Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
A bankrupt customer of builders merchant Travis Perkins drank and gambled his way through £20,000, despite owing money to the builders merchant and the bank.
Staffordshire building firm D&I Builders, owned by Ian Oxton, owed more than £74,000 to Travis Perkins and Lloyds TSB when it went into liquidation and Oxton declared bankrupt in 2008.
However, The Sentinel newspaper reports that Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard that the day after his bankruptcy hearing, he transferred £20,000 into another bank account and spent it all within a month.
At one point the firm turned over £3m but suffered badly from the building industry slump. Some £16,000 of his debt was owed to Travis Perkins.
Oxton pleaded guilty to a charge of fraudulent removal of property and was given a three month suspendedn sentance and ordered to pay back £5,000 at £200 per month, and Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings may follow to recover more of the debt.
