The High Court yesterday banned the owner of a defunct security business that owes the Revenue Commissioners €275,000 from acting as a company director for two years. Barry O'Halloran reports.
In the first case of its kind, the court disqualified Mr Brendan Curtis of Whitecastle Lawns, Athy, Co Kildare, from acting as a company director for two years. The order bans him from acting as a company director, auditor, receiver or liquidator for the period.
Mr Curtis is currently a director of three other companies.
The court also restricted Ms Ann Curtis of the same address from acting in the same roles for five years. That order means that Ms Curtis cannot act as a director unless the company has capital of €63,487, or €317,435 in the case of a public limited company (plc).
The court imposed the orders because the pair were directors of Athy-based Norse Security Ltd, which had not filed annual returns since it was incorporated more than four years ago.
The now dissolved company still owes €275,000 to the Revenue Commissioners. The Companies' Registration Office (CRO) struck Norse Securities off the register for failing to file the returns. While this effectively dissolves a company, creditors can still enforce debts against it.
The orders resulted from a case taken by the Director of Corporate Enforcement, Mr Paul Appleby. He said his office was clamping down on directors of indebted companies that fail to file returns, leaving them to get struck off as an alternative to liquidation or restructuring.
