John Daniel Knights, the co-director of JKS Brickwork Contractors (SE) Ltd, a construction company based in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, incorporated in 2006 and put into voluntary liquidation in November 2010, has been disqualified from acting as a director for nine years for failing to keep proper records, so preventing the recovery of more than £1million of creditors’ money.

The disqualification follows an investigation by The Insolvency Service’s Company Investigations Team.

Knights, 44, of Beaconfield Avenue, Epping, was banned from 12 March 2013 to 2022. He failed to turn up to court for the hearing and the disqualification order was issued in his absence.

Knight’s fellow director, Thomas James Brown, has already given an undertaking not to act as a director for eight years for his part in the poor book-keeping at JKS.

JKS Brickwork, a construction and civil engineering company, went into liquidation on 17 November 2010 owing more than £1million.

The last annual accounts filed by JKS Brickwork were for the year ending 30 November 2009. Knights failed to deliver any records to the liquidators to verify the company’s trading and assets from that date to the company’s collapse.

This meant the liquidator could not verify JKS Brickwork’s expenses of £8,660,196 for this period. Nor could they verify the current amount owed to the company by its clients, which was valued in the last accounts as £1,630,170.

The liquidators have therefore been unable to recover this money and use it to pay JKS Brickwork’s own debts to its creditors.

Commenting on the disqualification, Mark Bruce, a Chief Examiner at The Insolvency Service, said: “The maintenance of a company’s financial records is of vital importance, especially when that company is experiencing financial difficulties."

The Insolvency Service investigation uncovered significant assets and expenses that could not be explained adequately to the liquidator, which prevented him from doing his job properly for the creditors.

“Directors who do not take their responsibilities seriously when dealing with records of a company must understand that they face a significant ban as the Insolvency Service are hot on their heals.”