South East London car mechanic banned for eight years after causing the company to take prepaid orders from customers despite knowing they would go unfulfilled
Reconditioned Gearboxes was incorporated in April 2015, with Kevin Woods (43), from Belvedere, South East London, appointed as Director.
The Erith-based car mechanics supplied and fitted reconditioned gearboxes. Just two years later, however, Reconditioned Gearboxes experienced difficulties and by March 2017, the business closed down before the company entered into Creditors Voluntary Liquidation.
An insolvency practitioner was appointed to wind-up the affairs of Reconditioned Gearboxes when they received a number of complaints from customers.
Complaints ranged from customers not receiving goods and services they had paid for; parts were faulty, and, in some cases, customers had to go to another mechanic to correct defective work.
Some customers also reported their vehicles were damaged while they in the care of Reconditioned Gearboxes, while others said they had not been refunded for poor work.
These complaints were passed to the Insolvency Service and following enquires, investigators were able to establish several instances of further misconduct.
Reconditioned Gearboxes had taken prepaid orders which remained unfulfilled when the company went into liquidation and owed close to £127,000 in unpaid taxes at the point of insolvency.
And despite knowing the company was about to enter into liquidation and could not complete the work, Kevin Woods caused the company to continue taking payments from unsuspecting customers.
In September 2019, the Secretary of State accepted an 8-year disqualification undertaking from Kevin Woods. Effective from 27 September 2019, he cannot, without the permission of the court, be involved in the formation, promotion or management of a company, directly or indirectly.
David Brooks, Chief Investigator for the Insolvency Service, said:
Customer satisfaction was clearly not a priority for Kevin Woods. Not only did he provide a poor service while the company was trading but even when he knew the doors were about to close, he continued to take money from customers without being certain the work would be carried out.
Eight years is a significant amount of time to be banned from running a company and prevents Kevin Woods from causing any more harm to customers who simply wanted to fix their car.