Companies House question

DrDeejUK

Hei there all. I've come on here because I'm not quite sure where on the Companies House website I can get the information I'm looking for. Basically, somebody that I know is involved in what I think may be a dummy company. The company (which is supposed to be involved in machine repair) was registered in 2016 by somebody else but after 6 months directorship was transferred. The business has a website that has a holding page that goes nowhere and the e-mail address doesn't work either. The premises the business was originally registered was an office block 80 miles away in London where 20 other businesses (mostly holding companies) are registered before transferring to an industrial unit locally. However, the unit has been empty the past couple of years with no trading done from the premises and no employees to speak of though the company turned a significant profit in it's second year with little debt. The company name they use is one of a company that has been dissolved way back in the 90's. There seems to be a few similarly named satellite spin-offs with a similar setup as well. Just wondering if this is legit or smells a bit fishy at all? Who are the right people to contact about any suspicious activity?

sliphi

DrDeejUK said:

Hei there all. I've come on here because I'm not quite sure where on the Companies House website I can get the information I'm looking for. Basically, somebody that I know is involved in what I think may be a dummy company. The company (which is supposed to be involved in machine repair) was registered in 2016 by somebody else but after 6 months directorship was transferred. The business has a website that has a holding page that goes nowhere and the e-mail address doesn't work either. The premises the business was originally registered was an office block 80 miles away in London where 20 other businesses (mostly holding companies) are registered before transferring to an industrial unit locally. However, the unit has been empty the past couple of years with no trading done from the premises and no employees to speak of though the company turned a significant profit in it's second year with little debt. The company name they use is one of a company that has been dissolved way back in the 90's. There seems to be a few similarly named satellite spin-offs with a similar setup as well. Just wondering if this is legit or smells a bit fishy at all? Who are the right people to contact about any suspicious activity?

This sort of issue would probably come under the responsibility of Trading Standards to investigate. To make a resport, you need to contact Citizens Advice in the first instance.

But a couple of things you need to be clear of.
1. A registered address is not necessarily, and often indeed is often not, the same as the trading address. A registered address is simply an address at which notices can be served on that company.
Many companies use their accountants office for example. Not saying that is the case here, but gives by way of example why multiple companies are often registered at the same address, which may be no where near where the company trades from.
2. A company name can come and go. Whilst no two active companies may have the same name at the same time, a company can change their name at any time. Once a company name is no longer in use (e.g. because the original company with that name has changed theirs, because the original company with that name has been dissolved, etc) then another company, new or existing, may adopt that name.
The registered number is a far better way to identify a specific company, as that is unique to that legal entity and is never re-used.

bris

The company doesn't need to trade in machine repair or anything else for that matter. It can trade in anything it't directors feel like doing at the time. It doesn't need to have a website or email address either, it does need to have a registered office but apart from that the directors are free to trade in anything they want, have any premises they want even if they are unused.

Companies are often bought, tens of thousands of them actually, ready made, the hard work is done and for a fee the buyer becomes the new owner so there is nothing suspicious about that.