Businessman facing prison splits from prosecutor wife
A BUSINESSMAN who is facing prison after running companies while disqualified has agreed on a division of assets with his prosecutor wife.
A legal document shows that Stephen Roberts, whose finances are being investigated by the Crown Office, separated from Nicola Patrick last year.
According to the agreement, Mr Roberts discharged any rights he may have had to their former matrimonial home in Troon, but he retained two cars.
A Sunday Herald investigation in 2013 revealed that Mr Roberts was behind a healthcare start-up, Log Six Systems, that won a £50,000 prize at an entrepreneurs’ event funded by the SNP Government and Scottish Enterprise. Mr Roberts and another figure who was associated with the company were handed a trophy by Cabinet Secretary John Swinney.
In a video of a speech at Heriot-Watt University, which was unconnected to the prize-giving event, Mr Roberts made bold claims about the firm: “We have developed a high- efficacy disinfectant chemical, which has been proven to kill every pathogen known to man.”
A recording on a crowdfunding website also showed him saying: “Log Six has the ability to save lives, time and money on a global scale with proven technology to a global problem. And with your help we can make it happen faster.”
However, Mr Roberts was a former bankrupt who was disqualified from being a company director for four years in 2010. The ban had been issued after he failed to ensure a previous firm, Innova Business Solutions, had paid tax. An appeal judge had described him at the time as “evasive and devious” in cross-examination.
Following this newspaper’s articles, the businessman was charged with being involved in the “formation, promotion and management” of LSS and another company, Nightingale Intensive Systems International, between 2011 and 2014.
Ms Patrick, who is a procurator fiscal for homicide and major crime, was listed at Companies House as having had the largest holding of 8,997 shares in LSS in 2013. Her husband owned 7,503 shares, which gave the couple a majority stake.
There is no suggestion Ms Patrick knew about the management of the business at the time, or of the activities of her husband. After a lengthy trial at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court, Mr Roberts was recently found guilty of both charges after a sheriff ruled he had been a “driving force” of Nightingale and co-founder of LSS.
According to a Scottish Court Service spokesperson, sentence was deferred after the High Court granted the Crown a “disclosure order” in relation to Mr Roberts and for a confiscation hearing.
It has now emerged that a “minute of agreement”, effectively laying down the terms of the couple’s separation, was signed by Mr Roberts and his wife in August, weeks before the verdict.
The document, available from the Registers of Scotland service, stated that the couple separated in the summer of 2017. The one- t i me matrimonial home, purchased by Ms Patrick for £350,000 in 2015, will stay with her, while Mr Roberts will retain a business called Scented Systems Ltd.
He will keep two vehicles – a Volkswagen Passat Estate and a Hyundai Tuscan Jeep – and the furniture in the home will be divided by mutual agreement. All other assets which may be defined as “matrimonial property” that is held in the sole name of Mr Roberts will stay with him.
This newspaper asked the Crown Office if Ms Patrick wanted to comment, but nothing was provided. Mr Roberts could not be reached.