The owner of a Hove restaurant has been banned from being a company director for six years for tax abuse.
The Insolvency Service said that Emad Abdolkhani had been disqualified from being a director for under-declaring tax.
The official watchdog said: “Emad Abdolkhani, 31, from Hove, was the sole director of Code Hove Limited since (Sunday) 31 July 2016, which traded as the Barcode restaurant in Church Road in Hove.
“Code Hove, however, ceased trading in June 2018 and a winding-up order was made against the company on (Wednesday) 30 October 2019 following a petition by the tax authorities.
“The liquidation of Code Hove triggered an investigation by the Insolvency Service into the conduct of Emad Abdolkhani before investigators uncovered that he had under-declared tax estimated to be more than £60,000.
“The company now owes over £200,000 in outstanding tax payments together with penalties, charges and interest.
“Further inquiries uncovered that Emad Abdolkhani had failed to record the company’s sales accurately and under-declared the amount of tax due in returns from September 2016.
“The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy accepted an undertaking from Emad Abdolkhani after he did not dispute that he failed to ensure that the company submitted accurate VAT returns
“His disqualification is effective from (Wednesday) 25 August 2021 and Emad Abdolkhani is banned for six years from acting as a director or directly or indirectly becoming involved, without the permission of the court, in the promotion, formation or management of a company.”
Marc Symons, deputy head of insolvent investigations, said: “Directors must ensure their companies pay the correct taxes but inquiries proved that Emad Abdolkhani failed to do so while he ran the company.
“The restaurateur’s ban should serve as a warning that if you fail to fulfil your obligations and seek to gain an unfair advantage over competitors, by failing to properly account and pay for your tax, you could lose the protection of limited liability.”
Cllr Wealls and I objected to this place being given a Licence when it came before the Licensing Panel. As I remarked, “this Application by Barcode does not scan!”
I was right (say so myself).
The Application was passed, with many Conditions, such as closing the windows by 8pm. One evening I strolled by – and the owner, on seeing me, leapt across a table of women to close the windows! They were startled.
This stretch of Church Road has seen a succession of badly-run restaurants, such as Leonardo’s.
Agree and in that strip, so many are openly flouting any and all laws that they can.
It is very disappointing that the Council does not care.
But if they do not care about weeds around the city, why would they care about this group of undesirables.
The banned Director was Until 11 Auguat 2021 the sole Director of the Persia restaurant next door. He still works there but someone else is now Director.
The law should be that if you don’t pay taxes then your children cannot have free schooling and you should not have access to NHS until all outstanding amounts are paid.
Somehow he’s got away with this, and is running Persia on Church Road, despite his ban. He’s now applying for a late night licence, which police are opposing for a number of reasons, including high levels of drug use on premises.