Scottish businessman Garry Pettigrew, former director of Healthcare Environmental Services Limited, has been disqualified for nine years after the Court of Session found that nearly £3 million of company assets were moved out as the business was losing major NHS work. The ban runs until 2035 and stops him from promoting, forming or managing a company without court permission. This is not a case about a director being punished because a company failed. It is a case about what the court and the Insolvency Service say happened when failure was already closing in: value was transferred to connected companies while creditors and a secured bank were left exposed.
Healthcare Environmental Services, often referred to as HES, was a waste disposal company servicing the NHS. According to the Insolvency Service, Pettigrew began moving equipment out of the business in October 2018, just days before 17 NHS England contracts were terminated across a two-day period. Further NHS contracts were then lost in December 2018. Those losses followed a September 2018 meeting with NHS and government officials about allegations that waste had been stockpiled in breach of Environment Agency permits. By April 2019, HES had entered liquidation owing more than £15 million.
Between October and December 2018, assets valued at £2,979,383 were transferred from Healthcare Environmental Services Limited to HEG Sustainable Solutions Limited and Starryshaw Consultants Ltd. The Insolvency Service said both were connected companies and, at that time, Pettigrew and his wife were the only directors. For directors reading this, that is the point where the risk becomes obvious. Once insolvency is in sight, connected-party dealings are examined closely because they can strip value out of the company before creditors have any realistic chance of recovery.
The court heard that the transfers were made without the consent of HES's bank, even though the bank held a charge over all company assets. In plain English, the lender had security over the business property and should have been asked before those assets were moved. The Insolvency Service also said Pettigrew had been advised by the company's accountants and solicitors that consent was required, but the transfers still went ahead. That paper trail matters. Directors are allowed to make difficult decisions in a crisis. They are not allowed to ignore professional advice, bypass a secured creditor and move company assets to businesses they control.
Lord Lake described Pettigrew's conduct as a 'flagrant' breach of director duties, saying the case sat at the top end of the middle bracket for disqualification and that nine years was appropriate. On 20 August, the Court of Session imposed the ban. Pettigrew was also fined £1,000 and ordered to pay costs in June 2025 after being found in contempt of court for photographing witnesses and misusing those images on social media. The restriction itself is clear enough. Unless a court gives permission, Pettigrew cannot be involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company during the disqualification period.
There is an important lesson here for any director trading through a sudden contract loss or lender pressure. Insolvency law does not punish you for commercial failure on its own. What brings regulatory action is conduct that places assets beyond the reach of creditors, especially where related companies benefit and the warning signs have already been spelt out by advisers. Once insolvency is likely, directors must take creditors' interests seriously. A proper route would have meant pausing the transfers, taking independent insolvency and legal advice, getting the bank's consent before any disposal, and ensuring any asset sale was properly valued and transparently recorded. If a rescue or sale was still possible, it needed to happen through an open process rather than by shifting value into connected entities.
An attempted sale of HES collapsed in December 2018. Trading then ceased and all staff were made redundant. The Insolvency Service opened its investigation after the company went into liquidation in April 2019. On 6 August 2021, co-director Alison Pettigrew accepted a director disqualification undertaking of three and a half years for allowing the transfers to take place. There is one further point directors should note. Criminal proceedings in Scotland over allegations of illegal medical waste storage were dropped in October 2023, but that did not prevent civil action over the asset transfers. The message from this case is straightforward: if insolvency is looming, every transfer, every related-party deal and every decision taken against advice can return years later in court.