Boss of 400 firms banned for insolvency scheme plot

Neville Taylor was listed as director of 196 companies run from Bridge Street in the town of Kington in Herefordshire

The boss of more than 400 firms has been banned from being a company director after playing a key role in a scheme designed to undermine the UK insolvency system.

Neville Taylor, 57, was paid by a corporate rescue firm to become the sole director of 12 companies which had ceased trading but not yet entered liquidation.

The Insolvency Service, a government agency, said that when the firms eventually entered liquidation, more than £7.6m in assets was unaccounted for.

Dave Magrath, director of investigation and enforcement services, said Taylor, from Kington, Herefordshire, accepted his role in "a scheme designed to subvert and undermine insolvency legislation".

When Taylor, who had correspondence addresses in Telford, Wakefield and Dunfermline, became the firms' sole director, they had combined assets of more than £8.2m, the service said.

But by the time they entered liquidation, that figure was just over £675,000.

'Breached his duties'

Taylor - who has been banned from being a company director for nine years - had been paid more than £250,000 by Atherton Corporate (UK) Ltd to become the sole director of more than 400 companies in total, at least 196 of which were run from his address in Bridge Street, Kington.

He will now have to step down as director of those companies, as well as more than 250 more with correspondence addresses in Telford in Shropshire, Wakefield in Yorkshire and Dunfermline in Fife.

"Neville Taylor hampered efforts by liquidators to identify assets, caused a widespread loss to creditors and breached his duties as a director to act in the best interest of the companies and creditors," said Mr Magrath.

"Taylor made inadequate attempts to identify and locate millions of pounds of assets, to obtain company records, or to make himself aware of the companies' trading.

"By disqualifying Taylor, we are making it clear that we will not tolerate those who avoid their legal duties as directors or seek to enable phoenixism (where a firm's business is transferred to a new company when it becomes insolvent)."