How long can a director be disqualified for ?

The number of years for a director to be disqualified is anything from 2 to 15 years. Within these years and depending on the misconduct there are three distinct categories for disqualification .

So anything between 2 to 5 years relates to reckless or negligent conduct as a director;

Anything between 6 to 10 years is relates to a much serious matter in terms of how the company was being traded and its more to do with directly prejudicial to the public interest.

The final band for disqualification is 11 to 15 years where the actions of the director are the most serious and relate to fraud and or criminal behaviour.

In terms of how many years you could be disqualified for depends very much on the seriousness of the offence . for example…..

How much loss in monetary terms was accrued to the company;

The total amount of money owed to creditors

The number of creditors – as in did the company owe 5 people as creditors or 50.

• The evidence of a deliberate intention to defraud people and creditors or in some cases any other members of the public

• The paper trail and evidence in support of any allegations and any breaches of other regulations.

I have been dealing with this for over 30 years and so from experience where there are allegations which involve dishonesty and fraud then these tend to  attract the longest periods of directors’ disqualification.