A former director of The Royal William Bakery in Plymouth has been disqualified from running a business for the next five years after failing to pay more than £130k in tax bills.

Clive Cobb, who is from Dorset and was born in October 1947, is the second director of Our Bakery Number Two Ltd, which traded as The Royal William Bakery, to be disqualified in two years.

Another former director, Alexander Charles Eugene Quan, who is from Exeter and was born in October 1972, was disqualified for four years for failing to ensure payment of taxes, which became effective in November 2016.

An Insolvency Service investigation found that Cobb and Quan were responsible for the company failing to pay VAT, PAYE and NIC from at least May 2013. This led to arrears of £130,361 with the total amount owed in unpaid tax when the company went into liquidation in October 2015 coming to £142,666.

“These actions have resulted in honest taxpayers losing out,” said Sue MacLeod, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service. “If you run a business in a way that is unfairly detrimental to any of its creditors, including tax authorities, the Insolvency Service will investigate you, and you may find yourself disqualified from acting as a director.”

On 17 October 2017, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategyaccepted a disqualification undertaking from Cobb, effective from 7 November 2017.

Our Bakery Number Two incorporated in August 2011 and traded for five years.