 26 March 2014.
• The “Bonus Payment” extinguished, on paper, the director’s loan account previously shown and created a liability of PAYE & NIC to HMRC of at least £203,022.24. This tax debt remained due and outstanding at liquidation.
• PPST did not comply with its statutory obligations to HMRC resulting in £271,180 being due in relation to PAYE/NIC (accrued from 2009/10), Corporation Tax accrued from December 2012) and VAT accruing for 18 consecutive partially paid assessments from 2010, whilst non-HMRC creditors totalled £4,068.14

Persons subject to a disqualification order are bound by a range of other restrictions.

The Insolvency Service, an executive agency sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), administers the insolvency regime, and aims to deliver and promote a range of investigation and enforcement activities both civil and criminal in nature, to support fair and open markets. We do this by effectively enforcing the statutory company and insolvency regimes, maintaining public confidence in those regimes and reducing the harm caused to victims of fraudulent activity and to the business community, including dealing with the disqualification of directors in corporate failures.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available.
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The Charity Commission, the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales, has opened a new statutory inquiry into Jole Rider Friends, registered charity number 1112914. The investigation was opened on 5 September 2017.

The charity’s objects are to advance education, in particular by providing or assisting in the provision of facilities and equipment at educational establishments in Africa.

The trustees have failed to submit their charity’s annual accounts on time for the last two financial years; the charity is currently 257 days overdue in submitting their 2016 accounts. The charity’s 2015 accounts contained an independent examiner’s report which highlighted concerns surrounding potentially unauthorised payments and the charity’s stock control.

The Commission has therefore opened a statutory inquiry to address significant regulatory concerns with regard to the administration, governance and management of the charity by the trustees.

The Commission stresses that opening an inquiry is not in itself a finding of wrongdoing. The purpose of an inquiry is to examine issues in detail and investigate and establish the facts so that the regulator can ascertain whether there has been misconduct or mismanagement; establish the extent of the risk to the charity’s property, beneficiaries or work; and decide what action needs to be taken to resolve the serious concerns, if necessary using its investigative, protective and remedial powers to do so.

It is the Commission’s policy, after it has concluded an inquiry, to publish a report detailing what issues the inquiry looked at, what actions were undertaken as part of the inquiry and what the outcomes were. Reports of previous inquiries by the Commission are available on GOV.UK.

The charity’s details can be viewed on the Commission’s online charity search tool.

Ends

PR 68/17

Notes to editors

1. The Charity Commission is the independent regulator of charities in England and Wales. To find out more about our work, see our annual report.
2. Search for charities on our online register.
3. Section 46 of the Charities Act 2011 gives the Commission the power to institute inquiries. The opening of an inquiry gives the Commission access to a range of investigative, protective and remedial legal powers.