Former director of holiday marketing company disqualified for 8 years.

18/02/2010

All five former directors of Worldwide International UK Limited have been disqualified following an investigation by the CIB of the Insolvency Service. The company marketed timeshare accomodation, timeshare re-sales, shared ownership of canal boats and holiday club memberships and operated in the UK, Goa, Cyprus and Spain. Its tradings names were "Worldwide International", "Travelwise", "Travelwise Sales", "Majestic Leisure", "Majestic Holidays", "Phoenix Promotions" and other like names.

The registered directors were Alison Goss, Bruce Goss, Vishnu Naik, Ernie Batten and Dawn Loe. The company was owned and controlled by Bruce Goss and his sons Peter and Daryl were also directors, albeit unregistered at Companies House.

They were found to have acted with a serious lack of commercial probity which led to a high level of complaints from customers who had been persuaded by high pressure and aggressive sales methods to buy holiday ownerships.

Marketing guidance uncovered by the investigation advised the company's sales staff to "Always remember the clients have been guided on a long and twisting path to get this far" and to "button up all the way to the bank". Also "using your pen direct them to read only what you want them to read". As to customers requiring finance, the advice was "You should never go into much details about finance...REMEMBER YOU CONTROL WHAT THEY READ AND WHAT THEY SIGN". And further, "to ensure they are of the understanding that there is no cooling off period".

Bruce Goss disappeared from the UK and it was alleged that he abandoned the company after causing it to trade whilst insolvent, as well as the following:

• failing to distinguish between the company and associated companies which created deliberate confusion amongst customers and suppliers, as well as intermingling of funds and accounts and a serious lack of documentation for transactions.


• failing to maintain proper accounting records


• failing to pay debts due to the Crown


• lack of commercial probity in relation to holiday ownership sales


• receiving numerous unexplained and undocumented payments which led to a finding that the adverse financial situation of the company was caused by consistently selling holiday inventory at a loss to generate cash and the propensity of the Goss family to transfer surplus funds to their own accounts.

High Court Registrar Derrett held:
"I am therefore satisfied that the allegations made against Mr Goss disclose persistent and serious dishonesty. I am satisfied that Mr Goss has caused the Company systematically to take substantial sums of money from customers based on false information and high pressure sales tactics. Even when the Company's financial situation was clearly hopeless he allowed it to continue to take money from customers and those customers who sought explanations were lied to and deceived. I am satisfied that Mr Goss is to be regarded as principally responsible for the actions of the Company. His co-directors and employees, most of whom are members of his family, have all stated that he was the guiding mind, the person behind the network of companies. There has been no evidence filed by Mr Goss and so in the absence of any evidence to contradict what has been said, I am satisfied that he should be regarded as principally responsible for all the activities of the Company and that the Secretary of State has on a balance of probabilities established the case against him. I have already indicated that the associates of Mr Goss have given undertakings for periods of between four and eight years. Having accepted the evidence that Mr Goss is principally responsible, I am satisfied that this is a case which falls into the upper end of the middle bracket. On that basis I disqualify Mr Goss from acting as a company director for a period of eight years".

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