A MAN whose private hire taxi company collapsed with debts of £54,000 has pledged not to hold a directorship of another company for at least three and a half years.

But today Robert Hacking insisted that had he been given more time to turn the company around, his Silverline Private Hire company would still be operating on the streets of Blackburn.

Mr Hacking, 59, said his firm, which was based in Darwen Street, Blackburn, began to fail after he started to take time off work to nurse his sick wife Yvonne, at their home in Heaning Avenue, Blackburn.

He claims that by the time he returned to work, much of the debt had already been accumulated.

The company was placed into compulsory liquidation by order of the Blackburn County Court on December 5, 2001 on the petition of the Inland Revenue for £16,462.87 in PAYE and National Insurance contributions.

The company has an estimated total deficiency of £54,493.

Mr Hacking said: "I went to the VAT department and said if they gave me more time, I could turn things around, and I think I could have done.

"But I didn't have that chance. Given the choice of nursing my sick wife and watching the company, I chose my wife and I would do it again.

"I am a family man and I think other people in my situation would do the same.

"At the time the problems occurred, the drivers were going on strike and we were hit with a lot of problems. The fact of the matter is that fares in Blackburn are just too low."

At the insolvency hearing on August 1, Mr Hacking did not contest points put forward by the Insolvency Service, a government agency which puts firms which do not pay the required tax into liquidation

They said he failed to deal with the company's tax affairs from May 2000 while knowing the company was in financial difficulties; caused the company to fail its statutory obligations to submit returns and required payments to the government promptly, therefore retaining money owed; and caused the company to make payments totalling £156,699 after May 1 2000 to all other creditors in preference to the Crown.

The Crown received £10,163 during the same period, the result of which was that the Crown was due £51,682 in the liquidation and other creditors £7,685.

A new firm, Silverline Private Hire, which is not a limited company, now operates out of Mr Hacking's old base. He has nothing to do with the new firm.