by The PMA Team
Four company directors banned from holding directorships for 40 years have all found work with the company that now owns their former business.
The 12-strong Babushka style-bar chain, now owned by Zone One Bars, whose sole director is Jose Espinas, is now looking to open a site on the Albert Embankment a 4,000sq ft site on a rent of £110,000 per annum.
Babushka sites used to be run by brothers Gary and Tony Hibberd, who gave voluntary undertakings last year not to become directors or hold senior management positions for 12 and 10 years respectively. Two other directors, John Patrick O'Donnell and Timothy Allen, gave similar undertakings for periods of 11 and seven years respectively.
Gary Hibberd told the Morning Advertiser: "I'm working for Zone One Bars now. When Style in the City went bankrupt an individual, Jose Espinas, came to me and said, Would you work for me?' I'm working as an area manager now on a three-month contract. We've got 12 sites and are looking at rapid growth."
Hibberd said his brother, Tony, was working as a products specialist for Zone One Bars, whilst his other two former directors were also working for the company on rolling three-month contracts.
The directorship bans for the four partners resulted from failing to pay sums in respect of VAT, PAYE and NIC. The first Babushka opened in 1993 in Blackfriars Road as a partnership between Gary Hibberd and John O'Donnell. Gary's brother Tony, who goes out with the actress Claire Sweeney, joined in 1998. Punch is understood to have ended its relationship with the four partners at a Babushka site in Kings Cross three months ago. A Punch source said: "We kicked them out when they started playing silly buggers on the rent. They were still running the site. They know no shame."
The four former directors have also fallen out with Laurel Pub Company and Greene King in recent years. Laurel Pub Company repossessed seven bars it ran in a joint venture with the four businessmen after problems with £641,000 in unpaid rent.
Greene King Pub Partners considered suing them for £614,000 after they reneged on an agreement to take a 20-year lease on the Lord Palmerston in Chelsea's King's Road.
A Companies House search shows that the only current director listed for Zone One Bars is Jose Espinas, who was appointed in October last year. Zone One Bars' company secretary is Sandra Sarapenko, 24.
A Companies House search also found a company called Babushka Limited, whose sole director is 28-year-old Battersea resident Lisa Trnovski and whose company secretary is her mother, Mary Trnovski, who lives in Ayrshire.
Why they were banned
In September 2004, Gary and Tony Hibberd, John 0'Donnell and Timothy Allen gave undertakings not to act as directors or hold senior management positions for a total of 40 years. The undertakings were given to the Insolvency Service on behalf of the Department of Trade & Industry.
Matters of unfit conduct not disputed by Gary Hibberd and John O'Donnell included acting as director of Serviceco Limited and 13 other companies whilst undischarged bankrupts, both having been adjudged bankrupt on 16 July 1998. Matters on unfit conduct not disputed by Timothy Allen, along with both Hibberds, related to unpaid VAT, PAYE and NIC in respect of Serviceco. Matters of unfit conduct not disputed by Tony Hibberd in respect of Install 500 (UK) alleged that he failed to pay sums in respect of VAT, PAYE and NIC.