Neville Taylor, 57, who has a correspondence address at Dunnock Road in Dunfermline, was paid more than £250,000 by a corporate firm to become the sole director of 12 companies which had ceased trading but had not entered liquidation.
UK Government agency, the Insolvency Service, said that when those firms did go bust more than £7.6 million of their assets could not be accounted for.
His nine year ban from being a company director means he’ll have to step down as a director from the 58 companies that are listed under his address in Dunfermline.
Dave Magrath, director of investigation and enforcement services at the Insolvency Service, said: “Neville Taylor hampered efforts by liquidators to identify assets, caused a widespread loss to creditors and breached his duties as a director to act in the best interest of the companies and creditors.
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“He also accepted that his conduct was part of a scheme designed to subvert and undermine insolvency legislation.
“Taylor made inadequate attempts to identify and locate millions of pounds of assets, to obtain company records, or to make himself aware of the companies’ trading.
“At the same time, he was paid by Atherton Corporate (UK) Ltd to enable this scheme. “By disqualifying Taylor, we are making it clear that we will not tolerate those who avoid their legal duties as directors or seek to enable phoenixism.”
He was banned for his conduct as director of 12 companies, which traded in sectors such as construction, human resources, education, farming, IT and water treatment before they ran into financial difficulties.
Taylor became the sole director at various points between April 2022 and March 2023 after they had ceased trading but before they entered liquidation.
In each case, he made little or no attempt to verify information relating to their affairs, including securing records and assets, breaching his duties as a company director and subverting the insolvency system in the process.
According to their final filed accounts, the 12 firms had combined assets of just under £8.3m.
But by the time they entered liquidation with Taylor at the helm, their estimated assets stood at only £676,169, a decrease of more than £7.6m.
His disqualification means he will also have to step down from just under 400 companies that are listed under his correspondence addresses in Herefordshire, Telford and and Wakefield.