Director of Clitheroe care home banned for not looking after company records

Mr Goldsmith’s disqualification, from 24 April, follows an investigation by the Insolvency Service and prevents him from acting as a company director or from managing or in any way controlling a company until 2021.

The investigation found that minimal records had been delivered up to the liquidators of the companies following their failure in 2011 and 2012, and as a result it was impossible to verify the companies’ financial dealings, in particular, the extent of their assets and liabilities, the purpose of cash transactions and the nature of inter-company transactions.
As a director, Mr Goldsmith had a responsibility to make sure this was done.
Commenting on the disqualification, Robert Clarke, Group Leader of Insolvent Investigations North at the Insolvency Service, said:-
“Directors have a clear, statutory duty to ensure that their companies maintain proper accounting records, and, following insolvency, deliver them to the office-holder in the interests of fairness and transparency. Without a full account of transactions it is impossible to determine whether a director has discharged his duties properly, or is using a lack of documentation as a cloak for impropriety.
“Mr Goldsmith has paid the price for failing to do that, as he cannot now carry on in business other than at his own risk.”
The companies had a combined deficiency of more than £1.5million pounds, having entered separate insolvency proceedings between May 2011 and February 2012.