14-year ban for Britain’s Got Talent contender
A BRITAIN’S Got Talent semi-finalist and his Manchester-based business partner have each been handed 14-year bankruptcy restriction orders.
The order, one year shy of the maximum punishment, carries a string of restrictions and means they will not be able to hold directorships during the period.
The Insolvency Service said Liam Collins, who appeared as one half of the Faces of Disco act in 2009, and his cousin David Bone took £874,000 from property investors in the 15 months to April 2011 after promising returns of between 8-10%, but instead used the funds to pay business expenses.
At the time they already owed £3m to creditors following the failure of a similar property business. Between November 2010 and April 2011 they took a further £187,500 despite being warned not to do so by the Financial Conduct Authority.
The Insolvency Service said: “Mr Collins and Mr Bone failed to carry out any of the investment activity that investors would have reasonably expected them to do. When investors sought explanations they were misled and the true state of the partnerships finances were kept from them.”
Ken Beasley of the Insolvency Service’s Public Interest Unit said: “At a time when they were already heavily indebted Collins and Bone took substantial sums of money from members of the public with the promise of high returns on property investments with no reasonable expectation that they would ever be able to meet the repayments promised to investors.
“The Insolvency Service investigates the circumstances of all bankruptcies and will use its enforcement powers to tackle serious misconduct of this kind.”
The Insolvency Service will now pass its findings on to the Department for Business Innovation and Skills which could prosecute the pair.
