London, Nov 25 (PTI) An Indian-origin director of a business that bought unwanted items from charity shops in the UK for resale has been banned for six years after non-payment of correct taxes totalling almost 1.2 million pounds.

Rajesh Voralia, from Kingston Upon Thames in Surrey, south-east England, will start his directorship disqualification from Tuesday, the UK's Insolvency Service said.

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The 49-year-old charity shop re-seller is banned from acting as a director or directly or indirectly becoming involved, without the permission of the court, in the promotion, formation or management of a company.

"Rajesh Voralia failed to take his responsibilities as a director seriously and thought he could walk away from his company and its outstanding tax liabilities without consequences,” said Lawrence Zussman, Deputy Head of Insolvent Investigations for the Insolvency Service.

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"Thanks to our investigation, he has now been removed from the business environment for a substantial period. This ban should serve as a warning to other directors that if you do not pay correct taxes and comply with the law, you run the risk of being disqualified," he said.

RTS Textile Recyclers Limited was incorporated in September 2014 and Rajesh Voralia was appointed as the sole director. The business bought and sold unwanted items collected from charity shops and operated out of premises in West Drayton, west London.

The company went into administration in October 2017 and a year later went into liquidation before an Insolvency Service investigation uncovered that Voralia failed to ensure RTS Textile Recyclers complied with its tax obligations.

Insolvency Service enquiries revealed that value added tax (VAT) returns due from the end of 2014 to the middle of 2017 were either submitted late or not at all and when RTS Textile Recyclers entered into administration, almost 1.2 million pounds in unpaid taxes, including penalties, was owed by the company.

Analysis by the Insolvency Service found that more than 16.4 million pounds had passed through RTS Textile Recyclers' bank account between March 2015 and December 2017 but less than 80,000 pounds was paid to the tax authorities.

At a hearing earlier this month, Judge Sebastian Prentis sitting in the High Court made a disqualification order for six years against Rajesh Voralia, as well as costs of almost 5,000 pounds. Voralia attended the hearing, where he did not dispute that he had failed to ensure RTS Textile Recyclers complied with its statutory tax obligations.

Disqualification undertakings are the administrative equivalent of a disqualification order but do not involve court proceedings.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)