Decade long director ban for bogus bobbies
TWO directors of a publishing firm have been disqualified for 10 years each after making misleading marketing claims that their company acted on behalf of or had an affiliation with the police and the emergency services.
Thomas Henry Harrison, an ex-policeman aged 69, and Ian Christopher Hughes, age 43, of Wrexham, North Wales, were directors of The Emergency Services (Media Department) Ltd (ESMD), which was wound up by the Court in the Public Interest in October 2014, owing creditors at least £54,125.
The company, which had its registered address in Ellesmore Port before liquidation, and traded out of Chester and London, misled customers into believing it was raising funds for emergency services and that by placing an advertisement the cost was going towards such funds.
It also told customers that funds generated by their sponsorship of a magazine would be used to enable distribution of the magazine to local schools and that the company was raising funds against knife crime; drug abuse; alcohol abuse and anti-social behaviour.
ESMD’s turnover totalled £834,687 for the year to the end of July 2014, of which £36,739 was paid to the directors, £179,559 to the shareholders (which include the directors) and £297,097 was paid in sales commissions. In the same period charitable donations totalled just £14,630.
Harrison and Hughes both gave undertakings not to be a director of a limited company for 10 years and did not dispute that they caused ESMD to trade in a manner lacking commercial probity.
Ken Beasley, official receiver of the Insolvency Service’s Public Interest Unit, said: “The Insolvency Service will not allow individuals who falsely hold themselves out to be public servants to go unchecked. The directors of this company have cynically deprived good causes from receiving generous donations from the public in order to enrich themselves.”
