Scaffolder hid bank cash from creditors
A scaffolder who was facing bankruptcy failed to tell his creditors that he had another bank account with £10,000 in it, a court was told.
In order to prevent going bankrupt back in 2010, Lee Ryan Roberts, 40, of House Farm, Woolston, Oswestry, was able to negotiate an individual voluntary arrangement with creditors.
Mold Crown Court was told Roberts should have revealed all assets, debts and liabilities but, he did not declare a bank account with £10,000 in.
Prosecutor Neil Bisarja said Roberts valued his scaffolding at £9,000.
But it turned out that he had sold it for more than £70,000 and the money had gone into the undeclared account, although the money had since dissipated.
Payments
When he failed to meet the payments and was made bankrupt, Roberts himself volunteered the existence of the account to the Official Receiver.
Roberts admitted failing to disclose the account but escaped an immediate prison sentence.
He received an 18 month prison term suspended for 18 months and he was ordered to carry out 200 hours' unpaid work.
Judge Philip Hughes said that it was a serious piece of dishonesty which clearly crossed the custody threshold.
But he had pleaded guilty and was now making payments to creditors under a scheme drawn up by the trustees in bankruptcy.
Richard Davenport, defending, said that no one would have known about the account but for the fact that the defendant had come clean.
His original scaffolding business had gone bankrupt.
Roberts' girlfriend had set up a new limited company in scaffolding which was doing well and the defendant was employed in that.
He was able to make between £2,000 and £2,500 a month payments to his creditors from that work.
If he lost his liberty the new scaffolding company would not survive and he would be unable to pay the creditors or support his children, said Mr Davenport.
