The director of temporary employment agency Phoenix Midlands has been banned for seven years for failing to adhere to the UK's licencing standards.

Indian-born Sukhjit Sohal Singh was Director of Phoenix Midlands which went into creditors’ voluntary liquidation on 13 November 2015, owing £841,566 to creditors.

UK’s Insolvency Service said that, between 13 June 2013 and at least 5 February 2015, Singh failed to ensure that Phoenix Midlands Limited complied with licensing standards set out by the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA). He was also deemed ‘not fit and proper’ to hold a GLA licence.

Singh signed a disqualification undertaking which bans him from acting as a company director or from managing, or in any way controlling, a limited company from 5 September 2017 until 4 September 2024.

"When directors of a company do not comply with legislation that is designed to protect employees, and avoidable losses result, the Insolvency Service will fully investigate the circumstances and take action where appropriate,” Aldona O'Hara, Chief Investigator of Insolvent Investigations Midlands & West at the Insolvency Service, said. "These disqualifications send a clear message that exploitation of vulnerable workers will not be tolerated.”

Phoenix Midlands was set up in 2013 and began supplying temporary workers that same year. Singh was the sole director of the agency. Phoenix Midlands had been granted a Gangmasters licence in October 2013 with two additional conditions. But the following February a compliance inspection was conducted by officers of the GLA. A report in March 2014 said Singh was not “fit and proper” to hold a GLA licence as Phoenix was in critical breach of several licensing standards.

The report stated: "Singh had not been candid and truthful in all dealings with the GLA and he had not demonstrated a readiness and willingness to comply with the requirements and standards of the regulatory system and with other legal, regulatory and professional requirements and standards."

Phoenix Midlands was also found to not have been registered with the HMRC for income tax and National Insurance purposes.