Hull-based legal firm Lovell Hill & Co LLP (“LHC”) was wound up by the High Court in Manchester for abusing the UK insolvency regime by offering bankruptcy relocation services to Germans seeking to take advantage of the shorter bankruptcy discharge periods in the UK – bankruptcy tourism. The company, previously known as Law Partners LLP, was wound up on 20 January 2014, following an investigation by the Insolvency Service. LHC acted as bankruptcy relocation advisers to German nationals who wished to wrongly claim their Centre of Main Interest (COMI) was in England and Wales for bankruptcy purposes. COMI determines which area a person or company is most closely associated for the purposes of cross-border insolvency proceedings, and people made bankrupt in the UK are discharged after one year while it takes seven years in Germany. Commenting on the case, Scott Crighton, an Investigation Supervisor at the Insolvency Service, said: “LHC enabled bankrupts living outside the UK to mislead British courts by claiming they were UK residents, to take advantage of the shorter bankruptcy discharge periods. “The company also filed misleading accounts and those in charge failed to cooperate with the investigation. “Those who would conduct business in the UK in such a manner should understand that the Insolvency Service will take firm and decisive action to protect the public and the wider international marketplace against their objectionable practices.”.....Read more here