Two directors of a financial franchise have been disqualified following an Insolvency Service investigation.

Christopher Lake and Stephen Knight, the directors of a group of companies which claimed to sell financial and other business opportunities to people with poor credit histories have been disqualified from acting as company directors for a total of 16 years following an Insolvency Service investigation.

The disqualifications come after an investigation into the activities of Lake and Knight who ran Charter Financial Solutions Limited Charter Financial Solutions (UK) Limited Finance Select (UK) Limited Bounce World Limited and Trash Express Limited. All the companies were all based in Macclesfield, Cheshire.

Each company was ordered into liquidation, on the grounds of public interest on 22 May 2009.

Insolvency Service investigators found the directors had deliberately given false information to a high street bank in connection with an application for a bank account for Finance Select (UK) Limited. The directors wrongly stated they had never been associated with a business that had a court order of a debt registered against it.

Stephen Speed, chief executive of The Insolvency Service, said: “Companies providing deliberately misleading information to lenders and potential investors is serious misconduct and it undermines the confidence the public have in business. I hope the disqualification periods secured in this case sends a clear and simple message to other company directors. The Insolvency Service has strong enforcement powers and we will not hesitate to use them to remove dishonest or reckless people from the business environment.””