A businessman who used his son as a figurehead to

A businessman who used his son as a figurehead to allow him to continue running his company only nine months after being banned was spared jail today.

(TUES)

Christopher Hutcheson, 54, had been made bankrupt after his commercial printing business failed to pay nearly pnds stlg 1 million in tax.

The High Court barred him from acting as a director but it emerged his son Adam and director George Rose were running the business ‘in name only’.

Hutcheson Snr was later involved in negotiations to buy another business in a desperate attempt to stave off liquidation three years later.

Investigators were also unable to get up-to-date accounts for Kestrel Mould and Tooling Inc to calculate any debts owed to creditors.

Hutcheson Snr pleaded guilty to acting as a director while disqualified and was sentenced to 220 hours community service.

Hutcheson Jnr, 33, admitted failing to take all reasonable steps to secure preservation of accounting records and was ordered to carry out 100 hours community service.

They were also ordered to pay pnds stlg 33,900 in prosecution costs.

Judge Charles Byers decided not to impose a further ban on Hutcheson Snr from acting as a company director as he felt there was no risk to the public.

Blackfriars Crown Court heard how Hutcheson Snr was banned from being a company director for six years by the High Court in February 1994.

He had been a director in Kestrel Industries Ltd since 1983 after working his way up from the shop floor at its premises in Elephant and Castle, southeast London.

Hutcheson Snr also owned four other similarly named companies which were wound up in 1991 after it was discovered he owed pnds stlg 900,000 to the taxman.

‘He was also drawing excessive remuneration without regard to profit and turnover of the company,’ said prosecutor Mark Bryant-Heron.

‘He also drew loans from Kestrel Industries in breach of the Companies Act and was continuing the company beyond a date when there was no prospect of creditors being paid.

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Nine months after the ban, on October 31, 1994, his son Adam was appointed company secretary of Kestrel Mould and Tooling with George Rose the sole director.

Mr Bryant-Heron said: ‘It is the Crown’s case that George Rose was never more than a director in name only and knew little of its affairs.

‘A sales executive with Kestrel regarded Christopher Hutcheson as the managing director throughout the period.

‘We say he remained in sole control, made policy decisions, hired and fired staff and took disciplinary action if needed.

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His true role was exposed when he took over negotiations to buy screen printing business Expedite Publicity Limited, based in southeast London.

‘It was apparent that Adam Hutcheson was present but added little to the meeting,’ said Mr Bryant-Heron.

He also had to be prompted by his father to answer some questions about the business, the court heard.

In 1998 the company began suffering financial difficulties and in December that year it went into voluntary liquidation.

Auditors began making requests to see the records but they only covered the accounts until March 1997.

Hutcheson Jnr, of Badger Mount, Sevenoaks, Kent, was disqualified from being a company director for eight years by the High Court in August 2001.

The court heard how his father started out as a cleaner of waste material in the 1970s but soon became a wealthy man living in Kent.

He has four children, who were sent to private schools, and eight grandchildren.

Hutcheson Snr, of Overcliff Road, Lewisham, claims he was only an employee and became involved when the company began to hit financial problems.

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