A director faked his own death in an effort to avoid disqualification from running companies, the Insolvency Service has said.
Bradley Trevor Silver, also known as Bradley Silva, is still being sought by the government agency after its lawyers were told he had taken his own life.
The 49-year-old was disqualified from acting as a director for 14 years, beginning 2 November. He was the sole director of 24/7 London, a sham company that was wound up in the public interest by the Insolvency Service in September 2016.
The company allegedly used forged documents saying falsely that it had worked on contracts for TV shows including Big Brother, Britain’s Got Talent, The X Factor and The Only Way is Essex.
Last week Silver was disqualified from acting as a company director for 14 years for dishonest attempts to obtain credit on the back of fictional accounts, and for using forged documents and invoices.
Investigators also found Silver had filed false accounts for his company, claiming a turnover of £4.7bn and assets of £2.4bn, said to have been audited by Deloitte.
They found that Deloitte had not audited the accounts, which contained basic errors including presenting numbers in billions instead of thousands.
In the days prior to the disqualification hearing, a “friend” of the director, calling himself Adam Solomans, contacted lawyers to say Silver had killed himself.
Suspicions were raised as the friend appeared to share a mobile phone number with Silver and soon stopped responding to emails. Solomans’ name and signature both featured on a cheque paid into 24/7 London’s bank account which had bounced.
In her judgment, registrar Christine Derrett said she did not accept that Silver had died, adding that, in all probability, he and Solomans were one and the same.
Insolvency Service chief investigator Cheryl Lambert said it was “one of the most bizarre cases” she had ever come across.
She said: “That Mr Silver appears to have tried to fake his own death through suicide in order to avoid disqualification is disgraceful.
“Directors should be aware that the Insolvency Service will not shy away from confronting dishonesty and removing these people from the marketplace.”
