Dear colleague,

COVID-19 has affected all our lives and our livelihoods in profound ways over the last year. The nation has come together to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe, but there has been a cost. The virus itself, and the necessary measures to contain its spread, have triggered feelings of worry, distress, or loneliness for many of us. In response to these challenges, you may have seen that the government has recently published our COVID-19 Mental Health and Wellbeing Recovery Action Plan. This sets out our ambitious, cross-government approach to promoting positive mental health and supporting people living with mental illness to recover and live well.

I care greatly about the health of our businesses, and the impact of the past year on the wellbeing of businesses and individuals; from workers and employees to business leaders and those running their own companies. Through my ongoing engagement with businesses and representative organisations, I have been acutely aware of the impact on those facing financial insecurity, for example. This is of particular concern as we know there is a clear and well-established relationship between financial insecurity and poor mental health.

We also know more broadly that poor mental health costs employers between £33 billion and £42 billion a year, and the UK economy between £74 billion and £99 billion per year. Supporting mental health in the workplace has never been more important, and I fully recognise and value the role that employers play when they take positive action to provide workplace mental health and wellbeing support to their staff.

I wanted to therefore ask for your support. I know many of you have specific tools and programmes in place to promote positive mental health and support individuals, and I would encourage you to take this opportunity to promote this to your membership.

For those organisations that do not have their own resources, we would encourage you to promote some of the existing resources available, such as those being signposted through GOV.UK. These include:

Thank you for your efforts so far on this important issue. Through promoting these resources and guidance for businesses and employers, as well as your own resources, we can improve workplace support, support those individuals who need it, and better tackle the impacts of mental ill-health moving forward.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Scully MP

Minister for Small Business, Consumers and Labour Markets
Minister for London

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Steven Edwin Prosser (60), from Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, was appointed a director of Sell Your Car With Us Limited in May 2016. The company sold second hand cars and traded from premises on Hare Street in Buntingford, Hertfordshire.

Three years later, Sell Your Car With Us entered into liquidation in September 2019. The company’s insolvency, however, triggered an investigation by the Insolvency Service who uncovered several instances of misconduct caused by Steven Prosser.

Sell Your Car With Us entered into agreements with customers to sell their vehicles for a commission before paying the customers within 14 days of the completed transaction.

Investigators, however, found that at least 48 customers did not receive any returns following the sale or disposal of their vehicles and Sell Your Car With Us failed to return vehicles to customers who requested their cars back.

While Steven Prosser failed to pass on payments to customers after he sold their cars, he transferred more than £125,000 from Sell Your Car With Us’ account. Over £52,000 went direct to the used car salesman, £6,000 to a separate company he was a sole director of, and nearly £67,000 went to third parties connected with Steven Prosser

Steven Prosser sold two of the cars despite knowing the company was insolvent and, on several occasions, either failed to record any of the sales officially in the company’s books and records or retain an invoice or bank receipt after a sale. At the date of liquidation, 48 customers submitted claims totalling just over £751,000.

The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy accepted an undertaking from Steven Prosser after he did not dispute that he failed to ensure Sell Your Car With Us Limited adhered to the terms and conditions contained within its Sale or Return Agreements in respect of Sellers’ vehicles.

His disqualification came into effect on 11 August 2021 and Steven Prosser is banned for 9 years from acting as a director or directly or indirectly becoming involved, without the permission of the court, in the promotion, formation or management of a company

Katie Legge, Deputy Head of Insolvent Investigations, said:

Close to 50 people thought they were entering into legitimate agreements to sell their cars through a recognised dealer. But Steven Prosser failed to carry out his side of the bargain and sold their cars, while failing to pass on more than £750,000 to his customers.

Thankfully we were able to uncover Steven Prosser’s misconduct and 9 years is a substantial amount of time to be removed from the corporate arena. Steven Prosser’s disqualification should serve as a warning that we will bring action against rogue directors who mistakenly believe they can do as they please.

Steven Prosser is from Broxbourne and his date of birth is May 1961.

Sell Your Car With Us Limited (Company Reg no. 10192699).

Persons subject to a disqualification order are bound by a range of other restrictions.

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: