Online jewellery firm boss banned

THE boss of a failed Cheshire-based online jewellery business has been disqualified as a director for five-and-a-half years after an investigation by the Insolvency Service.

John Stewart Nuttall, director of Nuttalls of Chester, agreed to a disqualification for taking payments for goods he knew, or ought to have known, he could not provide. The business owed creditors nearly £270,000 when it failed in June 2011.

The Insolvency Service probe found that from November 2010 to June 21 2011 when Nuttalls went into liquidation, Mr Nuttall caused the company to trade at “unreasonable risk to, and to the detriment of the public, while he knew or ought to have known the company was financially unviable”.

This caused customers and credit card providers to lose at least £133,953.

Nutalls took payment in advance over the Internet for items of jewellery which it then failed to supply, leaving customers to claim their money back from their credit card providers.

Robert Clarke from the company investigations branch at the Insolvency Service said: “Directors who take money from the public for goods or services they know, or ought to know, they will not be able to provide, and especially over the Internet where a degree of trust is vital, show a total disrespect for those members of the public and the business community generally.”