A pair of directors involved in a business providing debt collection services have been disqualified from acting as directors following an investigation by the Insolvency Service.
Terence Mellor, 52, of Northumberland and Ross Alan Morton, 28,of Sunderland, have both been disqualified following an application to the court for a total period of 22 years.
Mellor and Morton were both disqualified by the court on 22 June 2016 for 10 years, and 12 years respectively, from 13 July 2016.
Both were directors of Express M S Limited, a company that had previously been investigated by Company Investigations, acting on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). The business provided debt collection services charging customers an annual fee, with commission being payable on any debt recovered.
The matters of unfit conduct as found by the court were that the directors had caused or allowed Express to make misleading and unfounded statements to customers, and made recoveries on behalf of customers that they had failed to pay over.
Ken Beasley, official receiver at the Insolvency Service’s Public Interest Unit, said: “These companies misled customers, inducing them into entering into contracts for debt collection services and subsequently failed to remit all collections made on behalf of those customers.
“Such behaviour falls below the standards expected of responsible directors of a limited company.
“The Insolvency Service has strong enforcement powers and we will not hesitate to remove directors from the business environment who have failed to demonstrate the level of care and responsibility required of them.”
