Fraudulent company wound up by High Court
A COMPANY which at one time was registered in Birmingham and has been known by three different names this year, has been wound up by the High Court.
Fresh Prepared Ltd was incorporated on July 20, 2011 as Senectus Ltd. It changed its name to Utopia Prepared Ltd on September 5, 2014, and then to UAE Parcel Ltd on January 5 2016. It changed its name again on March 4, 2016 to Utopia Prepared For Retail Ltd, and again on March 25, 2016 to the present name.
The company’s first registered office was at 2 Southfield Road, Westbury on Trim, Bristol. This then changed to 5 High Street Westbury on Trim on March 27, 2013, then to 2 Snow Hill Queensway, Birmingham on August 28, 2014, and then to Unit E1, Printing House Lane, Hayes, Middlesex on January 6, 2016. It then switched to Rouen House, Rouen Road, Norwich, which was the registered office on March 24, 2016.
The winding up order followed an investigation by Company Investigations of the Insolvency Service and the presentation of a public interest petition.
The investigation found that the company, which was known as Utopia Prepared Ltd during 2015 and during the investigation, filed false accounts at Companies House and then used those accounts to try and obtain goods on credit and lease terms, an activity known within the Insolvency Service as Short Term Fraud.
Investigators discovered that the company obtained expensive holidays, cars and other services whilst dishonestly holding itself out as a supplier of prepared fruit to UK supermarkets.
The investigation also found that the company was linked to a string of other companies carrying on similar activities and which also used the device of switching names and addresses. Those addresses were usually virtual office premises with no actual presence by the company.
The accounts were purportedly prepared by another limited company holding itself out to be an accountancy business, which appeared to Investigators to have existed solely to produce the unsubstantiated accounts for this company.
Scott Crighton, Group Leader with Company Investigations North said: “The Insolvency Service will investigate and bring to a halt the activities of companies that seek to use fraudulent means to obtain goods and services on an organized basis using an extensive network of deception and misdirection.
“This company attempted to frustrate the action we took to wind it up by switching names and addresses on a regular basis. That action was also an attempt to confuse and mislead suppliers and potential creditors who sought to contact the company.
“Business owners should take care when dealing with potential new traders whose bona fides consist solely of accounts filed at Companies House with little to validate the information in those accounts.”
The petition to wind-up Fresh Prepared Ltd was presented under s124A of the Insolvency Act 1986 on October 13, 2015 and the Official Receiver was appointed as Liquidator of both companies on December 11, 2015.
