The former chairman of Scottish construction firm Muirfield Contracts has been disqualified as a director for nine years after an Insolvency Service investigation found he siphoned off nearly £900,000 from the company.
Muirfield Contracts went into administration in March 2015 with the loss of 280 jobs but shortly before that, Thomas John Stodart made payments to Muirfield’s holding company and a connected company totalling £883,281.
The Insolvency Service said Stodart’s move deprived creditors of the cash they were owed on the basis that the funds paid over would not be “readily realisable”.
In February 2015, the company recorded liabilities due to creditors and for retentions of £3,749,000 and £1,324,000 respectively, of which £2,859,000 were overdue.
The Insolvency Service’s investigation also found company emails showing creditors were seeking payment and had stopped supplying the firm with goods and services and were threatening legal action.
Stodart had been in negotiation with potential funders but had no agreed source of additional funding.
Despite knowing the trouble the company was in, with contact having been made with an insolvency practitioner on 6 March 2015 about putting the company into administration, Stodart made four payments to Muirfield Contract’s holding company. The first, on 10 February 2015 was for £300,000, followed by £309,670 on 5 March 2915, £18,500 on 9 March 2015, and £212,750 on 10 March 2015.
The holding company then put down a deposit for a residential property in the United Arab Emirates.
Between 16 February 2015 to 10 March 2015, Muirfield made additional net payments of £132,360.85 to a connected company.
Muirfield said the net payments to the connected company related to works completed but the Insolvency Service said he has failed to provide specific documentation supporting this claim.
Stodart, 55, whose last known address was in Dubai, has been banned from acting as a director for nine years, starting from 11 October this year.
