For those of you who would rather not get over-involved in definitions such as 'fiduciary duty' or 'best interests of the company', but rather like the trappings of 'being a director' (apart from being pursued down the road, part-pixelated, by a man with a camera shouting: "Kevin? Kevin Morris? We would just like a word ... you freakish snake-of-a-man") for a moment it seemed as if there might be 'another way'. Don't go through all that nonsense of being decently qualified to do the job of 'director', just say you are one and do it anyway.
Kevin Morris, also known as Kevin Gordon Sykes; and probably also known as a few more things, Kevin and otherwise, among those whose lives he has touched, appeared to have the answer for a while. Mr Morris-Sykes-WTFKnows from north London has just been disqualified for the maximum 15 years after he was found to be a de facto director of Rigil Kent Acquisitions Limited (RKAL), while disqualified from acting as a director, as well as deliberately undermining the insolvency regime through RKAL’s dishonest activities.
Although disqualifying a person who doesn't seem to give a monkey's whether he is qualified to do something or not may be tantamount to locking a sugar-lover in a doughnut factory and shouting through the window: "There. That'll teach you."
Apparently, RKAL presented itself as a turnaround or recovery service, and promised companies in financial difficulties that it would enable them to wipe their business debts and avoid formal insolvency proceedings, for a fee of between £5,000 and 10 per cdent of the failing company’s total liabilities.
"Sounds like a bargain to me," said one director, who was also gullible enough to send her daughter on a professional qualification course that was sold as being conducted in a 'Classroom Live' environment. Genuinely; some people really do fall for this!
"But it's cheaper, right?"
"No, its actually more expensive."
"You're having a laugh."
"Of course we are. Humour and engagement in a live face-to-face learning environment is, before we even open a book, 70 to 80 per cent more effective."
But we digress. Back to Kevin Morris-Sykes-WTFKnows from north London. RKAL’s website described the company as offering ‘unlicensed Insolvency Practitioners’, which do not exist, the Insolvency Service assures us. Neither do armless jugglers.
Jo Caswell, Deputy Official Receiver said: "Kevin Morris claimed to be an unlicensed insolvency practitioner, a role that does not exist. As the court has found, he created a nefarious scheme for the purpose of subverting the insolvency system for his own financial gain, and he flagrantly breached his previous disqualification in doing so."
Then he got caught.
You can learn loads more about this in actual live face-to-face lectures, with real, trained lecturers, leading genuinely energetic debate and discussion whilst training veritable bona fide future insolvency practitioners ... at NTI.
