Boss of failed plant hire firm banned as director for seven years

THE 65-year-old boss of a Wirral plant hire company has been disqualified from acting as a director for seven years after failing to ensure adquate books and records of the company were maintained and delivered to the liquidator.

Liverpool man Patrick Melvin was the sole director of A&P Plant Hire from incorporation on February 6 2008 until the company went into liquidation on December 12 2013 with debts of £322,667.

The failure to ensure that adequate books were maintained and delivered means it has not been possible to ascertain the ownership and whereabouts of various assets of the company, including at least 36 vehicles which had been identified as having been insured in the name of the company on November 1 2012.

It has also not been possible to ascertain the purpose of numerous transactions made from the company’s bank account between February 15 2013 and August 22 2013.

Melvin gave an undertaking to the Insolvency Service not to manage or control a company and his disqualification is effective from December 9 2015.

Robert Clarke, head of company investigations at the Insolvency Service, said: “Directors have a duty to ensure that their companies maintain proper accounting records, and, following insolvency, deliver them to the office-holder in the interests of fairness and transparency.

“Without a full account of transactions it is impossible to determine whether a director has discharged his duties properly, or is using a lack of documentation as a cloak for impropriety.

“Mr Melvin has paid the price for failing to do that, as he cannot now carry on in business other than at his own risk.”