Payroll director banned for £2.7m of contentious payments

A Doncaster man found to have failed to keep proper payroll accounting records has been hit with an eight year ban from setting up or managing a company.

Jonas Stankevicius was appointed the sole director of S Jonas Solutions Limited in July 2018, at the same time the payroll services company was incorporated.

S Jonas Solutions started trading shortly after incorporation from premises in Stockhill Road, Doncaster, but only a few months later entered into creditors voluntary liquidation in December 2018.

The payroll company’s liquidation and the length of trading, however, brought S Jonas Solutions to the attention of the Insolvency Service which conducted further enquiries into a series of contentious payments.

Investigators found that Stankevicius failed to ensure payroll company maintained and/or preserved adequate accounting records.

This failure has meant that neither the liquidators nor investigators could verify the legitimacy of £2.73m worth of payments made from the payroll company’s bank account between August and October 2018.

The failure to maintain proper records also meant it has not been able to determine the true amount of tax liabilities owed by S Jonas Solutions after the tax authorities claimed just over £500,000 in the liquidation.

On 15 September 2020 the Secretary of State accepted a disqualification undertaking from Stankevicius, after he did not dispute that he failed to ensure that S Jonas Solutions maintained and/or preserved adequate accounting records, or alternatively failed to deliver up such records to the Liquidator.

Effective from 6 October 2020, Stankevicius has banned for eight years from directly or indirectly becoming involved, without the permission of the court, in the promotion, formation or management of a company.

Mark Bruce, chief investigator for the Insolvency Service, said: “All directors have a statutory requirement to maintain company accounting records.

“Jonas Stankevicius, however, completely disregarded his responsibilities and as a direct consequence of his actions, he couldn’t explain the legitimacy of £2.7m of payments paid out of the payroll company’s accounts over just two months.

“But his misconduct has caught up with him and Jonas Stankevicius has been banned for eight years, which should serve as a warning to other rogue directors that your misconduct could see you being removed from the business environment for a substantial amount of time.”