Press release: 6 year disqualification for Oldham director pumping illicit diesel

Mr Saeed, was a director of SFS (Oldham) Limited which operated the Scouthead petrol station in Oldham, and which went into liquidation on 5 February 2016, owing £61,730 to creditors. Of this, £53,678 was owed to taxpayers as he had not been paying the full level of duty on diesel fuel sold.

The disqualification means Mr Saeed is banned from acting as a company director or from managing, or in any way controlling, a limited company from 14 April until 2023.

An Insolvency Service investigation found that between 26 March 2013 and 13 March 2015, Mr Saeed caused SFS to trade the detriment of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) by causing SFS to sell diesel which did not bear duty at the full rate and by causing SFS to supress sales of illicit diesel. HMRC subsequently raised an assessment and penalty totalling a combined £58,344.

Aldona O’Hara, Chief Investigator of Insolvent Investigations Midlands & West at the Insolvency Service, said:

Company directors have a duty to ensure businesses meet their legal obligations, including paying taxes.

Neglect of tax affairs is not a victimless action as it deprives the taxpayer of the funds needed to operate public services.

Notes to editors

Mr Saeed’s date of birth is July 1968 and he resides in Oldham.

SFS (Oldham) Limited (CRO No. 08423011) was incorporated on 27 February 2013 and traded from Scouthead Filling Station, Huddersfield Road, Oldham, OL4 4AS.

Mr Saeed was the sole director from 27 February 2013 to 05 February 2016 (the date of liquidation).

The matter of unfitness, which Mr Saeed did not dispute in the Disqualification Undertaking, was that; Between 26 March 2013 and 13 March 2015 he caused SFS to sell oil which did not bear the full rate and he further caused SFS to supress sales of illicit diesel resulting in HMRC raising an assessment and a penalty totalling a combined £58,344.

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.

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

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