The boss of the wedding venue where Peter Andre had his lavish ceremony has been banned from starting a new business after leaving heartbroken couples thousands of pounds out of pocket.
Richard Fuller, 56, the director of Mamhead House and Castle Ltd in Devon, where Peter married his sweetheart Emily McDonagh in 2015 , has a nine-year ban after taking cash from brides even though he knew his business was insolvent before it went under in November 2016.
By the time the company was wound up, customers were owed just under £295,000 but only around £205,000 was paid. One couple handed over £22,000 and will not see a penny back, our sister paper DevonLive reports.
But Hamish Adam, partner at Richard J Smith and Co in Ivybridge who handled the insolvency case, said that the eventual cost was even greater - with total debts owed to businesses and other creditors reaching £608,000.
Among the couples were Glen King and her husband David Greensmith, who had just three weeks to find a new venue when Mamhead House and Castle ceased trading in September 2016.
She said: "The most important thing for me is that justice has been done. We've accepted that we won't get our money back but this is about preventing him from doing this to anyone else.
"A wedding is the most important day of people's lives and he played on their hopes.
"Personally, I think the ban should be permanent; this should never happen to anyone else again."
On December 11 2018, the Secretary of State accepted a disqualification undertaking from Mr Fuller, 56, from Crockham Hill, Kent after he admitted putting customers at unreasonable risk of loss by continuing to accept deposits after January 2016, when he knew that the company was insolvent.
From January 1 2019, he is banned for nine years from directly or indirectly becoming involved, without the permission of the court, in the promotion, formation or management of a company.
Dave Elliott, Chief Examiner for the Insolvency Service, said: "Richard Fuller was fully aware the company was struggling to pay its debts and could not afford to continue trading. But this did not deter him from taking new deposits from customers, even though their money was at risk.
"This ban should serve as a warning to other directors tempted to abuse clients and neglect their duties that they could be investigated and lose the privilege of limited liability trading."
Mr Fuller was appointed a director in May 2015 but just over a year later, Mamhead House and Castle entered into creditors voluntary liquidation in November 2016 to shut down the company.
The liquidators reported to the Insolvency Service that the business had continued to accept deposits from customers after the point it was in trouble.
Investigations discovered that in the January before the company closed down, four creditors had obtained judgments against Mamhead House and Castle, followed by two further judgements in March 2016.
The company, however, could not afford to pay the judgements and the business entered into a payment agreement to clear its debts.
From October 2015, bank statements showed that Mr Fuller was issuing cheques that could not be paid.
Despite knowing that the business could not meet its debts, between February and September 2016, Mr Fuller continued to take deposits from customers and continued trading at the risk of the company's creditors.
Many of these creditors were customers who had contracted the company to organise an event for them.
Among the other couples to lose out were Roya Jamshidi and and Dean Turner who were hoping to follow in the footsteps of Andre and his bride Emily at the stately home.
The couple paid £17,200 to hire the venue for the weekend, including catering, photography and a wedding cake.
Roya, a holiday home sales executive, went on Twitter to let Peter Andre know what had happened.
The singer told her: "I've heard, I'm so sorry. Don't let it get you too down."