Two directors from the North-west banned for 16 years after lack of oversight led to a £7.6 million shortfall in monies being held for insolvent estates.

Darren Dean Varden (54), of Bury, Lancashire, and Philip Andrew Nuttall (58), of Congleton, Cheshire, were directors of Varden Nuttall Limited, a debt solutions provider based in Bury.

Philip Nuttall was an insolvency practitioner, licenced to act in relation to insolvent individuals and companies. Together with a small team at Varden Nuttall, he administered Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) – formal agreements between a debtor and their creditors to pay back money owed.

At its peak, the company handled over 3,000 IVAs but neither Philip Nuttall nor Darren Varden properly fulfilled their duties as directors, failing to adequately supervise the bank accounts that held the IVA funds.

In August 2015 a major accounting discrepancy was noticed and, following an internal investigation, an estimated £6.6 million shortfall was identified.

Philip Nuttall was obliged to inform his regulatory body and, after an assessment of his conduct, the regulatory body took the decision to revoke Philip Nuttall’s licence in early March 2016.

Varden Nuttall Limited entered administration shortly afterwards. After realising the scale of the financial shortfall, the appointed administrators filed civil action against the two directors in May 2017.

Darren Varden accepted personal liability for the shortfall, and entered an IVA rather than declaring bankruptcy.

Philip Nuttall, however, disputed the allegations and the matter went to trial in May 2018. As a result of the court proceedings, he was made personally liable for the shortfall, too, found by the court to be £7.6 million.

Varden Nuttall’s administrators had also filed a report on the directors’ conduct to the Insolvency Service, which triggered an investigation in September 2016.

Upon closer scrutiny, investigators uncovered further misconduct by the pair.

Varden Nuttall was one of several companies owned by Release Money Group (RMG) Limited, an umbrella company of which both men were also directors. Despite knowing there was a potential shortfall at Varden Nuttall and that, due to a cross-guarantee held by the bank, group assets could be required to settle it, from October 2015 Philip Nuttall and Darren Varden acted to remove assets from RMG.

They recycled monies around other management companies through an elaborate trust scheme to wipe out two director’s loans with a combined value of more than £1.6 million that they had taken out through RMG. These assets would likely have been used to help reduce the shortfall at Varden Nuttall.

The Secretary of State has since accepted disqualification undertakings from Phillip Nuttall and Darren Varden, for 9 and 7 years respectively. The pair are disqualified from being involved, directly or indirectly, in the formation, promotion, or management of a company without leave from the court.