Motor suppliers banned over fake documents to receive £176,000 worth of loans

The Insolvency Service has issued a total ban of 25 years for Peterborough-based mechanics and motor parts suppliers Adam Hughes and Andrew Wood for providing false documents to secure £176,000 worth of loans.

Hughes received a 13-year disqualification order in the High Court before Judge Barber whilst his business partner, Wood had signed a 12-year disqualification undertaking a year earlier on 2 September 2020.

The court heard that both were directors of Concorde Tyre and Exhaust Centres Ltd. The company was incorporated in 2011 and sold motor parts, as well as providing repair services.

Between 2011 and 2017, the company expanded, operating nine sites across Central and Eastern England, covering Coventry, Northampton, Milton Keynes, Oxford, Leicester, Peterborough, Wisbech, Cambridge and Norwich.

Following their appointment, however, the administrators discovered a third party had petitioned the court to wind-up the company. The administrators also had difficulties establishing who owned the company’s assets and who had secured loans against them.

The directors’ conduct was referred to the Insolvency Service where investigators uncovered that Hughes provided false documents, including invoices, emails and bank statements, to secure more than £176,000 from an asset finance company.

The court heard that Wood voluntarily signed his 12-year disqualification a year earlier, while Hughes “did not engage” with the Insolvency Service and this was noted by Judge Barber, who described him as having a “flippant attitude” towards proceedings.

Due to their ban, the pair cannot, directly or indirectly, become involved, without the permission of the court, in the promotion, formation or management of a company.

Mark Bruce, chief investigator, the Insolvency Service, said: “Directors securing funds against the assets their company legitimately owns is a perfectly acceptable practice. Adam Hughes, however, failed to act honestly while securing more than £176,000 and Andrew Wood allowed that dishonesty.

“25 years’ worth of bans is a substantial amount of time to be removed from the corporate arena and their disqualifications should serve as a warning to other directors tempted to defraud creditors by falsifying documents.”