Jonathan Dean France, former owner of the MAP Embassy Triumph motorcycle race team, has received a 12-year bankruptcy restriction for failing to disclose substantial assets to his trustee in bankruptcy. This court-enforceable move forbids him from managing or controlling any company until 2025.
France, whose factory-backed Triumph British Supersport squad suddenly folded in 2008 after his family scrap business Eric France and Son (EFS) incurred “catastrophic financial losses” due to risky futures betting on the London Metal Exchange, has a long history of ducking and diving. Even when MAP Embassy Triumph was on a roll, he was already subject to a 14-year directorial disqualification undertaking given in 2004 for his conduct as a director of Wakefield-based EFS. He was made personally bankrupt in November 2008.
This latest penalty followed an Insolvency Service investigation which found that France had failed to disclose property — including paintings and jewellery valued at £260,365 — at the time of his bankruptcy and that he continued to conceal other assets including Rolex watches and Aston Martin cars by making false statements to his trustee. He also didn’t comply with statutory obligations as an undischarged bankrupt by failing to disclose the receipt of a bonus payment of £850,000 from his employer in January 2011 and rental income of £31,254.
In a statement, Insolvency Service spokesman Ken Beasley said: “France sought to prevent assets being recovered for the benefit of his creditors. His failure to disclose assets of over £1m to the Official Receiver and to his trustees, as well as his subsequent attempts to conceal assets by making false statements, were a clear and dishonest attempt to pervert the insolvency regime.”