Lighthouse International Group Holdings Trading LLP has been wound-up in the public interest by the High Court following an Insolvency Service investigation.
Lighthouse was incorporated in 2012, and purported to offer life coaching services as well as mentoring, career and business development services. It promised on its website that customers subscribing to its products and services would be able to "optimise results in your life, in direct proportion to your investment of time, money and effort".
Customers who subscribed to the service paid substantial sums as identified from analysis of Lighthouse's bank accounts. Between August 2014 and July 2022 Lighthouse received over £2.4m in income from customers. From this income at least half was paid over to Paul Waugh, a Lighthouse member over a four-year period, and smaller amounts were paid to other members.
The court found that Lighthouse failed to deliver up its trading and financial records, as required by law, during the Insolvency Service investigation. Therefore, the investigators were unable to fully determine the exact nature of its business activities or verify Lighthouse's account provided in proceedings that it had operated as a "research community" that had never launched its work as a viable business. Lighthouse was also found to have filed misleading or false accounts. The accounts filed recorded that over a 9 year period it had nil assets or liabilities suggestive that it had not traded.
Lighthouse, and its members failed to fully co-operate with the Insolvency Service's investigation.
Edna Okhiria, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service said:
Lighthouse and its members refused to co-operate with our investigation and the court rightly agreed to wind up the partnership.
Paul Waugh's efforts to obstruct our work were deemed 'unacceptable' and 'deliberate' by the judge, who also commended the investigation team for its professionalism. Where we find evidence that directors or partners are failing to adhere to their statutory obligations, for example failing to maintain adequate records, we will seek to have them wound-up in the public interest.
As a result, Lighthouse International Group Holdings Trading LLP was wound-up in the public interest in the High Court of Justice Business and Property Courts by Deputy Judge Jones on 28 March 2023. The Official Receiver has been appointed as Liquidator of the LLP and has a statutory duty to investigate the conduct of all current and former partners as part of the Liquidation proceedings.
Notes
Lighthouse International Group Holdings Trading LLP (registration number OC372802) was incorporated on 23 February 2012. Its registered address is 20-22 Wenlock Road, London N1 7GU.
A Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) is an alternative corporate business that has the same benefits of limited liability as a limited company. LLPs are governed by the Limited Liability Partnership Act 2000. An LLP does not have directors, shareholders, or guarantors; instead, it has members.
The Lighthouse International Group Holdings Trading LLP members at the time of its winding up were:
- Paul Stephen Waugh;
- Christopher Nash;
- Shaun Johnathan Cooper
- Warren Michael Vaughan.
Any entity with the benefit of operating with the protection of Limited Liability, such as a limited company or a Limited Liability Partnership, is required to co-operate with statutory investigations such as those carried out by the Insolvency Service under s447 of the Companies Act 1985.
Company Investigations, part of the Insolvency Service, uses powers under the Companies Act 1985 to conduct confidential fact-finding investigations into the activities of live limited companies in the UK on behalf of the Secretary of State for Business and Trade.
