Mum Paid Daughter £200K From Failing Firm Funds
The company owed hundreds of thousands of pounds to creditors at the time
Mother and daughter Hazel Lamont and Nicola Murray decided to wind-up their Scotparts UK Ltd. company in 2023 as it was insolvent
However, Lamont paid her daughter almost £200,000 in company money in the days following their decision to cease trading
More than £300,000 had been paid into Scotparts’ bank account in the days before their decision to shut the company down
A Scottish mother paid nearly £200,000 to her daughter using funds due to a supplier just days after they decided their company was insolvent and would cease trading.
Hazel Lamont, 74, and her daughter Nicola Murray, 54, were directors of Scotparts UK Ltd., which was described on Companies House as being involved in the sale of machinery, industrial equipment, ships and aircraft.
The company, which had been trading since March 2006, was in financial trouble by October 2023 and both Lamont and Murray jointly decided Scotparts should stop trading due to debts it was unable to pay.
However, just two days earlier, the company received more than £300,000 from a customer.
Within one week of this payment, Lamont gave Murray £194,400 knowing that the company was insolvent and owed money to creditors.
Further amounts totalling £148,144 were paid by the pair to two connected companies during the same period.
Lamont, of Elliston Road, Howwood, Renfrewshire, and Murray, of Manse Road, Motherwell, have been banned as a directors for the next nine years.
Scotparts owed more than £900,000 when it went into liquidation in January 2024.
Mike Smith, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:
Hazel Lamont and Nicola Murray knew, or at the very least, ought to have known that their company had significant liabilities to creditors.
Despite knowing the perilous financial state of their company, Lamont paid £194,400 to her daughter. This was not her money – it was company money which should have been paid to customers and suppliers.
The pair also transferred money to two connected companies, again depriving creditors of these funds.
Lamont and Murray have now been banned as company directors until May 2034 following our investigations into their misconduct.
Scotparts received £301,543 from a customer during the period of 18 and 19 October 2023.
The company also owed another creditor – a manufacturer of goods – £362,585 in outstanding invoices.
Lamont and Murray decided that Scotparts would cease trading on 20 October.
However, between that date and 25 October, Scotparts paid £194,400 to Murray.
In the week following the pair’s decision to place the company into liquidation, £96,899 was also transferred to I&H Distribution and Scotparts UK Ltd where Murray was a director.
An additional £51,245 was transferred to Scotparts Holdings Ltd, which listed Lamont as one of its directors.
No refunds or payments were made to either the buyer of goods or the manufacturer.
Six creditors submitted claims with a total of £916,899 when Scotparts went into liquidation.
The Secretary of State for Business and Trade accepted disqualification undertakings from Lamont and Murray, and their bans started on Tuesday 20 May and Friday 23 May respectively.
The undertakings prevent them from being involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the permission of the court.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/mum-paid-daughter-almost-200000-in-company-money-from-failing-scottish-machinery-parts-firm