R v Michael Haslam

Facts

The appellant, Michael Haslam, set up M and J Builders Ltd on 11 January 2016 and was its sole director. From July 2019 the company struggled financially, accruing tax and national insurance liabilities and taking out loans; by November 2020 it had stopped repaying its borrowings and in December 2020 it hit its overdraft limit. In April 2022 an insolvency practitioner told the appellant that the company was insolvent, that his duty was to its creditors and that he should have stopped trading. He nonetheless carried on, taking money up front from customers who knew nothing of the company's position, for work that was mostly not done or done badly and for materials that never arrived; much of it was paid into his own or his wife's personal accounts. A winding-up petition was issued in the High Court in November 2022 and the company was wound up with insufficient funds for creditors. There were eight complainants. On 15 May 2026 the appellant pleaded guilty in the Crown Court at Derby to a single count of fraudulent trading, and on 1 July 2026 HHJ Shaun Smith KC, the Honorary Recorder of Derby, sentenced him to 28 months' immediate imprisonment, having at earlier hearings indicated that he would not be going to prison. A slip rule hearing on 3 July 2026 left the sentence unchanged; the judge certified the case fit for appeal.