A NUMBER of company directors in the north have accepted boardroom bans of up to eight years in separate cases brought by the Department for the Economy.
They include prominent hotel and restaurant operators Kenneth Sharp (53) and his wife Lisa (55), whose business Saline Canine Ltd ran The Salty Dog hotel in Bangor.
Ken Sharp was banned for six years for retaining £430,727 due in taxes, and not learning from previous insolvencies.
He also demonstrated "a repeated pattern of unfit conduct" by allowing the incorporation of Saline as a phoenix company to take over the business previously carried out by Keli Frecha Hospitality Ltd.
Lisa Sharp was disqualified for three years, with grounds against her including operating a policy of discrimination in that payments were made to trade creditors at a time when the tax debt to HM Revenue and Customs was increasing.
Separately, an eight-year disqualification order was made against against Daniel Smith (35), director of a vehicle sales business Silverwood Trading (NI) Ltd in Cookstown, which went into liquidation in November 2019 with no assets but liabilities of £296,711.
He admitted a number of areas of unfit conduct which included operating a policy of discrimination by paying trade and other creditors ahead of the tax man while company debt continued to increase.
Meanwhile Judith Mulgrew (41) from Lisburn can't be a director for the next six years as a result of how she ran her hairdressing and beauty treatments business.
Saul Ltd, which had a registered office at The Old Mill in Crossgar, went into liquidation in September 2019 with an estimated deficiency of £78,389 - and an additional £1 owing as share capital.
She was said to have failed to learn from a previous insolvent company and set up new businesses in circumstances where there was no prospect of it succeeding.
And Michael Quinn (60) from Crossmaglen and Brigid Quinn (58) from Carrickmacross, who were directors of Cloughvalley Stores Ltd, were banned for seven years and six years respectively for their failures in running Quinns Superstore at Newry Road in Crossmaglen.
It went into administration in October 2011, followed by a compulsory liquidation in March 2015, and in June the High Court heard the company had an estimated deficiency of £4.9 million.
The court heard that at one stage Michael Quinn had entered the Cloughvalley Stores premises and caused criminal damage to company property.
