Press release: Baker is toast after failing to ensure payment of taxes to HMRC

Clive Cobb, who had been a director of Our Bakery Number Two Ltd which traded as The Royal William Bakery, a bakery and restaurant at The Royal William Yard in Plymouth, has been disqualified from acting as a director for 5 years.

The disqualification follows an Insolvency Service investigation which last year had already resulted in another director, Alexander Charles Eugene Qaun, being disqualified for 4 years.

The investigation found that Cobb and Quan were responsible for the company failing to pay VAT, PAYE and NIC from at least May 2013. This led to an arrears of £130,361 with the total amount owed in unpaid tax when the company went into liquidation in October 2015 coming to £142,666.

On 17 October 2017 the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy accepted a disqualification undertaking from Cobb, effective from 7 November 2017.This follows an undertaking from Quan which was accepted on 15 November 2016.

Commenting on the disqualification, Sue MacLeod, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:

These actions have resulted in honest taxpayers losing out. If you run a business in a way that is unfairly detrimental to any of its creditors, including tax authorities, the Insolvency Service will investigate you, and you may find yourself disqualified from acting as a director.

Notes to editors

Our Bakery Number Two Ltd (CRO No. 07725530) was incorporated on 2 August 2011. Its registered office was at Flat 1, Rousden Village Bakery, Rousden, Lyme Regis, Dorset DT7 3XW.

Mr Clive John Cobb is of Dorset and his date of birth is October 1947.

Alexander Charles Eugene Qaun is of Exeter and his date of birth is October 1972.

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.

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.

BEIS’ mission is to build a dynamic and competitive UK economy that works for all, in particular by creating the conditions for business success and promoting an open global economy. The Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions team contributes to this aim by taking action to deter fraud and to regulate the market. They investigate and prosecute a range of offences, primarily relating to personal or company insolvencies.

The agency also authorises and regulates the insolvency profession, 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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