The director of firm that provided Home Information Packs (HIPs) has been disqualified from acting as a company director or from managing or in any way controlling a company for seven years after an investigation by The Insolvency Service’s Company Investigations Team in Manchester.

Following the investigation, Paul William Sharpley, a director of Property 360 Limited in Suffolk, did not dispute that he failed to ensure the company maintained, preserved or delivered up adequate accounting records.

The company operated through Sharpley’s personal and other bank accounts, and as a result it has not been possible to establish the financial position, income and expenditure or the use of company funds at any point during its trading and why the computerised bank report showed £76,098 as being in the bank at 2 March 2010 when in fact the balance was £22.

He was also unable to verify how much the company owed HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) at Liquidation in unpaid VAT liabilities.

Sharpley also did not dispute that he failed to ensure the company complied with its statutory obligations to file VAT and PAYE returns to HMRC and to pay VAT and PAYE, with at least £59,716 owing at the date of liquidation.

Claire Entwistle, director of company investigations (North), said: “Failure to adhere to the basic requirements of business practice by keeping full records