Chinese restaurant boss banned as director for five years
The boss of a Chinese restaurant in Greater Manchester has been banned from acting as a company director for five years.
An Insolvency Service investigation found Kong Yew Cheng, 43, a director of The China Banquet, at 190-194 Bury New Road, Whitefield failed to ensure the company kept proper books and financial records and failed to safeguard and deliver them up to the liquidator.
As a result, the activities The China Banquet’s trading could not be explained, including the date that it ceased trading, its income and expenditure, its assets and liabilities, and the recipients and, or purpose of various payments made from the company’s bank account during the period of trade totalling £144,816.
The matters of unfitness, which Cheng did not dispute in the disqualification undertaking, were that between November 13, 2012 at the latest, and the date of liquidation on January 23, 2015, while sole director of The China Banquet, he failed to exercise proper control over China’s affairs and as a result, failed to ensure the company maintained adequate accounting records and/or failed to safeguard and deliver up to the Liquidator such records as were maintained.
It was therefore not been possible to ascertain and verify:
• the date that China Banquet ceased trading
• the income and expenditure of China Banquet between the commencement of trading and the date of liquidation, in particular any transactions conducted in cash
• China Baquet’s assets and liabilities at the date of liquidation
• the purpose and recipients of cash withdrawals between December 6, 2012 and June 5, 2014 totalling £14,731
• the purpose and recipients of cheque payments made between December 11, 2012 and March 25, 2014 totalling £61,460
• the purpose of payments made to three individuals between December 20, 2012 and April 25, 2014 totalling £68,625
Robert Clarke, head of Insolvent Investigations North 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 Cheng has paid the price for failing to do that, as he cannot now carry on in business other than at his own risk.”
