The boss of community interest company (CIC) in Kent has received a second disqualification for continuing to run the organisation despite a previous ban.
Kathryn Holton was appointed director of the Music Hub Plus, which provide courses and a rehearsal space for local musicians, when the CIC was incorporated in April 2015.
Holton resigned as a director in August 2016 but continued to act as a director for the organisation before it went into liquidation eight months later.
Meanwhile, Holton accepted a disqualification undertaking in October 2016 in connection with two other companies that had entered into insolvency proceedings.
This disqualification undertaking meant she was strictly forbidden from running companies for seven years so should not have been at the helm of the Music Hub Plus.
Effective from 5 March, Holton is now banned for ten years from directly or indirectly becoming involved, without the permission of the court, in the promotion, formation or management of a company.
Meanwhile, Peter Storm Aldridge, who took over from Holton as director when the CIC entered liquidation, also signed a disqualification undertaking in respect of the failures regarding the company’s accounting records.
His ban is effective from 18 February and will last for six years.
Anthea Simpson, chief investigator for the Insolvency Service, said: “Not only did Kathryn Holton disregard her duties as a director of a community interest company but she defied a disqualification undertaking she had personally signed-up to when she continued to run the Music Hub Plus.
“Ten years is a significant ban and should serve as a warning to others who run community interest companies that you are not immune from acting within the law when it comes to being a responsible company director.”
‘Failure to maintain records’
The Insolvency Service said that during her time as a director of the Music Hub Plus, Holton was remiss in her director duties as she caused the company to fail to maintain adequate records and deliver them to the liquidators.
It said this has meant the liquidators have been unable to determine the Music Hub Plus’s final assets, liabilities and deficiencies, as well as the legitimate nature of payments out of the CIC’s account totalling more than £62,000.
These payments included more than £10,000 worth of expenditure on the company credit card, as well as close to £9,000 paid to the CIC’s landlord, when the lease was held in the names of a former director and former employee.
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