Vijay Madhaparia, of Stanmore, north west London, was
sentenced to 27 months in prison at Harrow Crown Court on 11 November after
falsifying documents from the tax authorities. He was also banned from running
limited companies for 10 years.
The court heard that Vijay Madhaparia was director of Laxmi
Development Limited, a building development company incorporated in 2010 based
in North-West London.
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Laxmi Development, however, was placed into compulsory
liquidation in 2015 after the company failed to pay the tax authorities a debt
of £124,000, which was later revised to £4.4m.
The Official Receiver was initially appointed as liquidator
and further investigations uncovered several instances of misconduct by Vijay
Madhaparia.
In 2012, Vijay Madhaparia was disqualified by the court for three
years after committing health and safety offences.
Despite being disqualified, he continued to act as a
director and took on various construction and development projects until Laxmi
Development was dissolved in September 2013 after the company had failed to
file company records.
To get Laxmi Development reinstated, Vijay Madhaparia
submitted company accounts in breach of his disqualification, which he falsely
claimed had been audited and prepared by regulated accountants. This allowed
the building development company to be restored to the Companies Register and
receive VAT repayments from the tax authorities.
Further enquiries uncovered that Vijay Madhaparia had taken
on two renovation contracts in 2015 despite Laxmi Development having been
wound-up, and he did so without informing the Official Receiver. Vijay
Madhaparia then proceeded to siphon £91,000 worth of payments for the
renovation works into his personal account which he had spent on holidays and
gambling.
Also in breach of his disqualification, Vijay Madhaparia
incorporated Classy Junction Ltd in February 2014. Just over a year later, in
September 2015, the company dissolved and Vijay Madhaparia failed to file any
documents relating to Classy Junction Ltd.
In court, his conduct was described as “a sustained,
deliberate and repeated pattern of calculated deliberate deceit and dishonesty
committed over a number of years” by the judge.
Ian West, chief investigator for the Insolvency Service,
said: "Vijay Madhaparia has been jailed for a significant amount of time
after the court recognised the severity of his numerous misconduct offences.
"His sentence should serve as a stark warning to other
directors that you could be criminally prosecuted for offences against
insolvency and company director law."
