BOSSES at an internet firm which attracted a string of complaints have been banned from operating as company directors.

An investigation was launched by the Insolvency Service’s Company Investigations Unit (CIU) into Cybernet Media, based in Railway Street, Nelson, amid growing disquiet over failures to provide advertised services.

Offering internet marketing services, web-based taxi booking systems and legal claims management, Cybernet operated 12 different websites.

But Manchester District Registry was told that the company ‘misled’ a number of customers by not delivering services in all three areas.

The company consistently failed to comply with statutory requirements as to the offering of private hire services or the conduct of legal claims management, despite warnings being given to the directors, the court heard.

The venture’s head, Yasser Hussain, 29, of Railway Street, was disqualified from being a company director for seven years.

And Noreen Akhtar, 36, of Beaufort Street, Nelson, another director, who was said to have played no meaningful part in the company’s management, was disqualified for two-and-a-half years by the same court.

The CIU had already successfully petitioned the courts for the outfit to be placed in voluntary liquidation in May 2011.

Several warnings had previously been given to the pair, as there were a number of statutory requirements relating to their business, especially when it came to running private hire bookings.

Insolvency officials also found that Cybernet, which was first incorporated in September 2008, had failed to keep proper accounting records, detailing business transactions before it ceased trading in early 2010.

Hussain in particular was said to have routed ‘substantial amounts of company monies through bank accounts not in the company’s name but under the control of himself’.