Landlords with debts of £335,000 banned from running companies

Coard Hulse and Philip Roy Dawson - both from Wilmslow - ran the lease of the Saracens Head pub in Lymm, between 2006 and 2016.

They were banned from 27 February 2018 from acting as directors of any company, directly or indirectly becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company until February 2025.

Over a 10-year period, eight different companies were registered as the corporate entities to run the pub. All companies traded as a public house from Paddock Lane, Warburton, Lymm.

According to the Insolvency Service when one of the registered companies became insolvent, the two pub landlords would register a new company and carry on running the pub without making any significant changes to their operations.

As the new company did not take on the previous company’s debts, it meant Hulse and Dawson would avoid paying their creditors, the Insolvency Service said.

An investigation by the agency found that Hulse and Dawson either were, or acted as, directors of each of the companies and most of the companies traded for one year or less before going into liquidation.

The eight companies were placed into liquidation between August 2008 and October 2016, with creditors losing out to an estimated total of £335,000, it said.

Robert Clarke, of the Insolvency Service, said: “The undertakings signed by Mr Hulse and Mr Dawson send a clear message to other company directors that if you fail to learn from previous company failures and run businesses where creditors lose out in this way, you will be investigated by the Insolvency Service. As a result, you will be stripped of the protection of limited liability for a lengthy period.”

The company names included D&H Pub, Rockstone, Inntreprenur Cheshire, Eastermoor,  Selva Cheshire, Exocet Solutions, Tuco Inn and Alpha Tauri. 

Hulse will be 44 in May, while Dawson was 48 in January.