A BANKRUPT Scottish businessman has been banned from the boardroom for nine years after blowing £200,000 on sports cars, expensive jewellery and luxury holidays after relocating the firm to Florida.
Scot Crone fled Scotland after the money vanished from his internet firm Micrositez before it went bust.
However, the 41-year-old businessman had in fact set up the firm again in the US state, where he lavished himself with gifts and enjoyed a party lifestyle.
Crone, of Glasgow, racked up debts of almost £200,000, having transferred £300,000 from the Scots firm's bank account into his personal account.
He was yesterday banned from being a director by Accountant in Bankruptcy (AIB), Scotland's insolvency service, after failing to co-operate with his bankruptcy trustee.
In addition to showing the funds had been moved, AIB produced documentation showing that, while bankrupt, he used an American Express credit card to lead an extravagant lifestyle in America.
His spending included more than £40,000 on sports car hire and £15,000 on items of jewellery.
Crone also provided a false address in Scotland in order to have his bankruptcy granted and ignored several requests to provide information to the trustee appointed to take charge of his finances.
At Glasgow Sheriff Court, Sheriff Anthony Deutsch imposed a Bankruptcy Restriction Order for a period of nine years against Crone.
The order bans him from being a company director and requires him to disclose his status to a credit provider when seeking credit of more than £500.
Rosemary Winter-Scott, chief executive of AIB, said it would always seek to "impose bankruptcy restrictions on any person where our investigation has uncovered behaviour or conduct which has been dishonest or blameworthy in some way either before or during their bankruptcy."
She added: "This case is an example of the serious consequences that can happen when debtors do not adhere to the terms of their bankruptcy.
"Bankruptcy restrictions are imposed to alert potential future creditors and employers of the risk associated with an individual that has demonstrated inappropriate behaviour before or during their bankruptcy."
Crone set up Micrositez, which provided web design and internet marketing services, in Glasgow in 2008. He ran it with his wife Karen but the company went bust in 2011 after running up large debts.
A few months later the couple resurfaced in Florida where they set up a new version of the company at a business suite in Orlando and moved into a luxury villa.
Crone boasted how they planned to take on 28 workers within the first three months during an interview with an American newspaper.
He said: "Expansion into the USA allows us to better service our current US clients and actually having a state of the art office space in the heart of Orlando's Hi-Tech Corridor will allow us to scale up our new US client wins."
Crone claimed his firm's software could help boost clients' internet search rankings.
He was made bankrupt in March last year with personal debts of £200,000. The orders are designed to offer creditors protection where a court decides debtors may be irresponsible or unscrupulous.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article