County Londonderry directors agree to disqualification
Date published:
The Department for the Economy (the Department) has accepted disqualification undertakings from the directors of a hotel business.
Undertakings were received for seven years from Henry Doherty (36) of Cove Close, Ballyronan and Michael Lennon (36) of Mullaghboy Road, Bellaghy, in respect of their conduct as directors of River Valley Hospitality Ltd.
The Company operated in the hotel and bar/restaurant business from Main Street, Toomebridge, Co. Antrim and went into liquidation on 14 December 2016 with an estimated deficiency as regards creditors of £269,934.
The Department accepted the disqualification undertakings from Henry Doherty and Michael Lennon on 7 October 2020 and 2 October 2020 respectively based on the following unfit conduct which solely for the purposes of the disqualification procedure was not disputed by either of them:
- causing and permitting River Valley Hospitality Ltd to operate a policy of discrimination against the Crown. From 2014/2015 to the date of liquidation, they caused and permitted River Valley Hospitality Ltd to retain monies totalling £237,412.30 representing 88% of the company’s overall estimated deficiency in respect of VAT which were properly payable to the Crown;
- failing to take steps to protect the interest of creditors in successive companies amounting to a failure to learn and which was to the detriment of creditors, employees and the Crown;
- failing to file Annual Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2015 within the prescribed period;
- causing and permitting the Company to fail to comply with the Companies Act 2006 in that the Annual Return for the period ended 11 November 2015 and the Confirmation Statement for the period ended 11 November 2016 were not filed within the prescribed periods.
The following matter of unfit conduct was accepted by Henry Doherty:
- acting as a director / manager of River Valley Hospitality Limited whilst being an un-discharged Bankrupt.
In addition the following matter of conduct was accepted by Michael Lennon:
- permitting Henry Doherty to act as a director / manager of River Valley Hospitality Limited whilst being un-discharged Bankrupt.
There have been seven Undertakings accepted by the Department in the Financial year commencing 1 April 2020.