TWO bosses of a company which managed pubs in Bury and elsewhere in the North West have been banned from acting as company directors for six years.

Joanne Grieves and Jonathan Lye were directors of Hogshead Investments Ltd which was involved in the management of the Thrush Hotel and The Spotted Cow in Bury.

The business also managed public houses in Rochdale, Ince and Manchester and operated as a wholesaler of beers from premises in Rochdale.

The company traded from May, 1995, until December, 1998, when it was was wound up by the court with assets of £205,827 and liabilities of £1,229,306 and an estimated deficiency of £1,033,479.

The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry has accepted the disqualification undertaking based on certain matters of unfit conduct which, solely for the purpose of the disqualification procedure, were not disputed by Leeds-based Mr Lye and Ms Grieves.

These were that they failed to adequately insure the stock of Hogshead, resulting in a loss to the company in excess of £500,000.

They failed to satisfactorily maintain Hogshead's accounting records in breach of the Companies Act in that cash withdrawals totalling £64,575 cannot be adequately explained by reference to the available records.

They caused Hogshead to pay a dividend of £60,000 to themselves of which £32,402 was in contravention of the Companies Act.