Lymington accountant Peter Lashmar spared jail at Bournemouth Crown Court
A LYMINGTON accountant was spared jail partly due to his business offending being put down to "incompetence" rather than fraud.
Peter Lashmar (70) was instead banned from being involved in the management of any company for 15 years.
The sentence was handed down by Judge Stephen Climie at Bournemouth Crown Court, which also heard of Lashmar's heart problems and a cancer diagnosis.
The judge said that, due to his health issues, the ban would effectively last for the rest of his life.
Lashmar was also given a 16-month jail term suspended for two years, and told to pay £5,000 prosecution costs.
Judge Climie imposed what he described as the "indignity" of having to wear an electronic tag as part of a three-month daily curfew from 5pm-9am.
Lashmar, from West Way, Pennington, had been prosecuted by the Insolvency Service (IS) because he maintained company directorships he should have forfeited because of a previous ban.
Prosecutor Edward Franklin said Lashmar had been disqualified by the IS from directing or taking any part in the management of a company for seven years in 2015.
That punishment followed the IS going to Southampton County Court because Lashmar failed to ensure his accountancy firm kept proper records and registered for VAT.
Amid the liquidation in 2016 of a second Lashmar firm – which owed more than £228,000 to creditors – it emerged he was involved in the running of five separate firms despite being banned.
The IS then hit Lashmar with criminal charges, six of which he admitted.
Five related to him breaching the disqualification in relation to working at Lentune Tax Accountants between March 2015 and March 2016; Lashmar Personal Tax LLP, Lashmar Tax Accountants and Incorporate Companies Secretaries from March 2015 to October 2018; and IC Nominee 66 between March 2015 and April 2017.
He also admitted a charge of recklessly delivering a false, misleading or deceptive document to the registrar stating Wendy Page was the director of Lashmar Tax Accountants.
The companies lost just over £21,000 during the period Lashmar offended while disqualified, the court heard.
Defending, Berenice Mulvanny said: "There was no attempt on Peter Lashmar’s behalf to defraud customers or cause personal loss to anybody.
"It was very much incompetence and mismanagement rather than intentional fraudulent behaviour."
She partly blamed the offending on Lashmar "losing control" after the death in 2012 of his wife, who handled the administrative side of the firms.
She highlighted how her client recently had heart surgery and has been diagnosed with cancer.
Lashmar's activities are nothing to do with Lentune Mortgage Consultancy Ltd, an entirely separate company which was formed in 2008 before Lashmar began using the Lentune name.
