Former Carillion CEO banned for eight years

Mr Richard Howson, who served as the chief executive officer of Carillion until July 2017, has been disqualified as a director for eight years. 

Mr Howson voluntarily agreed to his disqualification, The Insolvency Service reported on Wednesday (4 October).  

It follows the disqualification of former Carillion finance directors Mr Zafar Iqbal Khan in June and Mr Richard Adam in July.  

Mr Howson was said to have caused Carillion to rely on ‘false and misleading financial information’, effectively leading to a misstatement of the company’s 2015 and 2016 financial performance and its contracts on several major projects, it is understood.  

The Financial Conduct Authority fined Mr Howson £397,800 last year. 

The financial watchdog also fined Mr Adam £318,000, and Mr Khan £154,400.    

Carillion collapsed owing close to £7 billion and held around 450 construction and service contracts across government. 

It is understood Carillion employed around 43,000 people at the time it went under, including 18,000 in the United Kingdom.    

The Insolvency Service is pursuing cases against other former Carillion directors.   

A trial is set to commence the week of 16 October. 

“The Insolvency Service, acting on behalf of the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, has accepted a disqualification undertaking from Richard Howson for 8 years for his conduct as a director of Carillion Plc,” an Insolvency Service spokesperson said.  

“This follows the disqualification undertakings the Insolvency Service accepted from Zafar Khan on 29 June 2023 and from Richard Adam on 13 July 2023. 

“As the litigation against the remaining directors is ongoing, with a trial set to commence the week of 16 October 2023, we are unable to comment any further.” 

Image credit: Elliott Brown from Birmingham, United Kingdom, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons. 

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