Five South London companies which claimed to have turnovers topping £1.6 billion have been shut down, after an investigation revealed that their accounts had been faked.
The Insolvency Service and Companies House obtained a High Court order on Thursday to close down Automarket Europe Limited, Integra Group Limited, Maxell Limited, Montana & Montana Limited, and Supermarket Plus Ltd.
The companies were all linked through registered offices in Wood Vale, Lewisham, south London and Warren Avenue, Croydon, and had put forward accounts to back up claims of huge profits.
The Insolvency Service said the companies “claimed to trade as everything from supermarkets to car dealerships but no evidence was found of any true business activity”.
Montana & Montana Limited suggested in its filings that it had assets of more than £194 million, and claimed major auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers had approved its accounts for years. But PWC confirmed it had never worked for the company.
Automarket Europe Limited claimed a turnover of £327 million in 2022, but offered no explanation for its declared assets having jumped from £629,220 in 2021 to £84 million the following year.
Integra Group Limited filed £186 million profit for 2022, but similar suspicions arose from assets which inexplicably rose from £602,374 in 2021 to £233 million in 2022.
The Insolvency Service was called in after suspicions were raised at Companies House, and powers from the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 were used to wind up the firms.
The Insolvency Service said the filed accounts had “glaring inconsistencies”, falsely named solicitors and accountants in the paperwork, and were written in poor English.
Repeated efforts to contact the named directors fell flat.
Dave Magrath, Director of Investigation and Enforcement Services at the Insolvency Service, said: “Our investigators were concerned that there was a genuine risk that these wildly inaccurate accounts could have been used to mislead potential customers and suppliers into providing credit in the future based on completely fabricated financial information.
“Protecting the integrity of the Companies House register is crucial because UK businesses rely on this information to make informed decisions about who they trade with, lend to, and invest in. When companies submit false information, it undermines confidence in our entire business environment.”
