Waste director banned after failing to account for £1.14m

A Kent waste director has been banned for 7 years after they failed to provide records to account for £1.14m in payments.

According to the government’s insolvency service Michael Martin from Erith in Kent was the director of ADM Skips, however it ceased trading in 2019 and a liquidator was appointed to wind up the company.

It was reported that Martin refused to “cooperate with the liquidator” and didn’t produce any accounting records.

The service found that before entering liquidation, ADM Skips received more than £1.1m into its account and made payments out of a similar amount. Transactions included visa payments of close to £500,000 and foreign currency payments of £448,000.

Investigators were able to recover some records from the ADM Skip’s accountant but they could not explain the company’s transactions and the legitimacy of the payments.

Michael Martin has now been made subject to a disqualification order after the High Court of Justice found he had “failed to ensure that ADM Skips Limited maintained and preserved adequate accounting records, or had failed to deliver up to the liquidator these records”.

Dave Elliott, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: “Michael Martin failed to work with the liquidator following the winding up of his company, refusing to account for more than £1m that left the company accounts during his directorship”. 

“Directors who cause companies to fail to maintain and deliver sufficient accounting records can expect lengthy bans, and Michael Martin is now unable to act as a company director for a significant period.”