HUSBAND and wife directors of two car sales businesses, one of which failed with debts of more than £95,000, have been banned from holding directorships for six years by the government's Insolvency Service.

Carole and Maurice Radiven, both of Barnhill Road, Prestwich, had been directors of both Discounted cars (World Wide) Ltd and Brimaur Car Sales (Radcliffe) Lt d.

Discounted Cars (World Wide) Ltd carried on business from premises at Bury Road, Radcliffe, and went into liquidation on April 5, 2001, with estimated debts of £95,635 owed to its creditors.

Brimaur Car Sales (Radcliffe) Ltd traded from premises elsewhere on Bury Road and went into administrative receivership on May 14, 1993. Debts owed to its creditors were not known.

In relation to Brimaur Car Sales (Radcliffe) Ltd, the couple took warranties of more than £6,000 from 24 customers and never paid over the cash to the warranty provider, which declared the warranties void.

They also bought cars from two customers which had outstanding finance. They sold the cars, but never settled the finance, which meant the customers were pursued for the outstanding money.

In relation to Discounted Cars (World Wide) Ltd, they failed to pay the Inland Revenue, PAYE and National Insurance contributions deducted from employees' wages, amounting to more than £31,000.

They also failed to keep proper recordsand took £17,000 out of the business at a time when they owned money to creditors.

Ten weeks before the company was liquidated, they made a payment of £87,401 to AJR (Wholesale Suppliers to the Motor Trade) Ltd, a company of which both were directors.