Director disqualified for 15 years for property scam

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A director of Maple Grow Limited, Mahmood Anwar Yaqub, has been disqualified from being a company director or in any way managing or controlling a limited company by Birmingham County Court for 15 years, following an investigation by the Insolvency Service.

The investigation found that Mr Yaqub, 48, and other directors of the company obtained mortgage advances of almost £1.8m on six properties which they knew were worth less than £1m.

They had previously purchased the properties for around £960,000 before selling them to their own company. The properties have subsequently been sold for less than £600,000 to who?. Maple Grow Limited went into Administration on 26 March 2009 with liabilities of around £3.5m.

Mr Yaqub’s disqualification came into effect on 14 December. Four other directors of Maple Grow Limited have already offered disqualification undertakings totalling 32 years to the Secretary of State.

Commenting on the disqualifications, Claire Entwistle, Director of Company Investigations North said:

“The order given by Birmingham County Court in respect of Mahmood Anwar Yaqub sends a clear message to other company directors; if you run a business in a way that is detrimental to either its customers or its creditors you will be investigated by the Insolvency Service and removed from the business environment.”