Gheorghe Betianu, gave a disqualification undertaking to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on 12 October 2017, which, prevents him from managing or controlling a company without leave of the court from 14 November 2017 until November 2024.

Mr Betianu, a former Olympic boxer, was the sole appointed director of Riverside Group (London) Ltd (RGLL) from 1995 to the date of creditors’ voluntary liquidation on 2016. He was also the company’s sole shareholder.

RGLL traded under the name of Media Cars and provided taxi services in the London area and private ambulance transportation to various London hospitals.

An Insolvency Service investigation found that Mr Betianu failed to ensure that RGLL maintained adequate accounting records and caused RGLL to trade to the detriment of HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). At liquidation HMRC were owed at least £343,664 for PAYE/NIC and VAT.

Aldona O’Hara, Investigation Leader, Insolvent Investigations Midlands & West at the Insolvency Service, said:

Directors have a duty to ensure that their companies maintain proper accounting records, and, following insolvency, deliver them to the office-holder in the interests of fairness and transparency.

Without a full account of transactions it is impossible to determine whether a director has discharged his duties properly, or is using a lack of documentation as a cloak for impropriety.

In addition, directors who fail to ensure that HMRC are treated on an equal basis with other classes of creditor gain an unfair advantage over those companies who pay their taxes correctly and on time. They can expect to be investigated by the Insolvency Service and enforcement action taken to remove them from the market place.

Riverside Group (London) Limited – Company Registration Number 03066834 – was incorporated on 12 June 1995. It traded from 1997 to May 2016 from 12 West Lane, Bermondsey, London, SE16 4NY.

Gheorghe Betianu, date of birth: September 1959 was the sole appointed director of RGLL from 15 June 1995 to the date of Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidation on 03 June 2016. He was also the sole shareholder of RGLL.

RGLL went into liquidation on 3 June 2016, with assets of £11,050 and owing an estimated £473,582 to creditors.

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.

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

The decision to invest in the city and region is part of GLD’s ongoing corporate vision to make the most of the potential of its existing regional presence, and also take advantage of the growing market of skilled lawyers based in the north of England.

Board member Stephen Braviner Roman said:

The government has been keen to expand out of London and make the most of the strong skills base in the regions by investing in those areas. When we considered the future way in which the Government Legal Department would need to work, we saw there was a compelling argument for increasing our investment in the North, and Leeds specifically. The legal sector in Leeds is one of the fastest growing in Britain, and we have an increasing need to deliver legal services to our government clients in the north of the country.

By bringing all our teams into one building in Leeds, we will be able to offer more opportunities for our people to develop their careers. We already have a strong offer for anyone thinking about a career in public law, and this increased regional presence will only enhance it.

The move will enable GLD to take advantage of a greater pool of professional talent. The legal sector in Leeds has grown faster than any other UK city over the past decade. ONS statistics show the number of legal jobs in Leeds grew 20% between 2010 and 2015, while in London they grew 5%.

GLD puts considerable emphasis on attracting the best legal talent. Its mission statement asserts that it aims to provide ‘unrivalled opportunities for interesting, varied, high-quality, challenging work in an environment where individuals are valued and supported to fulfil their potential’.

Commercial lawyer David Tinkler explains his own reasons for moving to GLD Leeds:

My background was in banking. I started my career in structured finance at Clifford Chance before a move to Walker Morris but moved to GLD for more interesting and rewarding work and a better work/life balance. I have particularly enjoyed the interaction of public law and private law and being involved in projects that will have a real benefit to people.

The teams that are leading the move include some of the biggest within GLD. The Employment Group is one of the largest employment law practices in the country with a number of key specialisms including both non-contentious and contentious individual employment issues and judicial reviews. It has also developed particular expertise in large-scale, multi-party pay and pensions litigation and has significant expertise in discrimination, unfair dismissal, breach of contract and maternity and paternity rights.

GLD’s Commercial Law Group helps clients with some of the largest and most complex transactions across government and tries to get the best possible deals when buying goods and services for the public sector. Among its specialisms are ecommerce, mutualisation, IT law, intellectual property, professional negligence and emergency injunctions.

We have a number of opportunities for commercial, employment and litigation lawyers in our Leeds office. For more information and to apply visit Civil Service Jobs.

An extended version of this story appears in issue 148 of Leeds and Yorkshire Lawyer magazine.

A temporary bridge over the A14 at Swavesey will be taken down this week, having played its part in keeping construction traffic away from the busy A14 during construction of Britain’s biggest road upgrade.

The bridge, part of the £1.5 billion A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement, has been used to carry 160,000 cubic metres of construction materials – enough to fill 65 Olympic swimming pools – from the south to the north of the A14 in just over two months. Without it, 40,000 extra lorry movements would have been needed on the current A14.

Now all the construction materials have been moved across, the bridge is no longer needed and can be removed.

Highways England project manager for the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon Chris Griffin said:

Using this temporary bridge has helped us to carry out work to prepare the construction of the future Swavesey interchange with minimal impact on people’s journeys, and is just one of the ways in which we are keeping traffic moving while we deliver these vital improvements for the A14. The bridge will be taken down using temporary overnight closures on the A14, so I encourage drivers to plan ahead and find out what to do if they are affected.

To carry out this work safely, the A14 will need to be closed between junctions 24 (Godmanchester) and 31 (Girton interchange) from 9pm to 5am as follows:

• A14 eastbound closure only on Monday 20 November
• A14 westbound closure only on Tuesday 21 November
• Full A14 closure in both directions on Saturday 25 November

During the closures, clearly signed diversions will be in place. Drivers heading east will be diverted to take the A1198 to Caxton Gibbet, then the A428 to re-join the A14. Traffic heading west will follow this route in reverse. Local traffic will still be able to continue eastbound on the A14 to reach junction 27 (Fenstanton) and exit, at which point the A14 will be closed. Similarly local traffic heading westbound will still be able to reach junction 28 (Swavesey) and exit.

To check the latest traffic information, listen to traffic bulletins on local and national radio stations, visit the Traffic England website. and follow Highways England on Twitter via @HighwaysEAST.

Three directors of Speed-e-Loans.com Limited (SEL) have been disqualified from acting as a directors. The Secretary of State for Business, Energy, & Industrial Strategy, accepted disqualification undertakings from Philip Miller for nine years, Robert Alan Davies for six years and Daniel Jonathan Miller for five years – following an investigation by the Insolvency Service.

At administration, Speed-e-Loans.com Limited had assets listed at £150,269 and liabilities to creditors of £4,364,313.

All three directors breached their fiduciary duties and the duties of care, skill and diligence. Philip Miller caused, whilst his son, Daniel Jonathan Miller, and Robert Alan Davies allowed, SEL, at a time when it was not solvent and had ceased lending to new clients to receive funds from private investors via pension liberation schemes. These investors became liable to pay a substantial tax charge and were also exposed to the risk of penalties. SEL received £1,210,860.06 from private investors, funds which were in jeopardy and were lost in the events that happened.

SEL traded as a pay-day loan provider from February 2010 until July 2012, when it’s then managing director was suspended. A new managing director was appointed and SEL ceased lending to new clients by August 2012, thereby ceasing active new trading. At a board meeting, the directors sought new opportunities for the investment of new moneys into SEL.

Phillip Miller (who had previously been a formally appointed director and was a major shareholder) presented a proposal for SEL to receive moneys from a pensions liberation scheme set up by third party brokers. SEL was to be the investment through which members of the public derived guaranteed annual dividend payments of 5% as well as a guaranteed return of the whole of their “investments” in ten years. The terms were that SEL would receive 54% of the moneys provided by the public but be contractually obliged to repay 100% plus that annual 5% dividend. The board agreed by majority to the proposals and set in place the necessary pension trusts and paperwork.

From October 2012, members of the public invested through brokers at least £2.6m, of which at least £1.2m was received by SEL, and none of which was used by SEL to trade. These moneys were utilised to meet existing debt repayments of SEL.

In January 2013 SEL became aware that that one of the brokers responsible for the scheme was on trial for fraud. SEL continued receiving investments until May 2013.

During May 2013 a BBC documentary was shown raising clear concerns over such schemes. SEL sought professional advice and entered into administration in June 2013.

Cheryl Lambert, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:

The directors were collectively, and at the kindest interpretation, recklessly negligent in their desperation to save the company. None of them asked simple, obvious questions when it should have been clear to them the brokers were taking nearly 50% in fees, nor the type of scheme they had become involved with and the individuals who were pushing the scheme.

Philip Miller, the proposer and principal character, stood to gain financially from individual the transactions through a commission and so his actions demand the harshest criticism.

Taking action against the people most responsible is a warning to all directors that such behaviour will attract in a very significant sanction. You cannot hide behind a lack of technical knowledge of specialist schemes – you have to exercise independent and critical thought.

Speed-e-Loans.com Ltd (CRO 06781893) was incorporated on 2 January 2009. Its registered office was 19-20 Bourne Court Southend Road Woodford Green Essex IG8 8HD, immediately prior to insolvency. It traded from 1st Floor, 507 Centennial Park, Elstree, Hertfordshire, WD6 3FG.

Speed-e-Loans.com Ltd was placed into administration on 28 June 2013 with Alan Simon of Langley House Park Road, London, N2 8EY appointed administrator.

Speed-e-Loans.com Ltd entered creditors voluntary liquidation on 11 June 2014 with Alan Simon of Langley House Park Road, London, N2 8EY appointed liquidator.

Philip Miller is of Eilat 88000, Israel. His date of birth is March 1947. The Secretary of State accepted an undertaking from Philip Miller on 28 June 2017 for nine years. The disqualification commenced on 19 July 2017.

Robert Alan Davies is of, Woodford Green, Essex. His date of birth is April 1979. The Secretary of State accepted an undertaking from Robert Alan Davies on 25 September 2017 for six years. The disqualification commenced on 16 October 2017.

Daniel Jonathan Miller is of London. His date of birth is December 1952. The Secretary of State accepted an undertaking from Daniel Jonathan Miller on 27 October 2015 for five years. The disqualification commenced on 17 November 2015.

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.

All public enquiries concerning the affairs of the company should be made to: Cheryl Lambert, Head of Outsourced Investigations, Investigations and Enforcement Services, The Insolvency Service, 3rd Floor, Abbey Orchard Street, London SW1P 2HT. Tel: 0207 596 6117. Email: Cheryl.Lambert@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

Academy 10th anniversary conference

Valuing commissioning? Commissioning Value?

This free one day event offered an exciting opportunity to explore the value of commissioning whilst managing ever more complex challenges to deliver better social justice outcomes. During the day delegates from all sectors considered how to respond to the commissioning environment more effectively by engaging and empowering service users, communities and policy makers alike.

A range of quality speakers offered examples of innovative commissioning approaches and service delivery models that demonstrated the integral value of commissioning. Speakers included the Department for Work and Pensions, Black Thrive Project, Government Outcomes Lab, St Giles Trust, Glasgow City Council, Golden Key, Community Circles and Revolving Doors.

Throughout the day delegates had opportunities to network and engage with peers and learn and share good practice. Learning and delegate feedback from this event will also help the Academy determine future areas of focus and support to enable members to meet these challenges and deliver improved social justice outcomes.

Session I – Valuing Commissioning? • How has commissioning changed over the last 10 years? • Why commission?

Session 2 – Commissioning Value? • Why should engaging with service users and communities be an integral part of commissioning? • How can a whole system approach deliver better outcomes?

Session 3 – Call to Action • Where has innovative commissioning made a difference? • How can the Academy better support you to deliver improved social justice outcomes? • Next Steps?

Please see the attached presentation slide pack for further information on content.