Neela Boyle was a director at Leicester-based large-format specialist Retail Print Solutions (RPS).
The Insolvency Service said that Boyle “caused or allowed RPS to make payments benefitting herself of at least £46,697 over and above that to which she was reasonably entitled to as a creditor, and which were to the detriment of RPS,” during a period when she knew, or ought to have known, that the firm was insolvent.
The Insolvency Service report said that in October 2020 the company was insolvent on a cashflow basis and in arrears with a number of its creditors.
In mid-October RPS sought government assistance via the Redundancy Payments Service to make 18 employees redundant.
On 26 October 2020 RPS engaged an insolvency practitioner to prepare a statement of affairs and convene a meeting of creditors. The business ceased trading and its employees were made redundant on the same day.
RPS went into voluntary liquidation with Springfield Advisory on 17 November 2020.
The Insolvency Service said that between 16 October and 17 November 2020, a total of £202,532 was paid out of RPS’ bank account, of which £67,760 was paid to Boyle, which benefitted her and another director.
“Whilst Neela Boyle and the other director were creditors of the company at the time of the payments, Neela Boyle received approximately £46,697 more than she would have done had the payments been distributed to unsecured creditors proportionately. Therefore, these transactions were to the detriment of RPS and its creditors,” the disqualification report stated.
As a result, Boyle has been disqualified from being a director for three-and-a-half years. The order came into effect on 26 August.
At the time of liquidation RPS had an estimated total deficiency of £2.7m, which included £333,267 owed to trade and expense creditors, £191,413 to the directors’ loan account, £165,067 in employee claims and £213,485 owed to HMRC.
The firm’s goodwill, intellectual property and unencumbered assets were sold for £80,000 to connected company Nexgen Management Ltd, which now operates from the same site as Swytch Graphics.
