Leicester IT firm wound-up by High Court

A court has wound-up a Leicester-based IT supplier after it continued the work of two connected companies that had already been shut down a year earlier.

Bradwell Communications was wound-up in the public interest on 15 February 2019 at the High Court in Manchester. The Official Receiver has been appointed liquidator of the company.

In setting out the basis for the petitions to wind-up the company, the court heard that Bradwell Communications was incorporated in October 2015 and supplied IT equipment.

The company was investigated as a result of connections identified between Bradwell Communications and two associated companies, Direct United (Services) Ltd and Fibre Tex Ltd that were investigated in an earlier case.

Direct United (Services) and Fibre Tex were closed down by the courts in April 2018 after they were found to have operated with a lack of transparency and had traded in an improper manner that resulted in both companies incurring significant liabilities.

Following more recent enquiries, investigators discovered that Bradwell Communications had continued the trade and operations of Direct United (Services) Ltd and Fibre Tex Ltd despite having been wound-up by the courts.

Enquiries into Bradwell Communications were hampered because the company and those that ran it lacked transparency and failed to produce books and records, which meant that investigators were unable to establish who was in control of the company or from where it was trading.

Investigators were also unable to substantiate the company’s filed accounts, which purported to show significant assets and retained profits, or verify transactions passing through the company’s bank accounts with a value of circa £270,000.

David Hope, chief investigator for the Insolvency Service, said: “Bradwell Communications and those individuals in control of it paid scant regard to their obligations and have sought to abuse the privileges that limited liability offers.

“This should serve as strong warning that we will act swiftly to protect the public and business community by investigating and shutting down companies that abuse the corporate regime.”