The High Court has disqualified Nicholas Wickham from acting as a company director for seven years after finding his conduct at Irish Gold and Silver Bullion Limited was dishonest and particularly serious.
Mr Justice Brian O’Moore delivered the decision on 10 July 2023. The only issue remaining for the court was the period of any disqualification order against Wickham. Claims brought by the company’s liquidator, Miles Kirby, against Wickham and Hamden Development Homes UK Limited had been compromised. The court did not determine those wider claims in this judgment.
The company was wound up in June 2021, and Kirby was appointed liquidator. The judgment recounts evidence from creditor Vincent McGowne, who paid €121,276 for three gold bars in 2019 and received a company certificate stating the bars were held for him in a Harrods vault. After the company agreed in December 2020 to repurchase the bars for €142,617, it did not pay him. Harrods later told the liquidator that its account with the company had closed in October 2016 and that it could not verify the contents of safe deposit boxes.
O’Moore said the liquidator’s evidence that the certificate was fabricated had not been rebutted. The judgment also describes evidence that customer funds were pooled with company money and used to pay other investors and, in some instances, company-related or personal expenses. The judge concluded that Wickham’s business model involved repeated misrepresentation to customers. He also cited inadequate company records, concealment of the company’s deficit and diversion of funds. These conclusions were drawn from the liquidator’s affidavit; Wickham had offered only a general assertion that he had a full defence and agreed that no further evidence would be presented at the disqualification hearing.
The liquidator’s evidence put the company’s deficit at €1,038,892.27 when he was appointed, with €3,903.41 in its bank account and no metal stock. The judgment says Wickham later paid £310,000 into the liquidation as part of the settlement. The judge treated that payment, the settlement and Wickham’s acceptance of a disqualification order as mitigating factors, while noting that the company remained in serious deficit.
O’Moore set a headline period of 14 years, describing the case as particularly serious, then reduced it to seven years after considering the mitigating factors. He also gave the parties liberty to apply if any costs issue remained outstanding.