DIRECTORS of a Hampshire demolition and refurbishment business that collapsed with debts of £1.6m are barred from taking charge of any business for a combined total of 12 years.

Directors Anthony Sharp and Peter Taplin did not dispute a series of charges of unfit conduct relating to the way they ran Langport Limited and agreed not to manage a business for the next six years each.

The pair should have known the company was insolvent by May 2001 but kept trading for ten more months, racking up a further £1m in debt.

By September creditors were cancelling their accounts because of unpaid debts but the company just arranged £427,975 more debt with new creditors. As the debts mounted up Sharp, 31, of Green Lane, Clanfield, and Taplin, 45, of Weston Lane, Southampton, allowed the company to spend £23,252 on an extension at the home of a third director, Martin Birch.

They also opted to pay off debts to the tune of £50,400 owed to a company run by Mr Birch called Dealfabric Ltd instead of paying other creditors.

When Langport collapsed, its debts exceeded assets by almost £500,000.

The company also owed the tax man £116,000 in unpaid taxes on top of the money owed to creditors at the time of its collapse.

Sharp and Taplin have each given undertakings to the Insolvency Service that they will not manage a business for six years each. The move makes it unlikely they will face further prosecution.

Insolvency Service proceedings against Mr Birch are still under way.

The service's chief examiner Mark Bruce, who issued proceedings against the directors described it as a serious case.

He said: "We are all about protecting the business community and the public and trying to remove unfit directors.

"These directors have shown they couldn't handle themselves in the proper way. I hope both of them would not display this sort of conduct again if they ever become directors of companies again."