A CHESTER-based businessman has been disqualified from acting as a director for seven years.

Volnei Augusto Borgert, 51, was disqualified for causing Camboriu Restaurants Limited, who ran the Tropeiro chain of Brazilian restaurants, to file false VAT returns and for taking £47,280 from the company in the last month of trading, after being told not to.

Tropeiro, on Grosvenor Street, has been shut since February after the parent company went into liquidation. The disqualification follows an investigation by the Insolvency Service of the previous owner of the chain.

The Secretary of State accepted an undertaking from Mr Borgert on February 1, 2016, not to act as a director of a limited company for seven years from February 22.

The investigation found that Mr Borgert caused Camboriu to file three inaccurate VAT returns in 2012 and 2013, resulting in £162,684 not being declared as due. Furthermore, after he had taken advice from an insolvency practitioner that the company wasn’t solvent, he withdrew £47,280 from the company.

Camboriu Restaurants Ltd was set up in 2010 and started trading in 2011 as the Brazilian-themed restaurants Tropeiro with its head offices on Cuppin Street.

They had sites in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Sheffield, Nottingham and Chester before they went into administration in January 2014 with estimated assets of £116,783 and liabilities totalling £1,354,780.

Despite going into administration in 2014 the Chester site remained open after it was sold to an unconnected party before finally closing its doors this year.

The Insolvency Service investigation also found that:

l When already in arrears with HMRC, Mr Borgert falsified three VAT returns and paid the lesser amount shown on those returns to be due, thereby concealing from HMRC the full extent of the VAT debt. The company’s own records showed that £162,684 was knowingly under-declared

l From December 6, 2013, having been advised by HMRC (on November 27, 2013) that a winding-up petition would be issued, and by an Insolvency Practitioner (on December 3, 2013) that the company should be placed into administration and no creditor should get preferential treatment, he withdrew £47,280 for his own benefit

l The company’s share capital was £1. The administrators sold the underlying business to an unconnected party. Mr Borgert was the only director of Camboriu throughout.

Cheryl Lambert, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: “This is a significant ban reflecting the seriousness with which the Insolvency Service considers the conduct of the director.

“In overseeing the submission of false data to HMRC, which hid the true position, Mr Borgert allowed the company to continue trading using that undeclared tax as a reservoir of working capital. Despite being made aware of the true position, he wilfully ignored instructions from professionals and extracted money.

“Directors of companies experiencing financial difficulties have a duty to act in the best interests of creditors, not to mitigate their own position or simply extract what money remains.

“Mr Bogert’s conduct of Camboriu’s affairs fell short of the standards of competence and integrity expected; to protect the integrity of the market, the Insolvency Service will use its powers to protect the business world when directors act in this way.”