Ignoring a court ruling is a foolish strategy at any time – as a man who continued to act as a director after having been banned from doing so found recently.

In 2011, the man had agreed to a four-year ban after being involved in the running of a company that went bust owing a significant sum in unpaid tax. He ignored the ban and continued to act as a director of two other companies, one of which went into creditors’ voluntary liquidation after he had improperly transferred £59,000 to himself. He pleaded guilty to four counts of running companies whilst disqualified, and other offences including failing to give up books of account to the liquidator.

The result was imprisonment for 14 months and a further ban from acting as a director for nine more years.