A POULTRY dealer who went bust had not held on to all his accounts and gave investigators three different explanations over what had happened to them.

Burnley magistrates heard Shazad Anwar, 25, who owed one supplier almost £48,000 when he filed for bankruptcy, eventually produced some records for the Official Receiver's Office, but they were almost useless.

Anwar, who started his business when he was just 19 and whose solicitor said he was incapable of running it, escaped a jail term even though the bench said he had hampered the work of the Official Receiver. The magistrates added they accepted he had had limited business experience.

The defendant, of Manchester Road, Nelson, had admitted failing to preserve all accounting records between September 9 1997 and September 8 1999. He was given 120 hours' community punishment and told to pay £3,000 costs.

Bill Maude, prosecuting for the Trade and Industry Department, said when the defendant became insolvent in September 1999, he went himself to the county court and presented his own petition in bankruptcy. The Official Receiver was contacted immediately.

Anwar was asked where his accounting records were, claimed they were at home, but then said they had been stolen from a van. He later told officials he had destroyed records as he went along. The defendant then went on to say he thought there was no reason to keep them because he had been declaring himself bankrupt and had thrown them into a recycling skip in Nelson.

Lyn Slater, defending, said Anwar had been utterly inexperienced, naive and stupid.