Trio of companies wound up after investigation

Feb 21 2008 by Clare Hickie, Liverpool Daily Post

THREE Wirral-based companies have been wound up by the High Court after an investigation by the Companies Investigation Branch (CIB) of the Insolvency Service.

Fire & Safety (UK) Ltd and Starlight Media (UK) Ltd issued invoices and demands for payment for adverts that had never been ordered, and which were to appear in publications that were never produced. A third company, Taylor Tanner Publications Ltd, with addresses in Wirral and Liverpool, was also found to have used a host of mislead- ing sales practices to obtain payment from sponsors.

These included representing itself to be a charity, deceiving businesses into believing that they had previously agreed to sponsor books, and sending duplicate invoices to businesses which had already paid their sponsorship monies. The company had an annual turnover of some £580,000, but only a small proportion of this was applied to the publication and distribution of books.