A BOSS of a Blackburn telecoms firm which went out of business owing £1.1million to the taxman has been banned from being a company director for 12 years.

Basir Yakub Haji, 42, had run Penny Street based Connections Ltd, a phones wholesaler, before it was officially wound up in December 2005.

By then Haji, of Newton Street, Preston, owed around £1.1million in VAT to Her Majesty's Customs and Excise, according to the Insolvency Service.

Investigators have now secured an undertaking from Haji that he will not be involved in the management or promotion of a company until 2019.

An inquiry by insolvency officials found that Haji's firm had imported goods worth around £8.4million into the UK - but sold them without declaring any VAT payments.

Investigators also found that the company's accounts were "so shambolic" that they could not get a clear picture of Connections' assets or liabilities.

This included one example where around £11,500 was due from the sale of phones to West Coast Services - but no records existed of whether the cash ever reached Connections, or how this was banked.

Records held by Companies House show that the Official Receiver petitioned for Connections to be liquidated in October 2005 - this was granted just over a month later.

Meanwhile, another East Lancashire businessman has been barred from holding a directorship for six years, following the collapse of his claims firm.

Kevin Michael Quigley, 46, of Woodlea Chase, Darwen, must not form or manage a company until 2013 after the demise of The Occupational Disease Group.

The claims company, formerly based in Croxley House, Lloyd Street, Manchester, folded owing more than £160,000 in November 2004.