A self-styled Instagram influencer whose business plagued people with nuisance calls has been banned from being a director for seven years.
Yvonne McCuaig's Glasgow call centre is back in the spotlight after an investigation by business watchdogs raised questions over the use of a £30,000 covid loan.
The 43-year-old was behind cold calling firm, Dial a Deal Scotland Ltd, which was placed in liquidation after being fined for making half a million unwanted phone calls, the Sunday Mail reports.
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The The UK Insolvency Service has also asked why she transferred £180,000 to herself before the company was shut down.
The firm was based at an industrial estate in the east end of the city and was previously fined £150,000 by the Information Commissioners' Office. They set up a series of fake trading names to try to sell government green schemes later found to be non-existent. It also used questionable tactics such as spoof numbers so they couldn't be traced to the HQ.
McCuaig, from Helensburgh, who portrayed herself as a fashion influencer on social media and made no mention of her call centre, was asked to explain where the money went.
Company watchdog the Insolvency Service has banned her and her IT expert co-director Calum Kirkpatrick, 38, from being directors of any firm for seven years.
The investigation concluded that McCuaig "failed to ensure Dial a Deal Scotland Limited (DSL) maintained or preserved adequate accounting records, with the consequence that it has not been possible to determine DSL's income and expenditure."
It said this meant it could not check if a Covid Bounce Back Loan was "used for the economic benefit" of the company and if "DSL was eligible" for the loan of £30,000 in August 2020.
The Insolvency Service probe also questioned "why payments totalling £180,400 were made to her" from August 20, 2020, to September 7, 2021, before it went into liquidation. The investigation found similar failings on the part of Kirkpatrick, from Falkirk.
A source told the Sunday Mail: "It's a condition of receiving a covid loan that you can show how the money was used but the Dial a Deal accounts couldn't do that. McCuaig has big questions to answer about what the money was used for."
McCuaig and Kirkpatrick were unable to be reached for comment.
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