The filing of company accounts with Companies House is a legal requirement. It assists transparency as it is possible to access the accounts for a small fee. This is particularly important when companies are mired in controversy.
The filing of company accounts with Companies House is a legal requirement. It assists transparency as it is possible to access the accounts for a small fee. This is particularly important when companies are mired in controversy.
Admittedly, there are often delays in filings. However, if these delays become too serious, there is ultimately the sanction of prosecution. According to the latest issue of Private Eye, Companies House informed Coventry MP Bob Ainsworth on 30 August that it had passed to its ‘prosecution team’ the failing to file accounts by three companies associated with Coventry City, the club that plays all its games away.
The three companies are Sky Blue Sports & Leisure, its subsidiary Otium Entertainment Group, and the Otium-controlled Coventry City Football Club (Holdings). Sky Blue and CCFCH holdings should have filed their 2012 accounts on 28 February.
Otium, which has acquired control of the Sky Blues from administrators, is even more in default. Its 2012 accounts were due on 21 January. By the end of September, receipt of the three overdue accounts had not been recorded. Private Eye asks whether summons have been issued to directors of the three companies, Tim Fisher and Mark Labovitch.