A property developer has been disqualified from running companies for failing to keep adequate accounting records of his company's business.

David John Trathen, 64, the former director of Rocco Primrose Limited (RPL), has been banned from running companies, both directly and indirectly, for eight years after he failed to maintain adequate accounting records for the business.

Formerly known as Trathen Lewis Limited, Plymouth-based RPL was first incorporated in August 2013 and traded for around three-and-a-half years before entering into creditors' voluntary liquidation in April 2017 with an estimated deficiency of £416,353.

As independent insolvency practitioners were appointed to wind up the company, their job was made difficult as Mr Trathen failed to deliver adequate accounting records showing the true nature of the company's business. Further investigations revealed that from at least June 2016 to the end of the business in February 2017, Mr Trathen failed to ensure that RPL maintained adequate accounting records.

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In one example, investigators were unable to account for at least £141,000 of RPL's income, generated from the sale of 20 building plots of land now known as Lilford Gardens – the former site of West Park Primary School in Wanstead Grove.

In another example, investigators could not explain why there had been more than £407,000 worth of expenditure from RPL's bank account and whether this related to genuine company expenses. And because of the lack adequate accounting records, investigators could not determine whether Mr Trathen's statement of affairs in the liquidation was accurate and the real reason why RPL failed as a business.

Dave Elliott, Head of Insolvent Investigations (Midlands & West) for the Insolvency Service said: "Directors have a duty to ensure that companies maintain proper accounting records, and, following insolvency, deliver them to the office-holder.

"Without such records, it is not possible to determine whether or not a director has discharged his duties properly, or is using a lack of documentation as a cloak for other wrongdoing."

(LM)