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Asset misappropriation

Type of business: Multi surgery veterinary practice – £2m turnover

GSI Services

The case:

Our client: Insolvency Practitioner

The company was a multi surgery veterinary practice. It went into liquidation with Crown debt of £750,000 as well as other unsecured creditors. GSI was approached by the liquidator to create an accounts data file from prime paper records, contained in 28 archive storage boxes.

Key facts

  • Accounts data file for last 18 months of trade had gone missing.
  • Large company expenditure for non-business related purchases luxury assets.
  • Missing records such as e-mails and electronic data.

GSI solution:

Examination of the contents of 28 archive storage boxes of paper records, extracting all relevant accounting records.

Creation of an accounts data file with analysis of individual transactions and tracing of expenditure involving non-company related third parties. Establishing whether those third parties were actually connected to the stakeholders. Covert surveillance of premises purchased with company funds.

We completed the compilation and subsequent forensic review of the financial information and reported to our client accordingly. The insolvency practitioner instructed solicitors to place charges on assets held personally by the company’s stakeholders and the directors agreed an out of court settlement to pay substantial sums back into the liquidation, to the benefit mainly of HMRC.