'Rogue director' of 400 companies Neville Taylor 'gets off lightly'

A slap on the wrist for a director whose ‘legal alternatives to using insolvency practitioners’ made £7.6m disappear is worrying bonafide PSC advisers.

Neville Taylor, a listed director to over 400 companies including IT and Consultancy businesses, has been disqualified for nine years.

He replaced the companies’ genuine directors after they hit the skids, halted trade, resigned but were advised to avoid insolvency.

‘Atherton Corporate Rescue’

Atherton Corporate, which issued the advice, paid Taylor £263,000 to be the sole director of Tier One IT, S Consult, and 398 other businesses.

But Atherton Corporate (AC) subverted insolvency rules by selling the inactive companies to five firms it set up and that Taylor also directed.

Sometimes as “Atherton Corporate Rescue,” AC under its director John Irvin misled the genuine directors, by telling them their company assets could remain theirs.

It further misled by saying they could keep trading their distressed business via a new company and avoid responsibility for any of its debts.

‘Scheme led to widespread creditor losses’

As the enabler of the “scheme” -- as The Insolvency Service called it closing down AC in September 2024, Taylor facilitated phoenixism.

The 57-year-old also breached director duties with his “inadequate” attempts to identify and locate assets, and records, for liquidators.

And he failed to act in the companies’ and creditors’ best interests, causing “widespread” creditor losses, according to The Insolvency Service's enforcement director Dave Magrath.

‘Over £7.6million in missing assets, in relation to one rogue director’

At 12 companies where Taylor was director (but again made little or no attempt to verify details of their affairs), assets totalled £8.3million.

But by the time the dozen entered liquidation -- under Taylor’s directorship, the 12 companies' assets had been stripped to £676,000.

“With over £7.6million in missing assets…Taylor…is a stark reminder of the risks posed by rogue directors exploiting insolvency loopholes,” WTT Group director Tom Wallace said last night to ContractorUK.

‘Taylor’s 9-year ban a warning to those facilitating phoenixism’

A former HMRC official, Wallace added: “Taylor’s nine-year disqualification…should serve as a warning to those who facilitate phoenixism, undermining creditors and the wider business community.

“The Insolvency Service’s intervention reinforces that misconduct will not go unchecked.”

According to an insolvency expert, Taylor actually got off with a slap on the wrist, partly because he was only a “cog in a wheel”.

‘Got off lightly’

Asked about posting “Got Off Lightly IMO” about Taylor’s nine-year ban, the expert, Lisa Thomas of Parker Andrews, told ContractorUK:

“The ban appears light, given the serious misconduct.

“However…Taylor may have received a reduced disqualification for assisting [Insolvency Service officials] to identify the real beneficiaries of these frauds.”

“[And he] appears to be a cog in the wheel of a much larger, more sophisticated fraud designed to undermine the insolvency regime.”  

‘Many similar IP-alternatives being marketed on LinkedIn’

More worrying than the ban potentially not being a deterrent, “many similar schemes are still being marketed” as of February 2025.

“Sadly, on LinkedIn and other platforms, arguably identical ‘alternatives to IP services’ [that simply aren’t lawful] are live,” Opus Restructuring’s Gareth Wilcox continued in statememt to ContractorUK.

He added: “I recall contemporaries mentioning the Atherton Corporate Rescue scheme to me, saying they ‘could not understand how it works.’ 

“My response was that they could not understand it because clearly it didn’t work -- and that they were wasting their time trying to apply logic to the illogical. 

“My view was vindicated when the Atherton companies were wound up in the public interest in September 2024. And who they paid to be the sole director [of the 400 companies], Taylor, was disqualified in January 2025.

“To ContractorUK readers and others looking at closing a limited company, we say that if something sounds ‘too good to be true’ it is.

“Personal Service Company (PSC) directors cannot expect to walk away from their liabilities.

“Anyone that has engaged in a ‘pay us to acquire your company’ scheme may well receive a knock on the door at some point in the future, and face disqualification of their own.”

‘Attempting to avoid insolvency’

Ms Thomas, who is also a licensed insolvency practitioner confirmed: “Many directors who have utilised the services of Atherton Corporate attempting to avoid insolvency are being disqualified.

“Directors should be aware that Atherton Corporate is not the answer to their financial woes.”

Companies House last year introduced reforms to clampdown on fraud and improve corporate transparency.

‘Companies House should cap the number of directorships allowed’

“I doubt these reforms would have prevented Taylor’s misconduct in its current form,” said the Parker Andrews insolvency expert.

“Atherton Corporate made Taylor appear [on Companies House] to hold only one appointment in many instances.

“This makes a good argument for introducing a cap on the number of directorships.

“It’s also why Companies House needs to be more sophisticated in establishing common directorships. Perhaps this needs to be revisited by the Secretary of State.”

‘Distressed directors need proper advice from properly qualified professionals’

Directors of companies in financial distress should ensure they take ‘proper advice from properly qualified professionals,’ advises Opus's Mr Wilcox.

Atherton Corporate clients whose liabilities were more than £500,000, ended up with hefty bills of £15,000, plus VAT, the Insolvency Service has said.

To appear reputable, Atherton appears to have mirrored the model that a licensed insolvency specialist would use -- charging limited company clients depending on the level of liabilities.

‘Bounds of the law’

“Business owners must ensure they engage with reputable professionals to navigate financial difficulties transparently, [cost-efficiently] and within the bounds of the law,” says WTT Group’s Mr Wallace.

At Opus, licensed insolvency practitioner Mr Wilcox reiterated last night to ContractorUK:

“Proper advice from a proper professional is key, particularly if you’re a contractor limited company director intending on acting as a director in a future venture, or else you risk becoming a phoenix, ‘thereby allowing the previous business to continue having passed its debt to the taxpayer,’ as this summary by the Traffic Commissioner rightly condemns.”

‘Taylor’s address in Herefordshire, Wakefield, Dunfermline and Telford, expunged’

According to the Insolvency Service, Taylor’s nine-year director disqualification forces him to relinquish his directorship of 196 companies from his correspondence address of Bridge Street in Kington, Herefordshire. 

Taylor is also now prohibited from acting as a director of more than 250 companies with correspondence addresses in Telford, Wakefield and Dunfermline.