Alarm firm bosses hit with six-year bans

TWO bosses of a Manchester domestic security company that was wound up in the public interest owing more than £320,000, have agreed to six-year director bans.

Liverpool-based Stephen Rievaulx Wilson, 50, and Malcolm McGreevy, 49, were directors of UK Monitoring & Response Solutions (UKMARS), which traded from premises on Bailey Lane near Manchester Airport.

UKMARS, which offered domestic alarm monitoring and response services nationwide, was wound up in the public interest after an investigation by the Insolvency Service in July 2011.

Mr Wilson and Mr McGreevy have made undertakings to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) not to promote, manage, or be a director of a limited company for six years.

Neither man disputed that they had failed to fulfil their duty to ensure that UKMARS kept adequate records of its financial dealings, or to provide these records to the Official Receiver.

The investigation uncovered that the company had made unexplained payments totalling more than £190,000 to companies which were subsequently also wound up in the public interest, including payments of more than £150,000 to, or for the benefit of, a company of which Mr Wilson and Mr McGreevy were also directors.

More than £117,000 of these funds were paid out by UKMARS despite the company having already been served with a petition for it to be wound up on public interest grounds.

The Insolvency Service investigation also revealed that Mr Wilson and Mr McGreevy exercised such a poor level of control over the company’s books and records that it proved impossible to explain the purpose of significant payments made by the company.

It also meant it was impossible to establish whether these were payments could be recovered for the benefit of creditors, most of whom were members of the public who paid £99 in order to have their house alarms monitored.

The majority of payments were paid to a company of which Mr Wilson and Mr McGreevy were also directors.

Official Receiver Ken Beasley, said: “This failure on the part of Mr Wilson and Mr McGreevy constitutes behaviour that falls far below that expected of responsible directors of a limited company.

“The Insolvency Service has strong enforcement powers and we will not hesitate to use them to remove directors from the business environment who have failed to demonstrate the level of care and responsibility that is required of them.”