Incorporated in April 1998, Diamond Shortbreak Holidays Limited traded in Market Harborough as a travel agent and holiday company.

Jamie Alex Tann (37), from Wallasey, Merseyside, joined the company in June 2013 when he was appointed as a director on Companies House, working as the travel agent’s Financial Director.

But four years after his appointment, it was discovered that Jamie Tann was responsible for a payment worth £25,000 that hadn’t reached a supplier.

Jamie Tann’s employment with the travel agent was terminated before the Diamond Shortbreak Holidays entered into administration in March 2017. The company entered into liquidation in February 2018 and caused job losses both in the UK and in South Africa. Creditors were also owed money to the value of more than £10 million.

The Insolvency Service looked into the causes of the company’s failure and found that between March 2015 and January 2017 Jamie Tann had misappropriated funds belonging to Diamond Shortbreak Holidays worth at least £713,000.

Investigators spoke to Jamie Tann, who said that he had used the misappropriated funds to conduct foreign exchange trades and that all of the money was lost.

Further enquiries found that he caused Diamond Shortbreak Holidays to make payments due to the travel agent’s creditors into third party bank accounts, while also creating false payment requests from Diamond Shortbreak Holidays’ foreign exchange provider, which he paid either to himself or a third party.

He also received funds due to Diamond Shortbreak Holidays and paid them into accounts not belonging to the company, while failing to pay the funds back to the travel agent.

On 6 December 2018, Jamie Tann signed a disqualification undertaking, which was accepted by the Secretary of State, and effective from 27 December 2018, he is banned for 11 years from directly or indirectly becoming involved, without the permission of the court, in the promotion, formation or management of a company.

Martin Gitner, Deputy Head of Insolvent Investigations for the Insolvency Service said:

Jamie Tann was appointed to a position of trust at the company. However, he used that privilege to misuse hundreds and thousands of pounds on what turned out to be unsuccessful foreign exchange trades.

11 years is a substantial ban and should serve as a warning to others that if you misuse company funds then we can have you struck off the register of company directors.

Mr Tann, date of birth July 1981 and he resides in Wallasey, Merseyside.

DIAMOND SHORTBREAK HOLIDAYS LIMITED (Company number 03546467)

A disqualification undertaking 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 administers the insolvency regime, investigating all compulsory liquidations and individual insolvencies (bankruptcies) through the Official Receiver to establish why they became insolvent. It may also use powers under the Companies Act 1985 to conduct confidential fact-finding investigations into the activities of live limited companies in the UK. In addition, the agency deals with disqualification of directors in corporate failures, 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.

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

The Attorney General is seeking to appoint new members to three of his panels of junior counsel, the London A, B and C panel, to undertake civil work for government departments.

The next competition will open on Tuesday 19 February 2019.

Membership of the London panels is open to both barristers and solicitors with the appropriate qualifications. There is a wide variety of expertise required, not just in public law, to meet the needs of government across the civil courts and tribunals.

Please see the attached flyer (MS Word Document, 56.5KB) publicising a seminar to be held on Tuesday 5 March for anyone considering making an application this spring.

Published 18 February 2019

The Groceries Code Adjudicator’s (GCA) sixth annual survey is now open until 23 April 2019.

Completing the survey

This is your opportunity to give the GCA your opinion on retailer compliance with the Groceries Supply Code of Practice (GSCoP) in the last 12 months.

The survey is an important source of information for the GCA about current retailer practices and changes over the past 12 months. The information you provide helps the GCA focus her attention for the year ahead.

All the information you provide is treated in strict confidence. All answers are collated and analysed by YouGov and respondents are not identified to the GCA without their prior consent.

Results

The results of the survey will be presented at the GCA Conference on Monday 24 June 2019 and you can now register for the conference.

Questions

If you have any questions about the survey, please get in touch either by email enquiries@groceriescode.gov.uk or phone 020 3738 6537.

Published 18 February 2019

A global communications network in space, the system will be comprised of approximately 650 satellites initially and scale to more than 900 satellites over time.

Science Minister Chris Skidmore is visiting the European Space Agency in the Netherlands today. He will say:

Fast internet access is something many people take for granted but in many areas of the world connectivity is still hit and miss.

This new £18m investment will go towards meeting the significant technical challenges of the project, putting the UK at the forefront of cutting-edge research and development.

The commercial potential for a cost effective worldwide telecoms satellite system is huge, and the UK space sector is playing a leading role in delivering it. It is made possible by our ongoing commitment to the European Space Agency and our world-leading capabilities in space and telecommunications, which we are supporting through our modern Industrial Strategy.

UK business OneWeb, which is headquartered in London and will employ up to 200 staff at its’ White City offices, is poised to take advantage of cost effective spacecraft launch and manufacturing to deploy hundreds of satellites that could provide more affordable internet connectivity to people and businesses across the world.

The OneWeb Sunrise programme will initially focus on technologies for the next generation of satellite payloads, ground connections and space debris removal.

The UK Space Agency investment will also support novel automation techniques and artificial intelligence to manage the proposed constellation of spacecraft and its interaction with terrestrial networks to realise global 5G connectivity.

OneWeb video

Adrian Steckel, CEO, OneWeb said:

Providing access to people everywhere has been the mission and vision of OneWeb since the very beginning. We will be able to realize this vision in part because of important partnerships like this one with the UK Space Agency, ESA and a range of other important partners including our European and Canadian partners. Thanks to this support, we will focus together on next generation technologies that will be game changers for realizing global 5G connectivity.

We are excited about the application of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to develop novel automation techniques that could help manage our constellation in future and ensure we do so safely and responsibly so that we can protect space for future generations.

Today’s announcement comes as a result of the UK’s leading investment in the European Space Agency’s telecommunications research programme (ARTES).

ESA is independent of the European Union and hosts its European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications (ECSAT) in Harwell, Oxfordshire, furthering the UK’s world-leading position in satellite communications.

Magali Vaissiere, ESA Director of Telecommunications and Integrated Applications said:

Sunrise is a prominent endeavour falling under our Satellite for 5G Initiative.

It represents the exciting and required new direction ESA is taking in support of our Member States’ industry to remain at the forefront of not only the most advanced developments within the space world, but also to enable the necessary complement to the terrestrial networks that satellites will have to play to ensure a successful and fully inclusive digitalisation of industry and society.

This ESA project will span seven nations including Canada and is an example of how the UK will continue to work across Europe and globally.

The news comes as the first batch of 10 satellites of the OneWeb constellation are due to be launched on an Arianespace Soyuz rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana next week (26 February).

The UK is a world leader in telecommunications satellites. Last month EUTELSAT QUANTUM, the first satellite capable of being completely reprogrammed after launch left the UK for final assembly and testing in France.

And in November last year, Eutelsat and Airbus signed a new contract worth hundreds of millions of pounds that will see components and parts for two further communications satellites assembled in the UK. This means that 6 out of 7 of the company’s next satellites will be partially built in Britain.

The UK space sector is growing rapidly, employing 42,000 people and playing a major role in the global shift towards the commercialisation of space activities – known as ‘New Space’.

The UK space industry is commercially focused with 82% of income from sales to consumers and businesses. The latest industry figures show it has an income of £14.8 billion, employment of 41,900 and exports worth £5.5 billion, while supporting a further £300 of UK GDP through the provision of satellite services to other sectors.