Criminal investigations into the Atherton scheme are live. Search warrants have been executed across the UK with police support, and directors who used the scheme are now being investigated and disqualified too, not just the people who sold it. If you paid a fee to have your company taken off your hands, you need advice before anyone contacts you.
Speak to us in confidence today, 24 hours a day: 0141 846 5463
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What was the Atherton scheme?
Atherton marketed itself to directors of struggling companies as a lawful alternative to using an insolvency practitioner. The offer was simple and, on the face of it, attractive: pay a fee, sell your company, walk away.
In practice the arrangement worked like this. A director of a company in financial difficulty paid Atherton a fee, typically somewhere between £5,000 and £20,000. The company was then sold on for a nominal sum, often a single pound, to one of a number of connected purchasing companies. New directors were installed. The original director resigned and was told that the company, and its debts, were no longer anything to do with them.
The purchasing companies took on very large numbers of businesses this way. Investigations by the Insolvency Service identified one such company that had become the owner of at least 171 separate businesses, and another that already held 58 before its final director was even appointed.
Why so many directors were taken in
If you used this scheme believing it was legitimate, you were not being naive. You were being sold to, professionally, by an operation set up for that purpose.
The Insolvency Service's own findings were that the Atherton companies made false promises to struggling business owners. Directors were told they could make a clean break from their debts. They were told that resigning before any formal insolvency process would protect them from reputational damage. They were told, incorrectly, that they would carry no further responsibility for the company or what happened to it.
None of that was true. Atherton Corporate (UK) Ltd and Atherton Corporate Rescue Limited were wound up in the public interest in 2024, along with five companies that enabled the scheme to run. A further four connected companies went into compulsory liquidation in early 2026. Several individuals behind the scheme have been disqualified as company directors for periods of between four and nine years.
Why "I was misled" is not, by itself, a defence
This is the part that catches people, and it is the reason this page exists.
A director's duties do not transfer with the shares. Once a company is insolvent or heading that way, the duty shifts to protecting the interests of creditors, and that duty attaches to you personally, for the period you held office. Selling the company for £1 to someone you have never met does not discharge it. Neither does a resignation.
The exposure becomes far more serious where value left the company. That includes:
- Cash transferred to another business you own or control
- Vehicles, plant, stock or equipment retained, sold cheaply, or moved across
- Customer lists, contracts or goodwill continued through a new company
- Payments made to yourself, family members or connected parties ahead of other creditors
- Company records that were never handed over, or that no longer exist
- Continued access to company bank accounts after resigning as a director
Enforcement has already moved beyond the promoters. In May 2026 a Leicestershire director who had paid Atherton £16,500 was disqualified for seven years after making net payments of £198,100 out of his insolvent company into a new business he had set up, some of them after he had formally resigned. His former company went into liquidation owing creditors over £513,000.
The pattern is clear. Being misled about the scheme goes to mitigation. What you did with the company's assets goes to liability.
What you could face in Scotland
Scots law differs from the law in England and Wales in ways that matter here, and firms south of the border will not always get this right.
Criminal proceedings. In Scotland, insolvency-related offences are prosecuted by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service on a report, rather than by the Insolvency Service itself. The Fraud Act 2006 does not apply here. Allegations of dishonesty are prosecuted as fraud at common law instead, which has different elements and is argued differently. Depending on the circumstances, matters that may arise include:
- Fraud at common law
- Offences by company officers under the Insolvency Act 1986, including concealment or falsification of company records, material omissions from a statement of affairs, and transactions in fraud of creditors
- Reuse of a prohibited company name under section 216 of the Insolvency Act 1986. This is a criminal offence in its own right, and it also carries personal liability for the debts of the new company
- Fraudulent trading under section 993 of the Companies Act 2006
- Money laundering offences and confiscation proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002
Disqualification and personal liability. Separately from any prosecution, the Secretary of State can seek your disqualification as a company director. In Scotland those applications are made in the Court of Session. A disqualification can run for up to 15 years and may be accompanied by a compensation order requiring you to pay creditors personally.
Claims by the liquidator. Transactions can be unwound. In Scotland this is done through gratuitous alienations and unfair preferences under sections 242 and 243 of the Insolvency Act 1986, rather than the provisions that apply in England. A liquidator can also pursue you personally for misfeasance or wrongful trading.
HMRC. Since December 2020 HMRC ranks as a preferential creditor for VAT and PAYE, which means it is frequently the largest creditor in these liquidations. It has its own criminal investigation powers and can issue joint and several liability notices making directors personally liable for tax debts where a company is wound up in circumstances involving repeated insolvency or tax avoidance.
Signs you may already be under investigation
Many directors caught up in this have no idea anything is happening until it is well advanced. Take advice if any of the following applies to you:
- A liquidator has written asking for company records, or requiring you to attend for questioning
- You have received a letter from the Insolvency Service, or been invited to an interview
- Police or investigators have attended your home or business premises
- A bank account has been frozen or you have received a request for information from your bank
- HMRC has opened an enquiry into you or a connected company
- A former co-director, accountant or bookkeeper has been contacted about the company
- The company you sold has since been wound up by the court
- You have been asked to provide a statement of affairs or explain what happened to company assets
If any of these apply, call before you respond.
0141 846 5463, available 24 hours a day
What to do now (and what not to do)
Do not destroy or alter any records. Company books, bank statements, emails, invoices and correspondence with Atherton should all be preserved exactly as they are. Destroying or altering records is itself an offence and is treated as evidence of dishonesty.
Do not attend any interview without a solicitor. An interview with the Insolvency Service in connection with possible disqualification is not conducted under caution. That does not mean it is safe. What you say in it can be used in a subsequent report to the Procurator Fiscal. The same applies to information you give a liquidator under your statutory duty to co-operate. There is a real tension between that duty and your right not to incriminate yourself, and it needs to be handled properly rather than improvised on the day.
Do not assume it will go away because time has passed. Disqualification proceedings can be brought years after a liquidation, and the criminal investigations into this scheme are current.
Do not talk to former co-directors about what to say. Agreeing an account is a separate and more serious problem than the one you started with.
Do gather your paperwork. What you paid Atherton and when. Any contract, brochure or email exchange. Your resignation date. What happened to the company's assets. The clearer this is, the faster we can tell you where you stand.
How Beltrami & Company can help
This is criminal defence work, not insolvency work, and the two require different specialists. Where the accountant or insolvency adviser stops is where we start.
We act for directors at every stage:
- Advice before any contact with investigators, while you still have options
- Attendance at police stations and representation at interview under caution
- Advising on what can and cannot be said to a liquidator or to the Insolvency Service, and appearing with you
- Defence of proceedings in the Sheriff Court and High Court
- Proceeds of Crime Act restraint and confiscation proceedings
- Co-ordinating with insolvency and tax specialists where disqualification or personal liability runs alongside a criminal matter
Beltrami & Company has defended serious and complex crime in Scotland for decades. We are based in Glasgow and act for clients across the country.
Related: Fraud defence solicitors · Proceeds of Crime and confiscation · Director disqualification
Frequently asked questions
I only paid the fee and walked away. Am I still at risk?
Your position is considerably better than someone who took assets with them, but it is not automatically safe. Investigators will still want to know what happened to the company's property, whether its records were handed over, and whether creditors were paid in the right order in the period before the sale. Take advice rather than assume.
The company was sold years ago. Is it too late for them to act?
No. Disqualification proceedings can be brought well after the event, and the criminal investigations into this scheme are ongoing now. The four most recent enforcement actions concerned companies sold in 2023 and earlier.
Can I be prosecuted in Scotland if Atherton was based in England?
Yes. What matters is your conduct and your company, not where the scheme was run from. If your company was Scottish and you were acting here, proceedings would ordinarily be brought in Scotland by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.
I set up a new company doing the same thing. Is that a problem?
It may be. Trading under a name that is the same as, or similar to, the name of the liquidated company is a criminal offence under section 216 of the Insolvency Act 1986 unless one of the statutory exceptions applies, and it can make you personally liable for the new company's debts. This is one of the most common issues we see and it is worth checking early.
Will I go to prison?
The great majority of cases arising from this scheme have so far resulted in director disqualification rather than prosecution. Criminal investigations are live, however, and the outcome in any individual case depends heavily on what happened to the money. That is precisely why the early advice matters.
Is this the same as being made bankrupt?
No. Bankruptcy is a personal insolvency process. What is at issue here is the conduct of a company director, which can lead to disqualification, personal liability for company debts, or criminal proceedings, separately from your own financial position.
Can I claim against Atherton for misleading me?
The principal Atherton companies have been wound up, which makes recovery unlikely in practice. More importantly, a claim against them would not resolve your own exposure. Deal with the investigation first.
Speak to a solicitor today
If you used the Atherton scheme, or any similar arrangement offered as an alternative to liquidation, contact us before you speak to anyone else. The conversation is confidential and there is no obligation.
0141 846 5463, available 24 hours a day
