When TKML Limited was incorporated in April 2016, Rupinder Kaur Thaker (42), of Chadwell Heath, Essex, was named director.
Five years later, TKML Limited entered into a voluntary liquidation of its creditors, and the Insolvency Service opened an investigation into the firm due to its insolvency.
Investigators first discovered a number of discrepancies in Rupinder Thaker’s responses to questions concerning the business.
According to TKML Limited’s entry in the company register, the company operates take-out restaurants and mobile food carts, and Rupinder Thaker works as a publicist.
However, the company was defined as offering culinary services and wedding ceremony décor items in the notification to creditors.
Further investigation revealed that between May 2019 and June 2021, when the firm declared bankruptcy, Rupinder Thaker had neglected to keep proper financial documents or to give them to the liquidator.
This meant that several important transactions could not be verified by the investigators.
There are still unanswered questions regarding more than £250,000 paid out of the company bank account, what TKML Limited did with a £45,000 bounce back loan, whether the company was eligible for a loan of that size, and the veracity of Rupinder Thaker’s claim that £11,000 was owed to her and a connected company.
Rupinder Thaker’s 7-year disqualification undertaking was accepted by the Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy on July 12, 2022, after Thaker did not contest her failure to make sure that TKML Limited preserved and/or maintained adequate accounting records or, alternatively, failed to deliver up adequate accounting records to the Liquidator.
Rupinder Thaker is prohibited from participating directly or indirectly in the development, promotion, or management of a firm without the court’s approval as of 2 August 2022.
The liquidator of TKML Limited is taking the bounce back loans and money recovery into consideration.
Deputy Head of Insolvent Investigations Lawrence Zussman stated:
Rupinder Thaker refused to give the liquidator any documentation that would have helped to explain the legitimacy of the business’s financial dealings, despite repeated requests for books and records.
In particular, the £45,000 bounce back loan designed to aid thriving firms during the pandemic
Rupinder Thaker has been barred from the corporate world for seven years, and her protracted exclusion serves as a clear reminder that neglecting to keep proper books and records is a serious offence.