Name: Graeme Giles

Name: MARQUIS & CO. (VALUERS) LIMITED

Date of Birth: 6 / 3 / 1956

Date Order Starts: 25 / 1 / 2023

Disqualification Length: 5 Years 0 Month(s)

CRO Number: 00937642

Last Known Address: 30a Vine Road,, , , , EAST MOLESEY,, KT8 9LF

Conduct: In his capacity as a director of Marquis & Co. (Valuers) Limited “Marquis” or “the company” from 6 February 2020, Graeme Giles caused or allowed the company to make material omissions to the Liquidator in the course of winding up the company in respect of the company’s clients and client money held by the company, and caused or allowed client monies to be transferred to a connected company delivering up a lack of records in this regard, in that: At liquidation, the existence of only 4 client accounts was disclosed to the Liquidator. However, client account statements provided by the company’s banks indicate that the company operated at least a further 57 client accounts. From 11 February 2020 client accounts were emptied by payments made from them into accounts held by a connected company, including payments made after the company was placed into Liquidation and control of all of the company’s matters should have been handed over to the Liquidator. In total, £20,025.72 was transferred from client accounts held by Marquis to other accounts help by a connected company between 2 March 2020 and 20 July 2020. Accordingly, the Liquidator was unable to ensure that the transfer of the clients and their funds to the connected company was conducted properly and whether any transfer of management agreements had any value to the company. Additionally, the Liquidator has been unable to verify whether any of the funds transferred were owed to the company, or whether there were shortfalls in any of the client accounts. 

This information is correct as at 5 / 1 / 2023

Name: MARQUIS & CO. (VALUERS) LIMITED

Date of Birth: 27 / 9 / 1950

Date Order Starts: 5 / 1 / 2023

Disqualification Length: 7 Years 0 Month(s)

CRO Number: 00937642

Last Known Address: Marquis House, 54 Richmond Road, , , Twickenham, TW1 3BE

Conduct: Judith Donaldson caused or allowed Marquis & Co. (Valuers) Limited “Marquis” or “the company” to misuse money belonging to clients in breach of the contracts with those clients, in that: The company’s contracts with clients stated that the company would open a ‘Designated Bank Account(s)’ on behalf of the client in the name of the property which was the subject of the contract. The contracts authorised the company to make payments in respect of the subject property from the Designated Bank Account(s) without referral to the client, subject to a specified limit. Between 21 December 2018 and 16 January 2019, payments totalling £68,277.67 were made to HMRC from client accounts towards various of the company’s tax liabilities, including VAT, PAYE and Corporation Tax. No evidence has been provided that these payments were authorised by the clients whose monies were used. On 1 May 2020 the Liquidator was notified that a former client was making a claim against the company for £31,816.06 which was paid out of its client account by the company without proper authorisation. This sum included payments of £6,300 made to HMRC in respect of the company’s PAYE liabilities, £20,304.38 to a contractor in settlement of an invoice owed by a different client and in respect of a different property, and £5,211.68 to the company’s main bank account via a ‘general’ client account. Another former client has also made a claim against the company in respect of a shortfall of £65,188.46 in its client account Judith Donaldson failed to ensure that Marquis maintained, preserved and/or delivered up adequate books & records between 5 March 2018 and 5 February 2020, in that: Between 2 May 2018 and liquidation 35 payments of client money totalling £64,437.50 were made by the company into its main company bank account. The payments did not include an invoice number as a reference and no other records in relation to these payments have been delivered up. As a result, it is not possible to establish the purpose of these payments and whether these sums were legitimately owed to Marquis Between 5 March 2018 and liquidation 23 cheques were issued by the company from the main company bank account totalling £33,624.94 for which it has not been possible for the Liquidator to ascertain the recipients of these funds or the purposes of the payments. As a consequence it has not been possible to verify whether the payments were legitimate company expenditure Judith Donaldson failed to ensure Marquis complied with its statutory obligations to HMRC in respect of VAT between August 2014 and liquidation, in that: The company registered for VAT on 28 May 1975. From the periods ending June 2014 to liquidation the company did not file any returns in respect of VAT, and accordingly HMRC raised assessments for those periods HMRC issued winding up petitions in respect of unpaid tax liabilities on 2 October 2014, 12 November 2018, 21 October 2019 and 5 February 2020. In respect of the winding up petitions presented on 2 October 2014, 12 November 2018 and 21 October 2019, payments were made to HMRC on behalf of Marquis which caused the winding up petitions to be dismissed. In the case of at least the 2018 and 2019 petitions these payments were made with funds from client accounts operated by Marquis. On 3 September 2019, HMRC conducted an investigation into the VAT affairs of the company. This resulted in additional VAT assessments of £78,232.00 being raised, along with interest of £4,495.79. At liquidation, HMRC’s claim in respect of VAT was £156,539.84, comprising of unpaid tax of £117,527, surcharges of £15,200.70, penalties of £18,003 and interest of £5,809.14 In the period 21 December 2018 to liquidation, the only payments made towards Marquis’ VAT liability were made from funds held in client accounts belonging to customers of Marquis and were made in response to winding up petitions presented by HMRC against Marquis. These payments totalled £40,523.42, of which £29,670.35 was allocated to the company’s VAT liability and the balance was allocated to the company’s outstanding Corporation Tax liability. 

This information is correct as at 15 / 12 / 2022

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