Bankrupt businessman Leslie Crossland ignored ban – now he’s in jail

A Barnsley engineer has been jailed after he continued to manage his businesses while he was disqualified as a company director.

Leslie Crossland, 75, of Netherfield Croft, Barnsley, also failed to inform Insolvency Service officials that he had withdrawn four of his pensions, disposing of £23,300 in assets in the months before he was declared bankrupt. Nine-thousand pounds of that was paid to his wife to buy a car. He was jailed at Sheffield Crown Court on Friday for 16 months.

Crossland was sentenced alongside his son, Richard Crossland, who appeared in court for failing to deliver records to the liquidator for R&L – their business. Richard Crossland, 45, and also of Netherfield Croft, Shafton, Barnsley, was sentenced to 10 months in prison, suspended for two years.

He was also ordered to complete 300 hours of unpaid work, five days of rehabilitation activity, and pay £2,000 in costs.

The court heard Leslie Crossland had acted as a director for R&L Electrical Engineers Ltd (R&L) and R&L (BMS) Installations Ltd (BMS) when he was banned from doing so. He was already serving a 14-year director disqualification, which began in November 2008, at the time he was managing R&L and BMS. His 2008 disqualification was for failing to deliver accounting records to the liquidator and ignoring a previous 10-year director ban from September 2005. He was also jailed in 2014 for breaching the 14-year disqualification.

R&L had been established as a limited company in September 2016, which continued the business of RL Installations, run by the father-son duo. BMA was incorporated in November 2018 when it became clear that R&L would be entering administration.

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Richard Crossland was appointed as director of R&L in January 2018 and BMS when it was set up in November 2018. In interviews with the Insolvency Service, Richard Crossland admitted that his father made the executive decisions for both companies, not him.

His wife, Ashley Crossland was handed a two-year conditional discharge for also assisting Leslie Crossland in breaching his director ban. The 35-year-old, of Marsala Walk, Darfield, Barnsley, was the director of R&L between September 2016 and January 2018.

David Snasdell, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: “Leslie Crossland clearly breached the terms of his director disqualification, making all the executive decisions and using deceptive tactics such as impersonating those who were named as directors of his companies.

“He is a repeat offender, with this not being the only time he has blatantly ignored director bans in the past. Crossland was actively enabled to carry out these actions by his son, who allowed him to continue as a company director in all but name. The public deserves to be protected from those who are unfit to direct or manage company affairs, putting them at risk of financial harm.

“We will continue to work hard to ensure the UK remains a safe and fair place to do business.”