Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 28th May 2026 Issue no. 1212
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Seven-year ban: cleaning director used Atherton scheme to transfer almost £200,000 to new company
A cleaning director has been banned as a company director after transferring almost £200,000 out of his insolvent business into his new company.
Leicestershire-based Philip Walker was the director of Solus Facilities, a company providing cleaning services for restaurants. However, by April 2023, the company was in financial difficulty, and unable to pay its debts.
Instead of following standard insolvency procedures, the 44-year-old used the Atherton scheme to avoid paying his debts, leaving creditors more than half a million pounds out of pocket.
Atherton had been advertised as a corporate rescue service where directors of distressed companies were encouraged to sell their businesses as an ‘alternative’ to entering formal insolvency proceedings such as liquidation.
Mr Walker paid Atherton Corporate (UK)£16,500 in three instalments across the Summer of 2023 for it to purchase Solus Facilities liabilities. During this period, he also set up a new phoenix company, Carbon White Group, of which he was director.
Solus Facilities did not trade after he resigned as director and was replaced by Karen Mortimer, one of Atherton's main enablers, in December 2023. Despite this, Mr Walker accessed the company's account, making net payments of £198,100 to Carbon White Group between November 2023 and January 2024 when he knew that Solus Facilities was insolvent.
Solus Facilities went into liquidation in September 2024 owing creditors £513,090.
Mr Walker, of Quorn, has been disqualified as a company director for seven years.
"Philip Walker made payments to his new company when he knew his former business had no reasonable prospect of avoiding liquidation, leaving creditors seriously out of pocket,” notes Dave Magrath, director of investigation & enforcement services at the Insolvency Service.
"Indeed, many of these transfers were made when Walker had resigned as a director of Solus Facilities yet was still accessing the company's bank account.
"These actions are deeply damaging to creditors and are completely unacceptable. Those who deliberately use companies repeatedly to avoid debts - known as abusive phoenixism - should be in no doubt that we will pursue them using all the enforcement tools at our disposal."
Karen Mortimer, 67, was disqualified as a company director for seven years having put the creditors of 138 companies at risk of financial loss after taking control of businesses referred to her by Atherton Corporate UK and Atherton Corporate Rescue. Her sister Joanna Seawright, 55, also received a seven-year ban for her role in the Atherton scheme. Atherton enabler Neville Taylor, 59, was disqualified as a company director for nine years in January 2025. Suzanne Harley-Davies, 68, who failed to ensure her Atherton-linked companies operated for legitimate corporate purposes, was banned for four years in May this year.
Atherton Corporate (UK) and Atherton Corporate Rescue, along with five companies which enabled the running of the scheme, were wound-up in the public interest in the Summer of 2024.
Four more companies which formed part of the Atherton scheme - Atherton Corporate Partners, Jones & Harlington, TYA GRP and TYA Two GRP - went into compulsory liquidation in early 2026 after Insolvency Service investigations.
Criminal investigations into the Atherton scheme remain ongoing. Six search warrants have been executed across the UK in the last three months with the support of the police.
The Secretary of State for Business and Trade accepted a disqualification undertaking from Mr Walker, and his ban started on 15th May. It prevents him from being involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the permission of the Court.
21st May 2026