Tag: communications

Pak Supermarket Washwood Heath Ltd, known as Pak Supermarket, was incorporated on 3 August 2010 and operated in Washwood Heath, Birmingham.

However, the company went into Creditor’s Voluntary Liquidation in January 2015 with an estimated deficiency of more than £2.8 million.

Following the company’s liquidation, an investigation by the Insolvency Service found that the company had provided misleading information to Birmingham City Council as to the identity and potential liability of the occupants of the supermarket between August 2010 and 13 October 2014.

Over the four years of trading, the company submitted to the council documents relating to eight third-party companies, suggesting these eight companies were, at separate times, the occupants responsible for business rates. As a result, this information hid that the fact that the true occupant was Pak Supermarket and it was the supermarket that was liable to pay business rates.

Prepared accounts and bank analysis showed a turnover for the company in excess of £35million and the company only made a single payment of £5,000 towards a business rates bill of at least £680,000.

Investigators then spoke to Mohammed Younis as he was the sole appointed director of Pak Supermarket between August 2010 and January 2014.

However, he told investigators from the Insolvency Service that from November 2010 he took no part in the management of the company and left it under the control of Zahir Rasul, who was only formally appointed on 15 January 2014.

The Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy has since accepted disqualification undertakings of eight years from Zahir Rasul and three years from Mohammed Younis, effective from 10 April and 3 May respectively.

This means that they cannot be directors of a company whether directly or indirectly, or be involved in the management of a company in any way for the duration of their disqualifications.

Martin Gitner, Deputy Head of Investigations at the Insolvency Service, said:

Directors have a duty to provide their local council with complete and accurate information with regard to the occupants of trading premises in order to ensure that liability is properly attributed.

Where information provided is found to be false and/or misleading, resulting in a loss of funds to the Council, directors can expect to be investigated by the Insolvency Service and enforcement action taken to remove them from the market place.

Notes to editors

Mr Younis was born in April 1971 and he resides in Bradford. He was appointed director on 3 August 2010 and resigned on 15 January 2014

Mr Rasul’s date of birth is December 1979 and he resides in Birmingham. He was appointed director on 15 January 2014.

Pak Supermarket Washwood Heath Ltd (CRO No. 07333282) was incorporated on 3 August 2010 and latterly traded from Washwood Heath Road, Washwood Heath, Birmingham B8 2XJ as a supermarket

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 administers the insolvency regime, investigating all compulsory liquidations and individual insolvencies (bankruptcies) through the Official Receiver to establish why they became insolvent. It may also use powers under the Companies Act 1985 to conduct confidential fact-finding investigations into the activities of live limited companies in the UK. In addition, the agency deals with disqualification of directors in corporate failures, 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.

Contact Press Office

Media enquiries for this press release – 020 7637 6498

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

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• YouTube

Ulhaque Ahtamad was the sole director of Masstech Ltd, a carbon emissions allowance and metals trader based in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire.

The Insolvency Service started to investigate Ulhaque Ahtamad after Masstech Ltd was wound up for debts owed to HMRC.

The investigation uncovered that between June and September 2009, Masstech Ltd, made sales of more than £38 million in the wholesale trade of carbon emission allowances and metals with little initial finance in place.

The company then filed quarterly returns with HMRC attempting to fraudulently reclaim UK VAT that ‘missing traders’ earlier in supply chains had failed to pay to HMRC. This was part of a Missing Trader Intracommunity (MTIC) fraudulent scheme.

In the MTIC fraud trading chain, Masstech Ltd acted as a ‘buffer’ trader. The buffer is an intermediate trader between at one end the ‘missing trader’, importing goods and not paying over VAT due to HMRC, and at the other end, the exporter seeking to reclaim VAT that had not been paid.

Buffers serve to increase the distance between the ends of the chain so that the exporter can deny knowledge of the default.

However, it was found that Ulhaque Ahtamad obstructed HMRC and repeatedly stalled their investigations into the company’s trading. The court heard that Masstech Ltd entered into trading arrangements which were “too good to be true”, and against which the company had been expressly and repeatedly warned by HMRC.

And Ulhaque Ahtamad made payments to unconnected third parties totalling at least £7.38 million, despite having been warned on more than one occasion by HMRC officers of the risks of third party payments in the context of MTIC fraud.

The VAT fraud, including wrongful VAT reclaims against HMRC, resulted in tax losses of over £7.1 million.

The court also heard that as the sole director with responsibility for all aspects of the company’s trading, Ulhaque Ahtamad was involved in pricing decisions which ran against any commercial logic and could only be explained in terms of this fraudulent scheme.

And VAT registration and other due diligence checks on trading partners were superficial and inadequate and Ulhaque Ahtamad failed to act on standard commercial risk negative indicators and continued to trade regardless.

The court concluded that Ulhaque Ahtamad must have been a knowing participant in this scheme and that a 15 year ban, the maximum period of disqualification, was appropriate.

Justin Dionne, Official Receiver for the Insolvency Service, said:

“Masstech Ltd was involved in trading and making wrongful reclaims in a fraudulent VAT scheme which had been costing the UK Exchequer significant amounts of money at the time the fraud was perpetrated.

“This is not a victimless crime, the main impact being on honest tax payers and their families who as a result suffered the effects of funding shortages in healthcare, education and other front line services.

“Regulatory changes, investigative action and legal proceedings have reduced the scale of this fraud from 2007 onwards.”

“The Insolvency Service will not hesitate to use its enforcement powers to investigate and disqualify directors whose companies defraud the public purse.”

Ulhaque Ahtamad’s disqualification effective from 3 May 2018 means that he cannot promote, manage, or be a director of a limited company until 2033.

Notes to editors

Masstech Ltd (CRO No. 02737217) was incorporated on 4 August 1992 as Masstech Ltd. Its trading address was at Bishops House Market Place, Chalfont St Peter, Gerrards Cross, Bucks, SL9 9EA.

The petition to wind up the company was presented by HMRC on 11 February 2013 for £7,484,940 in respect of unpaid VAT. The winding up order was made against Masstech Ltd on 25 March 2013.

On 12 April 2018 a 15 year Disqualification Order was made at the High Court against UlHaque Lone Ahtamad.
All public enquiries concerning the affairs of the company should be made to: The Official Receiver, Public Interest Unit (London), The Insolvency Service, 2nd Floor, 4 Abbey Orchard Street, London WC1B 3SS. Tel: 020 7637 6230 Email: piu.or@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk.

The order was pronounced by Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Barber in the High Court of Justice .
Tiran Nersessian, of 4 Stone Buildings appeared for the Insolvency Service and no one appearing for or on behalf of the defendant.

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

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

The Insolvency Service administers the insolvency regime, investigating all compulsory liquidations and individual insolvencies (bankruptcies) through the Official Receiver to establish why they became insolvent. It may also use powers under the Companies Act 1985 to conduct confidential fact-finding investigations into the activities of live limited companies in the UK. In addition, the agency deals with disqualification of directors in corporate failures, 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.

Contact Press Office

Media enquiries for this press release – 020 7637 6498

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube

The 43 year-old viaduct, which carries the existing A14 over the railway line and local roads currently dominates the skyline near the Huntingdon train station. Removing it, and creating link roads to and from the old A14, is an important part of the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon scheme, which is upgrading 21 miles of the A14 to three lanes in each direction, including a brand new bypass south of Huntingdon.

The plans will enable a major redesign of the Huntingdon train station area. A new public transport hub will be created, with bus stops conveniently located for the railway station. Removing the viaduct will also reduce noise and air pollution and will facilitate further improvements in Huntingdon town centre.

Main construction work is expected to start in 2019.

Chris Bayliss, A14 project manager at Highways England, said:

Work to upgrade the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon is progressing well and we are on schedule to open the new road to traffic by the end of 2020.

The Huntingdon viaduct was built in 1975, and removing it will create new opportunities for Huntingdon. Once the new A14 is open to traffic, the old A14 will become a local road. The plans we are sharing today will make it even easier for people to travel around, as well as in and out of, Huntingdon.

We are holding six public events this June and encourage people to come see us for a chat and find out more about these exciting plans!

To find out more about the work in Huntingdon people are invited to come along to one of the events – details can be found on the scheme webpage.

The £1.5bn A14 upgrade will add additional capacity, boost the local and national economy and cut up to 20 minutes off journeys.

The main construction work at Huntingdon will include a new Mill Common link road, the removal of the A14 viaduct and work around the train station, and a new Views Common link road. Preparatory work, such as archaeology and utility diversion, will start ahead of main construction work.

Chance to volunteer on the A14 community archaeology dig this summer

The A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon archaeology team is calling for volunteers to take part in a free summer community dig programme between 24 July and 25 August 2018.

This is a once in a lifetime chance for people to take part in one of the largest archaeological excavation projects ever undertaken in Britain.

Volunteers will work alongside archaeology experts from the A14 archaeology team and its contractors MOLA Headland Infrastructure, exploring evidence of industrial activity relating to the abandoned medieval village of Houghton, near Huntingdon, as well as Iron Age and Roman remains.

Each volunteer must be able to commit to five (not necessarily consecutive) days of excavation from 9am to 4pm.

To apply, email msearle@molaheadland.com before 25 June 2018, stating your preferred days.

For the latest information about the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme, including job and training opportunities, visit the scheme webpage follow @A14C2H on Twitter and like our Facebook page.

General enquiries

Members of the public should contact the Highways England customer contact centre on 0300 123 5000.

Media enquiries

Journalists should contact the Highways England press office on 0844 693 1448 and use the menu to speak to the most appropriate press officer.