UK sees first successful prosecution for falsifying information on company register

A businessman from Ullenhall in Warwickshire has been prosecuted and fined for filing false information on the company register.

This is thought to be the UK’s first ever successful prosecution of a company director for falsifying company information under laws which came into force in 2009.

In 2013, Kevin Brewer appointed former Business Secretary Vince Cable MP as a director and made him a shareholder of John Vincent Cable Services Ltd without his knowledge. The company was later dissolved and taken off the company register by Companies House.

In 2016, Mr Brewer incorporated another company, Cleverly Clogs Ltd. On incorporation, he appointed Baroness Neville-Rolfe (the Minister with responsibility for Companies House), James Cleverly MP and Ibrahim Aman, an Israeli national Brewer had invented, as directors and made them shareholders without their knowledge. This company was dissolved by Companies House and removed from the company register.

Kevin Brewer pleaded guilty to breaking section 1112 of the Companies Act 2006, which sets out the criminal offence of providing false information on the company register. He was ordered to pay costs of £10,462.50, a victim surcharge of £160 and a fine of £1,602.

A Companies House spokesperson said: “Deliberately filing false information on the register is a serious offence and people who have been found to have knowingly done this can face prosecution.”

Andrew Griffiths, the Business minister, said: ‘This prosecution, the first of its kind in the UK, shows the government will come down hard on people who knowingly break the law and file false information on the company register’.