A company director from Ramsbottom has been banned after failing to keep adequate accounting records for his business.

Stephen Green, 54, failed to present up to date accounting records after his company went into liquidation in 2021.

Mr Green, of Burnley Road, was the company director of RBT Project Management but did not provide the Insolvency Service with accounting records for a three-year period between March 2019 and May 2021.

As a result, the Insolvency Service, a government agency which works with businesses with financial difficulties, says it has been unable to determine whether Mr Green paid back an overdrawn balance on a Directors Loan Account (DLA).

A directors loan is a sum paid to a company director from their company separate to a salary dividend or expense repayment.

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The report, published by the insolvency service in October, said: “It has not been possible to determine how the DLA account, which was recorded as being overdrawn by £89,817 on the 31 March 2019 year end accounts, had reduced to nil at liquidation [or] why RBT’s bank statements do not support Mr Green’s assertion that following receipt of a PPI reclaim, the DLA was repaid in full prior to liquidation.”

The report added that it had also been impossible to know whether an outstanding balance remained in respect to the account or whether payments made and recorded in the company’s bank statement were ‘bona fide’ company expenses.

The report continued: “[It has not been possible to determine] whether payments totalling £534,618, recorded in RBT’s bank statements between 31 March 2019 and 25 May 2021, the date of liquidation, relate to bona fide company expenses, particularly £313,439 paid to Mr Green and/or connected parties.

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“Whether income amounting to £529,364 recorded in RBT’s bank statements between 31 March 2019 and 25 May 2021, the date of the liquidation, constitute RBT’s total income in that period.

The service also said it had been unable to ascertain why funds estimated at around £5,000 used to purchase investments in shares have not been repaid to the company or the value or location of any remaining investment disclosed.

RBT’s true liability to HMRC is therefore unknown and the authority has submitted a claim in the liquidation of £153,303, made up of VAT at £96,053, surcharges of £13,884, interest of £101 and penalties of £41,299.

“No explanation is given for the balancing figure of £1,967. Without adequate accounting records it has not been possible to confirm these amounts,” the report added.

Mr Green has been disqualified from being a director for six years starting from October 2023.