£100m Tory rebel in a fine mess
WITH a ten-bedroom house in division bell distance from the Commons, a fortune of up to £100 million and suspected of coveting David Cameron’s job, it is perhaps understandable that Tory smoothie Adam Afriyie might be too busy to notice he was not managing one of his companies according to the rules.
Indeed Afriyie, 48 — dubbed Britain’s Barack Obama — has been handed an automatic fine for failing to file accounts for his company, Connect Support Services.
The figures should have been lodged at Companies House by June 30. But the MP, who has been demanding an in-out EU referendum before the next election and was last night a guest on the BBC’s Question Time, has not filed details for the company since July 2 last year.
Those accounts detail t he company performance in the year to the end of September 2011, which means the last available information is two years old.
Connect Support Services, founded in 1993, provides computer facilities and management activities. It is a subsidiary of another of Afriyie’s companies, Axxon, and its last accounts show it made a profit of £42,343 compared with £151,031 the previous year.
Companies House says: ‘ Late filing penalties were introduced in 1992 to encourage directors of limited companies to file their accounts on time because they must provide t his statutory information for the public record.’
A letter notifying the company of a fine is automatically sent out — the fines depend on the length of time the accounts are overdue, rising from £150 for less than a month to £1,500 for longer than six months.
Although some might say it is a mere error, the omission will be an embarrassment f or dapper Afriyie, who has designs to be Cameron’s replacement.
Earlier this year, it was revealed that he had taken a second mortgage out on his £4 million home in his Windsor constituency after remortgaging his Westminster pile. There was speculation it was to help fund a leadership challenge.
In 2009, the twice-married Afriyie was discomfited when an aide sent an email to correct a profile in PR Week magazine. It claimed its report saying he was worth £13 million was a ‘significant understatement’.