A WOMAN has been banned from being a company director for four years after admitting fraud.

Paulina Kubicz, 25, admitted fraudulently removing £16,206 from her Dorset-based company which had been paid to her by a customer.

At a sentencing hearing at Bournemouth Crown Court, she was disqualified from being a company director for four years, ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and confiscation proceeding were started under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

The case was brought by Dorset County Council’s trading standards service.

The court heard that Kubicz set up the company, White Eagle Modern Building Services Ltd, in 2012 with two other directors in Gillingham. In 2014 they obtained a building contact worth £120,000 in Sturminster Newton. Things soon went wrong with delays and little work being done and the customer complained to the Federation of Master Builders (FMB) as the company was a member. An adjudication by the FMB found that the company should pay back £58,000 to the customer. Kubicz and her fellow directors realised they could not afford to pay this so they resigned from the FMB the following day and took advice about liquidating the company.

The company had also signed a contract with another customer in Somerset for around £74,000. 

This customer did not know White Eagle had resigned from the FMB and he arranged for them to do a further £35,000 of work for him. Kubicz set up a new bank account in her name, telling the bank a number of lies when doing this, and then after telling the customer they had problems with their existing company bank account she asked him to pay £16,206 into the new account. Later analysis of this account by trading standards showed that less than £500 of this money was spent at builders’ merchants and most was spent on domestic expenditure and transfers to Poland.

In mitigation, the court heard she had been given conflicting advice about company law, she was no longer involved in the business and was now working as a security officer at Bristol airport and, depending on the outcome of the court case, she may have the opportunity of a job with the Ministry of Defence.

His Honour Judge Peter Johnson said that he noted that she was a young woman of previous good character and that her marketing skills exceeded her project management skills, but nonetheless she had misled the customer into paying the money into her account.

Ivan Hancock, trading standards service, for Dorset County Council said: “When a limited company goes into liquidation this will often cause some disruption and distress to consumers and other businesses owed money. However in this case the Director concerned sought to avoid their legal responsibilities having failed consumers."