An IT equipment supplier has been liquidated by the government after illegally continuing the businesses of two other companies that had been shut down after incurring “significant” liabilities.
Yet officers at the Insolvency Service – a government agency that investigates director misconduct and administers bankruptcies – say they can’t identify who was in charge of the company or where it was trading from.
Investigations into how Bradwell Communications operated were also unable to “substantiate the company’s filed accounts” and failed to verify the source of transactions passing through its accounts worth £270,000.
“Enquiries into Bradwell Communications were hampered because the company and those that ran it lacked transparency and failed to produce books and records, which meant that investigators were unable to establish who was in control of the company or from where it was trading” the Insolvency Service, which is overseen by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said Monday.
Companies House lists the company’s directors as a Lalji Mandalia and a Wasim Raja. The company receivers will now investigate further.
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Bradwell Communications Limited was wound-up in the Manchester High Court in the public interest this week after it was found to be continuing the similar practices of two companies with which it shares directors that were shut down last year.
Purportedly Leicester-based Bradwell Communications was incorporated in October 2015 and operated officially as an IT equipment supplier. It has changed its address yearly, moving from an address in Peterborough to virtual offices in London 2016 and then to an address in Leicester in 2017.
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An investigation was started into Bradwell Communications after connections were discovered linking it to Direct United Ltd and Fibre Tex Ltd, both of which were shut by the courts in April of 2018.
Fibre Tex and Direct United were found to have been trading in an improper manner. A spokesperson for The Insolvency Service told Computer Business Review that a key issue in the closure of both Fibre Tex and Direct United was that they were obtaining IT equipment funded by finance agreements which were subsequently not paid back.
The Insolvency Service
The Insolvency Service said: “Investigators discovered that Bradwell Communications had continued the trade and operations of Direct United (Services) Ltd and Fibre Tex Ltd despite having been wound-up by the courts.”
David Hope Chief Investigator for the Insolvency Service said: “Bradwell Communications and those individuals in control of it paid scant regard to their obligations and have sought to abuse the privileges that limited liability offers. This should serve as strong warning that we will act swiftly to protect the public and business community by investigating and shutting down companies that abuse the corporate regime.”
