On 20 August 2026, the Court of Session disqualified Garry Pettigrew for nine years, preventing him from being involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company without court permission. The Insolvency Service published the result on 21 August 2026 and said the case centred on transfers worth £2,979,383 out of Healthcare Environmental Services Limited as major NHS contracts were falling away. (gov.uk) For directors, this was not a filing slip or an administrative failure. It was a case about what happened before liquidation, when creditor losses were already coming into focus. Healthcare Environmental Services later entered liquidation in April 2019 with debts of more than £15 million, according to the Insolvency Service, while Companies House still shows the company in liquidation. (gov.uk)
The official GOV.UK account says Pettigrew began moving equipment out of the business just days before Healthcare Environmental Services lost 17 NHS England contracts in early October 2018. The same release says he had attended a meeting with NHS and government officials in the previous month to discuss allegations of stockpiling waste in breach of Environment Agency permits, and that further NHS contracts were terminated in December 2018 as the transfers continued. (gov.uk) The receiving companies were HEG Sustainable Solutions Limited and Starryshaw Consultants Ltd, both described by the Insolvency Service as connected companies of which Pettigrew and his wife were then the only directors. Companies House now shows HEG Sustainable Solutions Limited dissolved on 9 January 2024, while Starryshaw Consultants Ltd remains active. (gov.uk)
One point directors should not miss is the lender consent issue. The Insolvency Service said the company’s bank held a charge over all Healthcare Environmental Services assets and that the transfers were made without the bank’s consent, despite advice from accountants and solicitors that consent was required. In plain English, the equipment was already subject to lender security, so it was not for the board to move it elsewhere and hope the problem would sort itself out later. (gov.uk) That matters because distressed boards are often tempted by bad advice about shifting plant, stock or contracts into a sister company while they try to buy time. This case shows how quickly that thinking can turn into disqualification risk when the result is to put assets beyond the reach of creditors. The court did not treat this as a marginal call. (gov.uk)
Lord Lake said Pettigrew was in "flagrant" breach of his duties and placed the conduct at the top end of the middle bracket before deciding that nine years was the proper period of disqualification. The practical result is a ban running until 2035. (gov.uk) There is also an important fairness point. The same Insolvency Service release states that criminal proceedings brought in Scotland over allegations of illegally storing medical waste were dropped in October 2023. The ban therefore rests on the asset transfers and the director conduct findings, not on a criminal conviction over the wider waste controversy. (gov.uk)
The warning did not stop with the lead director. The Insolvency Service said Alison Pettigrew, his co-director, gave a disqualification undertaking on 6 August 2021 for three and a half years for allowing the transfers to take place. That is a point many boards learn too late: silence is not protection if you remain in office while connected-party transactions go through. (gov.uk) By December 2018, an attempt to sell the business had collapsed, trading had ceased and staff had been made redundant, according to the official record. From a director’s point of view, that is the stage when every payment, disposal and transfer is likely to be read back later by liquidators, investigators and, if needed, a court. (gov.uk)
If you are a director and insolvency is on the horizon, the official guidance is much clearer than many sales pitches in the market. The Insolvency Service’s Director Information Hub says that once a company becomes insolvent, directors’ priorities shift from shareholders to creditors. It says directors must protect company assets, treat creditors the same, avoid worsening creditors’ position and consult with, or consider appointing, an insolvency practitioner. (gov.uk) **For directors, the safe lesson is simple:** do not move assets to connected companies because you think you can tidy it up later. Get written advice, obtain independent valuations, secure lender consent where charges exist, minute the board’s reasoning and test whether any sale is genuinely for the company and creditors rather than for insiders. Those steps are prudent practice rather than a direct quote from the guidance, but they follow from the duties set out by the Insolvency Service and from the failures identified in this case. (gov.uk)
Directors under pressure do have options short of last-minute transfers. The Insolvency Service says companies facing financial difficulty should seek reputable turnaround or business recovery advice early, and says a moratorium can give 20 business days of protection from creditor action while rescue and restructuring options are explored. (gov.uk) For some viable businesses, a Company Voluntary Arrangement can allow debts to be repaid over time while directors retain control and continue trading, provided enough creditors support it. Not every company can be saved, and formal insolvency is sometimes unavoidable. But the Pettigrew case is a hard-edged reminder that once distress sets in, moving value to connected parties is not rescue. It is exactly the sort of conduct that can leave a director banned for years. (gov.uk)