A complete library for company directors
The Insolvency Act, Section by Section
Chapter X of the Insolvency Act 1986 decides what happens to directors when a company fails: the offences, the personal liabilities and the investigations. This series walks through it one section at a time, in plain English, written by a solicitor who has spent thirty years on both sides of these cases, inside HMRC and advising clients across tax and insolvency.
Part 1 | Offences of fraud, deception and concealmentAll six live
Sections 206 to 211. The criminal offences committed before and during a winding up: hidden assets, transfers to defeat creditors, obstructed liquidators, tampered records, incomplete statements and false promises. Six articles, each covering one section: who it catches, what must be proved, the consequences, the defences and how each provision plays out when HMRC is the driving creditor.
Fraud in Anticipation of Winding Up
The twelve month reach back, the acts the law treats as concealment, and the defence the section itself provides.
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Transactions in Fraud of Creditors
The two limbs of the section, the five year reach back, and what a defensible transaction looks like on paper.
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Misconduct in the Course of Winding Up
The five duties owed to the liquidator, the fictitious losses trap, and why delay reads as intent.
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Falsification of the Company’s Books
The acts the section names, why shareholders are caught too, and why this section’s burden of proof works differently.
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Material Omissions from the Statement of Affairs
What makes an omission material, the items that go missing most often, and how to complete the statement safely.
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False Representations to Creditors
The line between forecast and fact in creditor negotiations, and why the burden here stays with the prosecution.
Read the articlePart 2 | Penalisation of directors and officersComing next
Sections 212 to 217. The civil claims that reach into directors’ personal assets, and the provisions liquidators use most. This run covers the summary misfeasance remedy, fraudulent trading, wrongful trading and the phoenix company rules.
Part 3 | Investigation and prosecution of malpracticePlanned
Sections 218 and 219. How suspected offences move from the liquidator’s desk to prosecuting authorities, and the duties that arise once an investigation begins.
Part 4 | Winding up of unregistered companiesPlanned
Sections 220 to 229. The provisions that let the court wind up bodies that never registered here, including overseas companies, and the route HMRC uses against entities that have left Britain. A genuinely underserved corner of the Act, and the closing run of the series.
Femi O. Ogunshakin, Solicitor, Tax Adviser and Former HMRC Inspector. Eight years inside HMRC, fifteen years representing clients as a tax adviser at KPMG, Deloitte and Grant Thornton, and a further fifteen years as a solicitor acting for clients in the insolvency space. If any section in this library describes your situation, the conversation is confidential and the first thirty minutes are free.