10:30 am, November 21, 2018
TWO garage bosses have been banned from running a company after they allowed a disqualified director who was their husband and ex-husband to run their business.
Janice Rogers, 61, and Elizabeth Dagg, 70, both from Morpeth, Northumberland, were directors of Auto Testing Ltd (ATL), which operated as a car mechanics, fuel station and convenience store.
There was also a third boss, Stewart Rogers. But the 72-year-old, also of Morpeth, had been disqualified for five years in January 2011 in relation to his conduct as director of a separate company, Northern 4 x 4 Centre Ltd, and shouldn’t have been managing the business.
ATL – which was incorporated in February 2007 and whose registered address was c/o Northpoint, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne – entered into voluntary liquidation in October 2016 and the Insolvency Service was tipped off about his involvement.
Investigators were able to gather evidence showing that Rogers had been running ATL and Janice Rogers, his current wife, and Elizabeth Dagg, his former wife, had been aware of his disqualification.
Business secretary Greg Clark accepted a disqualification undertaking from Rogers after he admitted acting as director while disqualified. The ban took effect on November 7, 2018 and lasts for 11 years.
On the same day, Clark accepted disqualification undertakings from Janice Rogers and Dagg, after they both admitted allowing Stewart Rogers to act as director while disqualified. Both women’s bans are effective from November 7, 2018 and last for five years.
The undertakings, which are the administrative equivalent of a disqualification order but without court proceedings, mean the trio can’t 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, or be a receiver of a company’s property without court permission.
The details were released today by the Insolvency Service and chief investigator Robert Clarke said: ‘Our investigation showed that Stewart Rogers was acting as a director of Auto Testing Ltd in direct breach of the earlier disqualification undertaking he had given, and that Janice Rogers and Elizabeth Dagg had allowed him to do so.
‘The Insolvency Service will vigorously pursue directors who ignore disqualification restrictions against them, as well as those that allow such directors to act. The length of the undertakings in this case sends a clear message that such behaviour will not be tolerated.’
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