Six-year ban for boss of collapsed training company

Shakar Habib was the sole director of the London-based business Vista Training Solutions, which provided training to students through enterprise schemes. He had been the company’s director from November 2015 until it went into liquidation in February 2020.  

The firm worked with partner organisations to deliver apprenticeships across London, receiving most of its funding from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).  

However when the business folded, an investigation by the Insovlency Service and the ESFA found that Habib could not account for nearly £3.5m from the company’s accounts and owed more than £2.5m to ESFA.  

Investigators discovered he had failed to keep adequate company accounts and that records from April 2019 onwards were missing. They were therefore unable to verify whether £3.5m of payments from the company’s bank accounts during its final year of trading were legitimate company expenses.  

Additionally, the firm’s liquidator was unable to account for £525,000 in assets due to a lack of financial records.  

The Insolvency Service’s deputy head of investigations Marc Symons said: “Shakar Habib disregarded his legal duty to keep accounting records. But thanks to the joint working between ESFA and the Insolvency Service, he has been removed from the corporate arena for a substantial period. 

“His ban should be a stark warning to other rogue directors that we will act to protect the public from those who abuse taxpayers’ money.” 

The ESFA’s director of finance and provider market oversight Andrew Thomas added: “This successful outcome demonstrates that ESFA will take robust action and work with regulatory partners across government to hold individuals and organisations to account.”

The Secretary of State for Business and Trade accepted a disqualification undertaking from Habib, and his six-year ban – which prevents him from becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company with the permission of the court – began on 21 November 2023.