A SUFFOLK man has been disqualified from acting as a company director after his computer firm collapsed with debts of more than £1.2 million.Alan Budd, of Garden Cottage, Mill Lane, Brandeston, near Woodbridge, will not be allowed to run a business for six years.

A SUFFOLK man has been disqualified from acting as a company director after his computer firm collapsed with debts of more than £1.2 million.

Alan Budd, of Garden Cottage, Mill Lane, Brandeston, near Woodbridge, will not be allowed to run a business for six years.

He and his business partner Stephen Moate, who has been disqualified for five years, applied to the government to be banned to avoid a court hearing.

Mr Budd and Mr Moate, who lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, had run a firm called Tudorgloss Ltd, which specialised in computer maintenance.

The company, which was based in Huntingdon, went into liquidation in August 1998 with no assets and estimated total debts and liabilities of £1,276,888.

A spokeswoman for the Insolvency Service said the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Stephen Byers, had accepted disqualification undertakings from the two men based on unfit conduct, which they did not dispute.

This was that they had taken advantage of the forbearance of the Inland Revenue and operated a policy of non-payment of PAYE and National Insurance contributions from February 1997, resulting in an increased PAYE and National Insurance liability of £258,000.

They also transferred the business of Tudorgloss to US4 Limited with no consideration for, and no security for, the creditors of Tudorgloss.

The courts can disqualify people from being company directors from two to 15 years for unfit conduct in their business practices.

To ensure directors who have not run companies properly are disqualified at the earliest opportunity, the directors can, if they accept their behaviour has been unfit, seek a disqualification undertaking to avoid a court hearing.

The undertaking has the same legal effect as a court order and anyone breaching an undertaking could be jailed for two years or fined, or both.