Directors Disqualification Case Study

Successfully defending proceedings

Director of a telecoms company issued with proceedings

Our client was a director of a telecoms company and allegations were made that he was also a shadow director of a separate legal entity which are in the same premises as the telecoms company. Proceedings were issued by the DTI against our client in respect of crown debt arrears in the separate legal entity. They sought to show that our client was the controlling mind of not only the telecoms company but also the separate legal entity which shared the same offices.

What we did:

We firstly dealt with the specific allegations on a pre-issue basis. However the DTI still commenced proceedings against our client. We then completed detailed affidavit evidence in response and this included not only an affidavit from our client but affidavits from all the employees of the telecoms company, all of which indicated that our client was not in any way involved with the separate legal entity.

The Result:

The Insolvency Service agreed to drop the claim after filing of our client’s evidence. Proceedings were discontinued and our clients’ legal costs paid in full. This enabled our client to continue with his current telecoms business interests and avoided all of the problems associated with possible disqualification against him. The net cost to our client of the action was nothing.