TWO Fenland directors of a waste company that went bust owing creditors £140,000 have been sentenced for failing to preserve proper company records.

Neil Bowers, 47, of Floods Ferry, March, was jailed for eight months, suspended for 18 months, at Cambridge Crown Court after also admitting to defrauding creditors. He was also ordered to complete 120 hours of unpaid community service.

His co director Andrew Villis, 46, of Welney, was ordered to complete 120 hours of unpaid community service.

The court also ordered Bowers to pay compensation of £33,514.93 to the Official Receiver, with £10,000 to be paid immediately and £7,400 in costs.

Villis was ordered to pay £7,400 in costs.

The convictions follow an investigation by The Insolvency Service and a criminal investigation and prosecution by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).

Bowers and Villis were both directors of Waste 2 Go (Cambs) Limited, a recycling and scrap company based at Block Fen that went into liquidation on 13 July 2009 owing £139,561.35 to creditors. It had traded for three years and registered at Propsect Cottage Industrial Estate, Block Fen, but also had a trading address of Lodge Farm, Floods Ferry.

Villis presented some records to the Official Receiver in October 2009 but these were incomplete and, despite numerous requests, nothing else was provided by either director.

The Official Receiver tracked down bank statements for the company and discovered that shortly prior to the liquidation, and at a time when the company was being chased by creditors, £33,514.93 had been paid to Ferry Group Limited, a company of which Bowers was also a director.

Deputy Chief Investigating Officer Ian West from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills said: “Company directors should take note that it is a criminal offence to fail to keep adequate accounting records. “

“They should be in no doubt that the Department of Business will prosecute those that ignore this warning.”

Villis has been involved in several Cambridgeshire companies including promoting moto cross at Block Fen where he clashed with Fenland Council over illegal use of the site.