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Good article. There have been several threads on Accounting Web about Companies House data. I know from using an identity checking company that they widen the search to include mis-spellings and slight changes that can hide the full extent of someone's activities at Companies House.
If I want to engage an accountant, or a solicitor I will have to provide photo-proof of ID and proof of address. Yet I can register as a company director with no checks at all. If I registered a company with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck as directors I bet it would pass. It is insane! Why the dickens do we need a consultation on this? We know that many companies are used for ML by crooks. This is not a new problem, it has been the same for many years. And various organisations have highlighted the issues - BBC did a documentary on this issue a few years back. So why have governments not done anything about it? Am I being cynical if I suggest that a) it is not an issue that the general public are clamouring about so why bother, and b) MPs probably quite like the situation because some of them are crooks who abuse the system themselves. If I am disabled, living on the breadline, trying to decide whether to pay the electric bill to be warm or buying something to eat, and I tell a little lie on my benefit claim, the system will be on me like a ton of bricks. But if I am blessed with a little intelligence and start up a company with some wheeze to defraud suppliers, customers, and anyone else; perhaps even float it on AIM and bring in gullible investors to pay me a fat salary for digging a few holes looking for oil, or some fictious research that is bringing a miracle cure for cancer, I am almost certain to go unpunished. It stinks!
I have thought for many years that as well as date of birth directors should be obliged to give their NI number. I am sure the government could authorise access between HMRC and Co House to check that name, date of birth and home address match. The NI number like the home address could be kept out of public domain.
This would allow Companies House to perform a policing function rather than just clerical and could be useful for HMRC as well.
There's an argument that they should be subject to more rigorous checks. Either way, they're likely to have some tax ID which can be verified - if the Government genuinely has the will to prevent fraud.
For people who are not in the UK, maybe they should implement that if they want to be a director of a Ltd Company in the UK (as they will then be an employee of that company), they should be made to obtain an NI number first. Maybe that would work in conjunction with the earlier comment of having to input your NI number to be cross checked with HMRC.
“Although we don’t currently have the statutory power or capability to verify the accuracy of the information that companies provide"
Jersey has a robust accurate, regularly checked register (by the Jersey Financial Services Commission) of companies where any changes need to be supplied speedily using online forms, and which has automatic exchange of data with UK and other countries regulatory authorities for AML / tax evasion etc.
It's a pity the UK was in such a rush to get its "open register" in place that they didn't focus at the start on the quality of the data. Recification will be time consuming.
It's a great thought but surely with all this publicity and HMG doing nothing (as usual) the situation can only get worse. Here I am reading this article and thinking to myself 'Gosh here's an opportunity - what mischief can I get up to?'
It's a bit like Companies House putting up a notice saying 'Crooks welcome'. Not their fault, I agree, but the message is still there. Never mind HMG will diligently pursue the usual suspects who didn't cross their Ts on a SARs report - after all we haven't got the court time or the police time or the prisons to deal with criminals when we are chasing up all the people who are ...ists of one sort or another.
Whom the Gods would destroy they first drive mad!
I don't see the problem here. Anyone - banks, creditors, customers, accountants, etc - dealing with directors should perform checks akin to KYC. Why should they be done when a company is formed? The company is after all an independent standalone entity. I fail to understand why Cos Hse should perform the tasks that stakeholders should undertake. When are we going to discard this 'government must do everything for us' apron?
I don't see the problem here. Anyone - banks, creditors, customers, accountants, etc - dealing with directors should perform checks akin to KYC. Why should they be done when a company is formed? The company is after all an independent standalone entity. I fail to understand why Cos Hse should perform the tasks that stakeholders should undertake. When are we going to discard this 'government must do everything for us' apron?
Because if I do all the checks, it doesn't protect me against others who don't do the checks.