Pop up Kitchen Limited was incorporated in June 2015 and Alan Vinnicombe (65) was appointed a director at the same time.
The company traded as a consultancy for the catering industry before taking over the licence and management of the kitchen at the Blue Ball Inn in Exeter.
By October 2018, however, Pop Up Kitchen entered into insolvency proceedings, which brought the company and the conduct of Alan Vinnicombe to the attention of the Insolvency Service.
According to Alan Vinnicombe, he suspended his directorship of Pop up Kitchen in March 2016 due to personal reasons and a third party took over the management of the company.
However, this was not recorded at Companies House and investigators were unable to verify Alan Vinnicombe's account of what happened as the company records were not properly preserved.
The lack of company records also meant investigators were unable to clarify the company's trading activities, what was the cause of the company's insolvency, Pop up Kitchen's income and expenditure, and what tax the company paid.
On 3 June 2020, the Secretary of State accepted a disqualification undertaking from Alan Vinnicombe after he did not dispute that he had caused Pop Up Kitchen to fail to preserve adequate accounting records.
The ban is effective from 24 June 2020 after which the restaurateur is banned for six years from acting as a director or directly or indirectly becoming involved, without the permission of the court, in the promotion, formation or management of a company.
Rob Clarke, Chief Investigator for the Insolvency Service, said:
Preserving and maintaining company records is a basic requirement for all directors. The total lack of records in this case has made it impossible for us to determine whether there was other, more serious, misconduct at the company and that is reflected in Alan Vinnicombe's lengthy period of disqualification.
Notes
Alan Vinnicombe is from Weston-Super-Mare and his date of birth is January 1955.
The company number for Pop up Kitchen Limited, now known as 09642713, is: 09642713
Disqualification undertakings are the administrative equivalent of a disqualification order but do not involve court proceedings.
Persons subject to a disqualification order are bound by a range of restrictions.
