A CLITHEROE businessman has been banned from being a director for seven years after failing to look after company records.

Kyle Goldsmith, 41, a director of Kymo Holdings Ltd, Lancashire Nursing and Residential Homes Limited and Carecroft Limited, all of which were involved with the operation of a care home in Clitheroe, was banned following a hearing at Bolton County Court. Mr Goldsmith’s disqualification follows an investigation by the Insolvency Service and prevents him from acting as a company director or from managing or in any way controlling a company until 2021.

The investigation found that minimal records had been delivered up to the liquidators of the companies following their failure in 2011 and 2012, and as a result it was impossible to verify the companies’ financial dealings, in particular the extent of their assets and liabilities, the purpose of cash transactions and the nature of inter-company transactions.

As a director, Mr Goldsmith had a responsibility to make sure this was done.

Robert Clarke, group leader of Insolvent Investigations North at the Insolvency Service, said: “Directors have a clear, statutory duty to ensure that their companies maintain proper accounting records, and, following insolvency, deliver them to the office-holder in the interests of fairness and transparency Without a full account of transactions it is impossible to determine whether a director has discharged his duties properly, or is using a lack of documentation as a cloak for impropriety.

“Mr Goldsmith has paid the price for failing to do that, as he cannot now carry on in business other than at his own risk.”