Richard Howson was chief executive of Carillion Plc from 2011 until July 2017. Carillion collapsed in January 2018.
An investigation by the Insolvency Service found numerous accounting errors under his watch and misleading reports being issued that failed to reveal to true state of the Carillion’s finances.
“Mr Howson ought to have known of the false accounting, of the profit overstatement and of the net debt understatement and of the concealment from the auditors,” the Insolvency Service said.
An Insolvency Service spokesperson said: “The Insolvency Service, acting on behalf of the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, has accepted a disqualification undertaking from Richard Howson for eight years for his conduct as a director of Carillion plc.
“This follows the disqualification undertakings the Insolvency Service accepted from [finance directors] Zafar Khan on 29th June 2023 and from Richard Adam on 13th July 2023.
“As the litigation against the remaining directors is ongoing, with a trial set to commence the week of 16 October 2023, we are unable to comment any further.”
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