The director of a home improvements firm which failed to complete more than £300,000 of building work has been banned for eight years.

Samantha Fairweather, 53, of Maitland Road, Stansted Mountfitchet, was the sole director of Fairweather Construction Ltd when it sought advice from an insolvency practitioner in April 2022, owing more than £100,000 in unpaid tax.

By this time, the company had taken deposits from homeowners worth more than £150,000 for building work such as the installation of new windows or conservatories which it had not finished.

Fairweather Construction then proceeded to take a further £177,900 in payments for further building projects it did not complete, including £37,370 in deposits for new work, before it was liquidated in autumn 2022.

Neil North, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: "Samantha Fairweather knew, or ought to have known, that the company she was a director of had unpaid debts to HMRC and had been unable to fulfil its obligations to existing customers. 

"The company then took significant amounts of money from homeowners for house extensions and projects which were never done. 

"Members of the public need protection from this kind of activity which is why Fairweather will no longer be able to act as a company director until October 2032."

Fairweather was the only director of Fairweather Construction when it was established in December 2014.

The company marketed itself as a home improvement specialist which mainly focused on properties around the Essex and Hertfordshire border.

Its registered office address was more than 150 miles away in Wood Lane, Heskin, Lancashire.

One couple from South London paid Fairweather Construction £12,500 for new windows in July 2022, which were never fitted.

A woman from Saffron Walden also paid the company £4,500 for new windows in August 2022, which were likewise never fitted.

In the same month, the company took £18,000 from customers in Bishop's Stortford for a new conservatory and an extension to an existing one, which were never built.

Numerous excuses were made by the company for why the orders were not fulfilled.

In May 2020, Fairweather also caused her company to breach the COVID Bounce Back Loan Scheme by using £11,000 of the £50,000 she obtained to repay a director's loan.

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These payments were not for the economic benefit of the business as they had to be under the rules of the scheme.

Fairweather Construction entered liquidation in September 2022 with liabilities of more than £700,000.

The Secretary of State for Business and Trade accepted a disqualification undertaking from Fairweather, and her eight-year ban began on Monday, October 21.

The disqualification prevents her from becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the permission of the court.