Leicester car sales director caged
A Leicester director of three car sales companies has been jailed for six years, the Insolvency Service said.
Scott Jason Kidd, 34, from Leicester, was sentenced to a total of six years imprisonment and disqualified from acting as a director or in "any way managing or acting as a director of limited companies" for ten years, following his sentencing at Leicester Crown Court.
The agency said the hearing resulted from an initial investigation by the Official Receiver at Leicester followed by a criminal investigation and prosecution by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills into Kidd's activities in the three companies.
In addition, Kidd was charged with six charges for theft, which occurred whilst he was on bail for the BIS offences in late 2009 and early 2010.
Kidd was sentenced after entering guilty pleas in respect of three charges of fraudulent trading brought by BIS in respect of K-Lease Limited, K-Market Limited and Cars Its Your Choice Limited and the six Theft Act offences. The companies were wound up between 8 June 2005 and 6 March 2006.The investigation uncovered total liabilities across the three companies amounting to £1.4m.
Business minister Edward Davey said: "The government will always take firm action against directors shown to be a menace to commercial activity. The severity of the sentence handed to Kidd sends a clear message and any rogue company directors who set out to defraud can expect to face the consequences."
The Insolvency Service said the investigation also showed Kidd's conduct included falsifying VAT reclaims using false invoices, falsifying management accounts, 'cross-firing' of cheques using family members, causing banks to incur unauthorised overdrafts, diversion of company monies and forging of documents.
The latter included obtaining letters from banks and accountants in response to routine inquiries, which were then doctored to create letters with staff signatures to create an air of legitimacy and credit-worthiness. The templates for the forged documents were discovered after the Official Receiver used a locksmith to open a safe at the former premises of K-Lease.
The BIS trial had been due to take place in February 2010. Shortly prior to this Kidd was using cheques from a company bank account, which had already closed, stole a Mercedes, furniture and hifi equipment from various firms in Leicester to generate funds to fund his life on the run, the agency added.
The losses to the companies totalled approximately £55,000. Having generated funds, Kidd skipped bail and after going to France and Cyprus was finally arrested in Turkey in May 2011 for possible offences committed there. He voluntarily returned to the UK.
Prior to these latest proceedings, Kidd had previously received a 15-month prison sentence in September 2008 in relation to Theft Act and Forgery offences committed after the above three companies had ceased trading.
