The director of a Kent-based wine investment company has been banned for nine years after his company took £23m of investors money before folding with £10m of debt.

Ian Paul Vanderhook will not be able to be a director or manage or control a company until 2022, following the collapse of Bordeaux UK Ltd.

Vanderhook, 34, is understood to have benefitted from at least £2m of the money put into the company, while another £13m cannot be explained or accounted for, due to the lack of accounting records.

Of the £23m the firm took from investors, it used only £4.6m to buy wine between October 2008 and November 2011.

The company went into creditors’ liquidation on November 30, 2011, with debts of over £10m but with only £1.7m of wine available.

An investigation by the Insolvency Service showed Vanderhook, from Bromley, had failed to keep adequate books and records for three companies, Bordeaux UK Limited, Van Der Hook Management Limited and Van Der Hook Consultancy Limited.

His ban began on October 18 this year.

The former lift engineer set up Bordeaux UK in 2002 to encourage members of the public to invest in fine wines, predominantly from the Bordeaux region of France.

Liquidator Nedim Ailyan was forced to employ specialist agents to assist with unravelling the mess left by Vanderhooks’ failure to keep proper records.

He called the situation “mismanagement on a colossal scale”.

Due to the lack of any accounting records, the Insolvency Service is unable to establish what taxes were due to HM revenue & Customs.

It was also not possible to determine why Van Der Hook Management Limited and Van Der Hook Consultancy Limited received and paid out money from the Bordeaux account as Vanderhook claimed neither company was actively trading.

Throughout the investigation Vanderhook failed to co-operate with the Insolvency Service or the liquidator and has not explained the financial transactions or why investors lost their money.

Insolvency Service chief examiner David Brooks said: “This case serves as an example of why companies must keep accounting records and make them available to the liquidator or administrator.

“Without the books and records, costs in the liquidation have increased and what happened to a large amount of investor’s money cannot be explained.

“The fact investors have lost in excess of £10m, whilst only £1.7m of wine stock was available to them, makes this an especially serious case.

“Directors who do not maintain and preserve their company’s books and records adequately will be investigated by the Insolvency Service and in the appropriate cases, disqualified to protect the public and the business community.”