The former chief executive of Carillion has been disqualified from being a company director for eight years for his role in allegedly concealing accounting troubles at the collapsed construction firm.
The Insolvency Service, acting on behalf of the business and trade secretary, said it had accepted a disqualification undertaking from Richard Howson, who led the failed outsourcer from 2012 until July 2017. His departure was announced alongside the first of three profit warnings.
The voluntary directorships ban comes after the disqualification in June of Zafar Khan, who headed Carillion’s finance team for less than a year before the group went bust in early 2018, and of Richard Adam, Khan’s predecessor, in July.
The Insolvency Service said it was unable to comment further as litigation against other directors continued, with a trial set to begin this month.
Howson allegedly caused Carillion to report its 2015 and 2016 financial statements and on the performance of construction contracts, including Battersea Power Station in south London, “in a way which he ought to have known falsified and concealed the reality of the deterioration”.
