In connection with this, a financial advisor has been banned for 13 years after misleading investors.
Following a High Court order, the Director of a mortgage brokerage,Primrose Associates Limited, Peter Thomas Carron, has been banned from being a company Director for 13 years.
An investigation from the Insolvency Service found that Mr Carron (45) misled investors of his mortgage brokerage Primrose Associates and mortgage software firm Comment Technologies.
At the failure of the two firms, there was approximately 50 investors affected who claimed to have lost investments in excess of £7.4 million.
The Insolvency Service states Carron was telling clients that their capital was invested with little or no risk attached and that he could ‘personally guarantee’ their returns. However in doing this, he failed to disclose that their investments were actually being paid into two hopelessly insolvent companies – Primrose & Comment.
Primose’s financial returns that were filed to the FCA stated that the brokerage was totally solvent and financially viable. However, the company’s actual accounts showed it was hopelessly insolvent.
It was also discovered that Mr Carron also caused separate firm Evaluate to trade to the detriment of HM Revenue & Customs by not paying PAYE & NIC in excess of £750,000. No payment had been made over Evaluate’s entire trading period.
At the High Court trial, the judgement stated that from 18th July 2014 until 17th July 2027, Mr Carron will not be able to act as a Director, manage or in any way control a company. The High Court Judge also refused Mr Carron leave to appeal. Any further application for permission to appeal must be made to the Court of Appeal.
Commenting on Mr Carron’s disqualification, Joanne Covell, a Head of Investigations at the Insolvency Service, said: “The disqualification sends a clear message to other company directors; if you seek to mislead your customers, or your regulator, the Insolvency Service will investigate and you could face a lengthy ban.”
In his Judgment, HHJ Pelling QC said: “The allegations I have found proved shows that he is willing to mislead his regulator, HMRC, and those who to his knowledge are relying on him for guidance. Such a person is manifestly unfit to be a director of a company since it is plain that the public are exposed to the risk of loss as a result of such misconduct.”
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