Apr72017

Press release: Director of Gosport take-away banned for employing illegal workers

HM Government
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The disqualification from 13 March 2017 prevents Mr Ahmed from directly or indirectly becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company until March 2022.

Mr Ahmed’s disqualification follows an investigation by the Insolvency Service which found he had failed to ensure relevant immigration checks were completed and documents retained, resulting in the employment of an illegal worker and which resulted in a penalty notice of £30,000 being issued by the Home Office.

Aldona O’Hara, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service said:

The Insolvency Service rigorously pursues directors who fail to pay fines imposed by the government for breaking employment and immigration laws. We have worked closely in this case with our colleagues at the Home Office to achieve this disqualification.

The director sought an unfair advantage over his competitors by employing an individual who did not have the right to work in the UK in breach of his duties as a director.

The public has a right to expect that those who break the law will face the consequences. Running a limited company, means you have statutory obligations as well as protections. If you fail to comply with your obligations then the Insolvency Service will investigate you.

Notes to editors

Unique Flavours Limited (Company Registration No. 08348016) was incorporated on 4 January 2013 and traded from 121 Stoke Road, Gosport, Portsmouth P012 ILR.

Mohammed Zahed Ahmed (date of birth 24 April 1985) was the sole registered director from 4 January 2013, the date of incorporation, until liquidation.

The company went into liquidation on 13 May 2016. On 20 February 2017, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy accepted a Disqualification Undertaking from Mr Ahmed, effective from 13 March 2017, for a period of five years.

The matters of unfit conduct being that: Mohammed Zahed Ahmed failed to ensure that Unique Flavours Limited complied with its obligations in accordance with The Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 and employed illegal workers.

This led to a penalty of £30,000, which materially contributed to the insolvency of Unique Flavours Limited in that:

  • Mohammed Zahed Ahmed was sole appointed director of Unique from 4 January 2013, the date of incorporation, until the date of liquidation
  • on 9 October 2015 Home Office Immigration Enforcement (HOIE) officers visited the company’s trading premises and the company was found to be employing two illegal workers
  • on 24 November, 2015 HOIE issued a Notification of Liability for a Civil Penalty to Unique in respect of a suspected breach of section 15 of the Immigration Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, in the sum of £30,000 in respect of the company’s employment of two illegal workers, payment of which was due on or before 24 December 2015
  • as the sole registered director of Unique, Md Zahed Ahmed was responsible for ensuring that the company complied with all relevant legislation, including legislation relating to the employment of persons eligible to work.
  • no payments were made against the civil penalty and this sum remained outstanding at liquidation.

A disqualification order has the effect that without specific permission of a court, a person with a disqualification cannot:

  • act as a director of a company
  • take part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of a company or limited liability partnership
  • be a receiver of a company’s property

Disqualification undertakings are the administrative equivalent of a disqualification order but do not involve court proceedings. Persons subject to a disqualification order are bound by a range of other restrictions.

The Insolvency Service, an executive agency sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), administers the insolvency regime, and aims to deliver and promote a range of investigation and enforcement activities both civil and criminal in nature, to support fair and open markets. We do this by effectively enforcing the statutory company and insolvency regimes, maintaining public confidence in those regimes and reducing the harm caused to victims of fraudulent activity and to the business community, including dealing with the disqualification of directors in corporate failures.

BEIS’ mission is to build a dynamic and competitive UK economy that works for all, in particular by creating the conditions for business success and promoting an open global economy. The Criminal Investigations and Prosecutions team contributes to this aim by taking action to deter fraud and to regulate the market. They investigate and prosecute a range of offences, primarily relating to personal or company insolvencies.

The agency also authorises and regulates the insolvency profession, assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay employees, provides banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds and advises ministers and other government departments on insolvency law and practice.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available.

Media enquiries for this press release – 020 7674 6910 or 020 7596 6187

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

Apr72017

Business rates mess intensifies as firms forced to wait extra month for appeal

Scottish Conservatives
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  • Business rates mess intensifies as firms forced to wait extra month for appeal

7 Apr 2017

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Businesses seeking to overturn crippling rises in rates will be forced to wait an extra month before their appeals are considered, it has emerged.

The Scottish Government has changed the legislation to state firms must now wait at least 105 days before a decision is made on their rates bill.

Previously, the limit was just 70 days, meaning those affected will have an additional 35 days of being out-of-pocket.

It’s the latest set-back for the SNP as it struggles to address the business rates fiasco.

Earlier this week, it emerged finance secretary Derek Mackay’s 12.5 per cent cap on increases was in fact a 14.75 per cent one, as he’d forgotten to factor in inflation.

Scottish Conservative shadow finance secretary Murdo Fraser said:

“This is yet more evidence of the SNP’s business rates fiasco unravelling.

“Not only was the cap announced by Derek Mackay found to be misleading, but now firms are being forced to wait more than a month extra to get their appeals heard.

“Considering finances for many of these organisations affected will already be tight, they can hardly afford to wait an additional 35 days.

“This is just another indication of an anti-business SNP government, that would rather hit firms in the pocket than help them boost growth, jobs and the economy.”

  • An appellant can request that the Valuation Appeal Committee hear the appeal within a time period that the appellant requests, but this cannot be less than 105 days (previously 70 days) from the date they make the request in question.
  • The “70 day” mentioned was changed very recently (16 March and coming into force on 1 May 2017) when The Valuation Appeal Committee (Procedure in Appeals under the Valuation Acts) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2017 was laid (Legislation.Gov.UK, Scottish Statutory Instruments, link).
  • Previously, Section 8 (4 and 7) of The Valuation Appeal Committee (Procedure in Appeals under the Valuation Acts) (Scotland) Regulations 1995 stated (LegislationGov.UK, Scottish Statutory Instruments, link):

‘(4) The secretary shall give to each party not less than 70 days’ notice of the date, time and place set for the hearing of the appeal.’

‘(7) If an appellant considers that his appeal has not been or is not to be heard within a reasonable period of lodging it, he may request the Committee to hear the appeal within such a period as he may specify, being a period not less than 70 days from the date of his request, and if the Committee declines to hear the appeal within such a period-

(a)    It shall state its reasons for so declining; and

(b)   The Secretary shall notify both parties accordingly’.’

  • The Valuation Appeal Committee (Procedure in Appeals under the Valuation Acts) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2017 “70” for “105” in both these paragraphs 4 and 7 of regulation 8. It states: (Legislation.Gov.UK, Scottish Statutory Instruments, link)

‘(4) In regulation 8 (arrangements for hearing by the Committee)—

(a) in paragraphs (4) and (7), for “70” substitute “105”;

(b) in paragraph (5)(6), for “giving such information” to the end substitute “to be published on an appropriate website”; and

(c) in paragraph (6), for “name a place” to the end substitute “include a list of the appeals to be heard at that hearing”.’

  • Therefore as of 1 May 2017 the period covered by these sections will no longer be 70 but 105 days. Therefore the minimum time that an appellant can ask is 105 days, and if the Committee declines to hear the appeal within such a period, it must state why and notify both parties that this is the case.