Disqualified Director

As part of our PEPs & Sanctions screening, we offer the ability to screen if the individual is a disqualified director. The Disqualified Directors search reveals any potential matches with individuals that have been sanctioned by Companies House in the UK.

You can run disqualified director checks either manually as part of a PEPs & Sanctions check by following the steps here, or if you have it enabled, it will automatically run for any journeys that contain PEPs & Sanctions (you can request to enable it here). Please note - disqualified director checks are not included in Credas+ remediation.

What are disqualified directors?

Disqualified directors are individuals who have been found unfit to run a company. This means they are legally banned from being involved in managing, forming or promoting a company for a fixed period of time, which can range anywhere from 2-15 years. 

Why might someone be disqualified? 

Common reasons someone may be disqualified include:

• Failing to keep proper company accounts or records;
• Allowing a company to continue trading while insolvent;
• Not paying company taxes;
• Misusing company funds or assets;
• Fraud or other serious breaches of company law.   

What does disqualification mean in practice?

A disqualified director cannot:

• Act as a director of a UK company, or
• Be Involved in running, forming, or marketing a company, even indirectly.

If an individual ignores these restrictions, they risk fines or imprisonment.

Why this matters for you

If an individual is a disqualified director it highlights that the individual has been legally barred from running companies due to misconduct. Depending on your sector, this may represent a serious compliance and reputational risk, and is it down to your internal policies on how you wish to proceed or if you take it into account when carrying out your due diligence and making business decisions. If you are in company formations, this could highlight a serious issue.

Disqualified Directors on Credas

If a possible match flags for disqualified director, you will be able to see within your results as can be seen below. You will need to review the information provided, and identify if the possible match is the individual in question following your internal process. Disqualified director flags are not part of our Credas+ remediation service.What information does Credas provide?

If a possible match has been flagged for disqualified directors, the following information (if available) will be presented to you:

• First name;
• Last name;
• Aliases;
• Date of birth;
• Gender;
• Address;
• Case reference;
• The company the individual acted for whilst disqualified for conduct;
• Reason for disqualification;
• Disqualified date from-to.

A link will also be presented of where this information has come from to assist in your remediation, and if the URL is no longer active, the file of the information will still be accessible presenting you with the same information. 

An example of the results you may see can be seen below:

What happens if a possible match has flagged?

Using your internal compliance policies you will need to identify if the possible match is the individual in question, and then remediate the result. If you need an assistance to remediate the result, please see our guide here. If the possible match is the individual in question, and you are unsure on what to do next, it is down to your organisations internal policies so we recommend reaching out to your manager/compliance officer to understand your organisations next steps.

How much does this cost?

If run together, this check is included within your 1 credit when running a PEPs & Sanctions check.

Got any questions? 

If you have any questions please reach out to the Credas support team by contacting us here

We are committed to continually improving our support resources for you. We would greatly appreciate your feedback on this article to help us enhance your experience.