A LISBURN director has been handed a nine-year boardroom disqualification after her restaurant at University Road in Belfast crumbled two years ago owing £330,000.
Perpetua Teresa Hughes (42) from Barleywood Mill in Lisburn ran restaurant firm TRNI Limited.
At a hearing brought by the Department of Enterprise, she admitted propping up the company with £164,198 owed in taxes, mostly VAT.
She also permitted the incorporation of TRNI as a “phoenix” company so as to take over part of the business previously carried out by a company that had gone into liquidation.
Hughes also admitted failing to learn from previous insolvencies and setting up a new company carrying out essentially the same activities whilst previous companies under her control failed, resulting in significant debts to the Crown, and a number of other misdemeanours around failure to supply up company accounts.
In a separate case, David Martin (53) of Pilot Place, Clarendon Quay, Belfast, was disqualified for seven years in respect of his conduct as a director of wholesale office supplies business One Office Products.
Operating from Mallusk Road in Newtownabbey, it entered liquidation in January 2013 with estimated total debts of £404,494.
He caused the company to misapply company funds to his sole trader business, contrary to the interests of the limited liability company, which resulted in 11 commission payments totalling £79,247 being diverted to himself.
