
Darts star falls foul of HMRC over £450k tax bill
Rob 'Voltage' Cross, a former darts world champion, has been banned from running companies after failing to pay over £450,000 in tax.
Mr Cross, who won the PDC World Darts Championship in 2018, took money from Rob Cross Darts Limited, the company he used to collect earnings, which should have been paid to creditors, including HMRC.
Before liquidating the company in 2023, Cross took out £300,000 and a director's loan of over £400,000, while £665,419 was paid into a personal account linked to him.
By the time Rob Cross Darts Limited went into liquidation, it owed the taxman £465,403.
Mr Cross's ban, approved by Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, prevents him from managing companies without court permission.

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She went from killing her first victim Lukasz Slaboszewski with a single stab wound to the heart, to launching a frenzied attack of more than 30 stab wounds on her final victim John Rogers - who miraculously survived. Dennehy had met her first victim Slaboszewski just days before the murder. She had befriended him and he had messaged a friend to the effect that 'life was beautiful' now he had Dennehy as his 'girlfriend'. She then lured him to her home in Rolleston Garth, Peterborough, and stabbed him through the heart. She had then dumped the body in a wheelie bin and even brought over a 14-year-old girl she had befriended to view the body. Dennehy and Stretch then using money borrowed from landlord Lee - who later became her third victim - dumped Slaboszewski's body in a ditch. It was during her second murder that her second accomplice Layton became involved. While a judge acknowledged Layton had 'played a subordinate role to Gary Stretch', he still found he was a 'willing' participant. He was said to be another 'nodding dog' of Dennehy's, helping to hide the bodies of two of her victims and cover their tracks. Cambridge Crown Court had heard how he and Stretch had acted out of fear that they could be her next victims. Layton, who had left home and cut ties with his family as a teenager, had been living in a flat above Dennehy. The judge described how he had become 'caught up in the excitement and fascination of the appalling murders'. Dennehy's second victim, John Chapman, a 56-year-old man who was 'kindly and harmless' and had served in the Royal Navy but fallen to alcoholism, was a housemate to Layton. Stretch and Layton had met and drank with Chapman just days before Dennehy murdered him by stabbing him in his own bed sitting room. In a horrifying discovery, a photograph of Chapman's dead body was found on Layton's mobile phone. The judge found that Layton's reaction to finding Chapman's dead body was not to call for help but to photograph the body for his 'own purposes as a morbid souvenir.' Dennehy's third victim Lee, her landlord and lover, was lured to her flat and stabbed five times in the chest. Layton was found to have been involved in getting rid of the bodies and setting fire to Lee's Mondeo car. Lee's body was dressed in a black sequined dress when dumped as a final act of humiliation. Layton was sentenced to 14 years after he was found guilty of preventing the lawful and decent burial of two men and perverting the course of justice. He is understood to have been released on licence after seven years, and is believed to be living in Lincoln. Speaking to Layton's mum outside her home in Peterborough, Susan Layton, 72, told of how she did not recognise her son when she saw him in court. While she had not been in contact with her son for almost two decades, the news of the trial still came as a huge shock to her, prompting her to attend court. She said: 'My son was involved but I don't know what went on. I was shocked. I was literally shocked. 'Me and my youngest daughter, we went to court. 'It wasn't my son. It didn't look like him if you know what I mean. 'I couldn't even recognise him. 'In his teens when he was like 17 he said 'oh I can go and get a place of my own, £7 a week', I said 'go and do it', so he went and after that nothing. 'He doesn't speak to any of the family.' Representing Layton during trial, Christopher Morgan said: 'The only person who glorifies in death and who trades on it and gets satisfaction from thinking about it and doing it is Joanna Dennehy. 'Leslie Layton has nothing to do with those exceptional circumstances, he's now caught up in it.' Layton supposedly now lives in Lincoln, having built a new life and finding a partner. Layton's mother told MailOnline: 'I know that he lives in Lincoln somewhere but where I don't know. 'He didn't even speak to me before and he won't even speak to me now. 'I haven't tried reaching out because I mean it probably would be disheartening for him and for me. 'But he's got his life now and I've got mine. And I think he's got a girlfriend apparently. 'I know he got 14 years but when he came out I do not know. He's got seven years to do and I think he's got a tag on. 'Apparently, according to what I got told, he [Stretch] is going to go for him [Leslie] when he's out. 'Because apparently he thought it was him that turned and split on them two, that it was him that turned and informed the police. 'Because he got less than what them two got. 'But she [Dennehy] is still inside. And she'll stay until the rest of her life.' While Stretch could one day have hopes of being released, Dennehy will spend her entire life behind bars. As MailOnline visited one of the flats Dennehy had lived in when she carried out the murders, a neighbour who had lived in the block at the time shouted: 'Sod her! 'She can rot in jail!'