Rupinder Kaur Thaker (42), from Chadwell Heath, Essex, was appointed director of TKML Limited in April 2016 at the same time the company was incorporated.
Five years later TKML Limited entered into creditors’ voluntary liquidation and the company’s insolvency triggered an investigation by the Insolvency Service.
Investigators first uncovered several inconsistencies in the explanations provided by Rupinder Thaker when asked about the company.
The entry for TKML Limited on the company register stated the nature of business as takeaway food shops and mobile food stands, and Ms Thaker’s occupation as a publicist. But in the report to creditors the company was described as providing catering services and décor supplies for wedding ceremonies.
Further inquiries found that between May 2019 and when the company went into insolvency in June 2021, Ms Thaker had failed to preserve and/or maintain adequate accounting records or failed to deliver them to the liquidator. This meant investigators could not verify several substantial transactions.
More than £250,000 paid out of the company bank account remains unexplained, questions persist around what TKML Limited did with a £45,000 Bounce Back Loan and whether the company was entitled to a loan of that size, and whether £11,000 stated by Ms Thaker as being owed to her and a connected company was accurate.
On 12 July 2022, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Kwasi Kwarten, accepted a seven-year disqualification undertaking from Ms Thaker after she did not dispute that she failed to ensure that TKML Limited preserved and/or maintained adequate accounting records, or in the alternative, failed to deliver up adequate accounting records to the liquidator.
Effective from 2 August 2022, Ms Thaker is banned from directly, or indirectly, becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the permission of the court.
TKML Limited’s liquidator is considering the Bounce Back Loans and recovery of funds.
Ms Thaker has been removed from the business environment for seven years and her lengthy disqualification provides a stark warning that failing to maintain company books and records is a serious offence.
