A former company director has been sentenced to six months in prison after he was found to be managing a construction company while being disqualified.

Robert Porter, 67, from Hampshire, pleaded guilty to one count of being being concerned in the management of a company whilst disqualified from doing so and one count of the use of a prohibited name.

He was jailed following a hearing at Reading Magistrates' Court.

In addition, his wife Kelly Porter, 45, received a sentence of 150 hours unpaid work and a directors' disqualification order of one year's duration for aiding and abetting the section 13 count.

An investigation by the Insolvency Service, as well as a full criminal investigation and prosecution by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS), lead to Mr Porter's conviction.

Mr Porter was formerly the director of building company ADP Enterprises which traded as A&B Construction.

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However, the company amassed large deficiencies and was wound up in August 2008.

During the winding up, Mr Porter offered a Directors Disqualification Undertaking for three years and six months, which ended on 07 December 2013.

Mr Porter was therefore prohibited from acting as a director or being involved in the management of a company for this period. Additionally, as its director, he was prohibited from trading in the name of the dissolved company, or any name it had been known by in the 12 months prior to winding up, or any name so similar as to suggest a connection to the dissolved company.

Following this, Porter & Co was incorporated and operated as a building company on 12 May 2008.

The company amassed debts and was wound up on 26 March 2012.

However, in the course of winding up Porter & Co, the Insolvency Practitioner collected evidence, including invoices and statements from customers, which indicated that although Ms Porter was the sole registered director, in reality Mr Porter had been in control of the company and that the company had used the trading style A & B Construction.

DCIO Liam Mannall, from the Department for BIS, said: "Flouting a director's disqualification has serious consequences. In this case Mr Porter has received a custodial prison sentence at the age of 67, whilst his wife has received a lesser sentence but is now also disqualified.

"This demonstrates how seriously the courts consider the flouting of directors disqualification by banned directors, and those who assist them."

(LM/MH)