Former director of Lottery Management Company disqualified

A former director of the Northern Ireland Lottery Management Company from Helens Bay, County Down has been disqualified by the High Court from being a company director for seven years.

The judgement against Kenneth J Pryce was brought as a result of his conduct as a director of The Lottery Management Company (NI) Limited. The company traded in the sale of lottery tickets from kiosks at several locations in the Greater Belfast area and throughout the United Kingdom. It had its registered office at 10, High Street, Holywood, Co. Down and was wound up by the High Court on 18 February 1999 with an estimated deficiency to creditors of £666,681.

The matters of unfitness found by the Court and for which Kenneth J Pryce was disqualified included causing The Lottery Management Company (NI) Limited to trade from May 1996 to September 1997 in the knowledge that it was insolvent; retention of £40,399 properly payable to the Crown in respect of PAYE income tax and National Insurance Contributions and the misuse of a bank account by tendering cheques to creditors without due regard to the prospect of them being honoured on presentation.

In his judgment Master Redpath said: “The respondent presented in Court as a man who had done his best to ensure that this company was a success and no doubt had worked very hard to make it so. However, as I have already stated, his fixation with his dispute with Camelot appears to have overridden the usual caution and business sense that one would expect a reasonable director to have exercised in the running of this company.”

The case was brought by the Insolvency Service of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment under the Companies (NI) Order 1989 which seeks to protect the public and trading community from the abuses of the privilege conferred by limited liability status. (AMcE)