DUBLIN: The director of a Northern Ireland beauty business has been banned from the boardroom for six years after his company went bust owing nearly £1m. Michael Burnside of Knightsbridge Park in Belfast was the director of Zen Beauty Services Ltd on Heron Road, which sold cosmetics and toiletries. The company was set up in 2006. In the proceedings brought by the Department for the Economy, Mr Burnside (52) accepted instances of unfit conduct including failing to submit a sworn statement of affairs, and entering preferential transactions which harmed the interests of the company and its creditors.
The department said Mr Burnside had caused the company to settle his personal capital gains tax liability, which was a breach of his duty to the company. When PJG Recovery was appointed administrators in December 2014, the company owed £981,276 after assets of £226,512 were taken into account. According to an administrators’ report filed in March, the company was sold at auction for £145,000 in April last year. Mr Burnside and fellow director Andrew Porter also entered individual voluntary arrangements for their own financial affairs, which led to just under £7,300 being recovered. Claims from creditors included unpaid bills from beauty companies. Skincare giant Elemis was owed just over £127,821, and an agreed claim was concluded of around £106,000.
