By Jams Simons-
Four family members who ran a cash collection company have been banned for a total of 32 years for failing to pay millions of pounds to the company’s clients
Doreen, Sean, Joanne and John Baker were all were directors of Coin Co International Plc (Coin Co) based in Burgess Hill, West Sussex, providing cash collections in transit services to local government, public bodies, charities, other organisations, and businesses. The company also provided counting and foreign exchange coinage services.
The company was incorporated in January 1995 and its cash-in-transit services were undertaken under agreements which stipulated that the money collected, for example from car parks, was counted, banked and paid over to the customer.
However, Coin Co fell behind with payments of collected funds to their clients from at least March 2013, more than a year before it went into administration in November 2014, breaching contracts it had entered into.
At administration, Coin Co had assets of £1,866,066 and liabilities of £11,397,211 and investigators looked at the company’s activities, discovering several instances of mismanagement.
In one case, four different customers were owed £5.8 million by Coin Co who had collected funds on their behalf but had not returned the money, directly breaching previous agreements.
The directors did not dispute the findings of the investigation, which, among other things, found that, they held on to £5.7m of clients money, in contravention of their contract.
The investigation also found that they caused or allowed the company to breach commercial agreements relating to a coin collection service provided to a number of clients. They also allowed the company to fall behind with payments of collected funds to its clients from at least March 2013
John, Doreen, Joanne and Sean Baker, provided disqualification undertakings to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy, Innovation and Science, effective from 3 May 2018, for eight years each.
Doreen, Sean and Joanne Baker were appointed directors on 30 January 1995 and John Baker was appointed as a director on 1 January 1998. The disqualifications prevent the directors from directly or indirectly becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company for the duration of their terms.
Robert Clarke, Investigations Group Leader at the Insolvency Service commented:
It is clear that companies handling money on behalf of others have a duty to ensure that funds collected are duly paid over to the rightful owners, under the agreements entered into. Directors who fail in these duties will be investigated and removed from the corporate arena for a lengthy period.
Any individual who is registered as a director must make themselves aware of the duties such a position carries with it, and further that they are able and willing to carry out those duties and ensure that the business for which they hold responsibility is managed in compliance with its obligations under agreements entered into or they too may face disqualification in the event of