Financial Advisor Given Bankruptcy Restriction Order

A financial advisor has been given a bankruptcy restriction order totalling 15 years after acting in the management of a company and being subject to a director’s ban of ten years.

Mr Stephen Benjamin James Todd was handed the restriction after breaching a bankruptcy order, whilst Registrar Christine Derrett expressed that the event was one of the worst examples of disregard to the Insolvency Service that she has witnessed.

On 8 October 2012, a year before the misconduct took place, Mr Todd had been disqualified as a consequence of his actions in a previous company. The disqualification meant that he was not permitted to act as the director of a limited company or take part in the promotion, management or formation of a company for ten years.

Some time after this on 29 April 2013, Mr Todd received a bankruptcy order and on 16 December the same year, his discharge from bankruptcy was suspended indefinitely.

However, he was found to act in the management of IPR Capital Limited after the disqualification was handed to him. On 8 February 2013, the company went into provisional liquidation and on 2 February two years later, IPR Capital Limited went into liquidation with liabilities of over £10 million.

The court also found that the financial advisor failed to disclose his income from IPR (at least £517,100 from 29 April 2013 to 15 April 2014) amongst other parties in his bankruptcy proceedings. Payments were found to be placed into his bank account from other parties, which totalled £59,904.

The financial advisor stated that he had assets with an approximate value of £8,880 to the Official Receiver, yet he was found to have liabilities of over £454,107 in April 2013. Of this sum, £363,607 was due as a result of unpaid self-assessment tax, penalties and National Insurance payments.

The new restriction order means that Mr Todd must disclose his status as a person subject to bankruptcy restrictions if he wishes to take out credit of over £500, and he is subsequently unable to act as an insolvency practitioner or take part in the management of a limited company.

The restriction is in place until 13 December 3031.