Provided false or knowingly inaccurate information

Data director disqualified

Fan Data Pools went into administration in March 2022

The director of a data science and marketing business that hoped to capitalise on know-how originally gained at Dunn Humby has been disqualified after applying for a Bounce Back Loan, even though the company had zero turnover at the time.

Steven Guy Meeks has been censured for his conduct while he was a director at Fan Data Pools Ltd.

The company was formed in 2017 and had acquired the intellectual property of FanLogic from its administrators.

The executive team behind FanLogic were ex-Dunn Humby, and, according to administration reports, had spent around £1m building up data science capabilities and signing up three football clubs.

However, under Fan Data Pools the business hit a number of hurdles, including poor conversion rates on test email marketing campaigns with disappointing revenues as a result.

By 2019 hoped for investment had not materialised, and the company ended up being funded by emergency loans from shareholders, and, in 2020 a £50,000 taxpayer-backed Bounce Back Loan.

The Insolvency Service report into Meeks’ actions stated that he “provided false or knowingly inaccurate information regarding the turnover of Fan Data Pools” such that the firm obtained a £50,000 BBL loan to which it was not entitled.

The Insolvency Service said that financial accounts for the years 2018, 2019 and 2020 showed that the firm’s turnover was actually zero.

When Meeks applied for the loan on 2 June 2020, he declared that turnover for calendar year 2019 was £250,000.

Fan Data Pools went into administration in March 2022. It had declared liabilities of £214,398 including £49,441 in respect of the BBL.

Meeks has been disqualified from being a director for nine years.

His ban commenced on 22 October.

Meeks’ month of birth is May 1957, and his last known address was in Linton, Cambridge.