6 days ago
Scots businesswoman hit with ban for paying daughter £200k as firm went bust
Hazel Lamont, 74, and her daughter Nicola Murray, 54, were directors of Scotparts UK Ltd, a Glasgow-based machinery parts firm which went into liquidation with debts of £900k.
A Scots businesswoman paid her daughter nearly £200,000 of company cash after their firm went bust.
Hazel Lamont, 74, and her daughter Nicola Murray, 54, were directors of Glasgow-based Scotparts UK Ltd, a machinery parts firm which ceased trading with debts of £900,000.
A customer had paid more than £300,000 into the firm's bank account just days before it was decided to declare it insolvent.
Now Lamont, of Howwood, Renfrewshire, and Murray, of Motherwell, have both been banned from running companies for nine years after an investigation by the Insolvency Service.
The Government agency said the pair had also transferred almost £150,000 to two connected companies in the days after deciding to cease trading.
Mike Smith, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: "Hazel Lamont and Nicola Murray knew, or at the very least, ought to have known that their company had significant liabilities to creditors.
"Despite knowing the perilous financial state of their company, Lamont paid £194,400 to her daughter. This was not her money – it was company money which should have been paid to customers and suppliers.
"The pair also transferred money to two connected companies, again depriving creditors of these funds.
"Lamont and Murray have now been banned as company directors until May 2034 following our investigations into their misconduct."
Scotparts UK, described on Companies House as being involved in the sale of machinery, industrial equipment, ships and aircraft had been trading since March 2006 and was in financial trouble by October 2023.
Lamont and Murray jointly decided the firm should stop trading due to its debts on 20 October.
However, just two days before deciding to stop trading, the company received more than £300,000 from a customer.
Within one week of this payment, Lamont gave Murray £194,400 knowing that the company was insolvent and owed money to creditors.
Further amounts totalling £148,144 were paid by the pair to the connected companies during the same period.
In the week following the pair's decision to place the company into liquidation, £96,899 was also transferred to I&H Distribution and Scotparts UK Ltd where Murray was a director.
An additional £51,245 was transferred to Scotparts Holdings Ltd, which listed Lamont as one of its directors.
The company owed one creditor – a manufacturer of goods - £362,585 in outstanding invoices.
Six creditors submitted claims with a total of £916,899 when Scotparts went into liquidation in January 2024.
The Secretary of State for Business and Trade accepted disqualification undertakings from Lamont and Murray, and their bans started on Tuesday 20 May and Friday 23 May respectively.
The undertakings prevent them from being involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the permission of the court.
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