Judgment on a claim brought by the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy against the defendant for an order under section 8 of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986. The allegation against the defendant is that he was a de facto director (though not a de jure or a shadow director) of a company and that his conduct as such director makes him unfit to be concerned in the management of a company.
Held: Rejected: ‘there is in my judgment nothing to show that the defendant assumed the duties of a director, nothing to show that he had any role in the governance of the company, or in fact that he ever did anything for the company (even supervising the sale of alcohol) and nothing to show that anyone else thought he was a director. In my judgment, the evidence presented in this case, properly viewed in its own context, and having regard to the oral evidence given to me, does not demonstrate on the balance of probabilities that the defendant was a de facto director of the company.’
HHJ Paul Matthews
[2020] EWHC 2213 (Ch)
Bailii
Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 8
England and Wales
Updated: 17 October 2021; Ref: scu.653110
