WIREDGOV

Gary Edward Bolton has been disqualified from acting as a director for 15 years, two years after his conviction, on 26 July 2013, for supplying fake bomb detecting equipment between January 2007 and July 2012. Mr Bolton’s disqualification follows action taken by the Insolvency Service.

Mr Bolton was a director of Global Technical Limited (Global). The company traded from 2007 in the manufacture and sale of devices which, it claimed could detect explosives and other substances. Many of these were sold to military and police forces abroad, including in Afghanistan.

Following a police investigation in 2012, which caused the company to cease trading, Mr Bolton was convicted, in July 2013 and sentenced to 7 years’ imprisonment on 20 August 2013, for offences under the Fraud Act 2006 in relation to the products manufactured and sold by Global. Mr Bolton’s appeal against the conviction was rejected on 31 July 2014.

Global was voluntarily wound up on 31 October 2013.

Following the liquidation, the Insolvency Service took action to further protect the public, both in UK and abroad, from any potential for Mr Bolton to misuse the protection provided by limited liability trading.

Commenting on the disqualification, Cheryl Lambert, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:

This is a case where Mr Bolton has used a limited company to not only trade fraudulently, but his actions have directly resulted in people being exposed to extremely high risk of injury and potential loss of life in foreign countries. That was an outcome he knew would be a likely consequence of his trading activities.

Mr Bolton misused the privileges afford by limited liability for personal gain at the expense of human life. The maximum permitted disqualification was sought and obtained for the most heinous of cynical corporate activity.

Notes to editors

Global Technical Limited (CRO No 03300333) was incorporated on 09 January 1997. Its registered office was 4 Mount Ephraim Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN1 1EE. It traded from Unit 7, The Glenmore Centre, Moat Way, Sevington, Ashford, Kent, TN24 0TL. Gary Edward Bolton and his estranged wife, Heather Vousden, were the formally appointed directors at the time of Liquidation.

Global Technical Limited was placed into Members Voluntary Liquidation on 31 October 2013.

Gary Edward Bolton is currently in prison. His date of birth is 12 December 1965.

A Disqualification Order was made against Gary Edward Bolton on 2 October 2015 at the County Court at Tunbridge Wells.

The company sold the equipment between 4 January 2007 and 12 July 2012.

A disqualification order or undertaking has the effect that without specific permission of a court, a person with a disqualification cannot:

• act as a director of a company
• take part, directly or indirectly, in the promotion, formation or management of a company or limited liability partnership
• be a receiver of a company’s property

In addition that person cannot act as an insolvency practitioner and there are many other restrictions are placed on disqualified directors by other regulations. Further information on director disqualifications and restrictions is available.

The Insolvency Service administers the insolvency regime, investigating all compulsory liquidations and individual insolvencies (bankruptcies) through the Official Receiver to establish why they became insolvent. It may also use powers under the Companies Act 1985 to conduct confidential fact-finding investigations into the activities of live limited companies in the UK. In addition, the agency authorises and regulates the insolvency profession, deals with disqualification of directors in corporate failures, assesses and pays statutory entitlement to redundancy payments when an employer cannot or will not pay employees, provides banking and investment services for bankruptcy and liquidation estate funds and advises ministers and other government departments on insolvency law and practice.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available.

All public enquiries concerning the affairs of the company should be made to: Cheryl Lambert, Head of Outsourced Investigations, Investigations and Enforcement Services, The Insolvency Service, 3rd Floor, Abbey Orchard Street, London SW1P 2HT. Tel: 0207 596 6117. Email: Cheryl.Lambert@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk.

Contact Press Office

Media enquiries for this press release – 020 7674 6910 or 020 7596 6187

Press Office

The Insolvency Service

4 Abbey Orchard Street
London
SW1P 2HT

Email press.office@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk

Media Manager 020 7596 6187

For all media enquiries outside normal working hours, please contact the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills Press Office on 020 7215 3234/3505.

This service is for journalists only. For any other queries, please contact the Insolvency Service switchboard on 020 7637 1110.

You can also follow the Insolvency Service on:

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• YouTube