A "flagrant" breach of duty is how Lord Lake summed it up as Garry Pettigrew, the Shotts businessman behind former NHS waste contractor Healthcare Environmental Services Limited, was banned from acting as a company director for nine years. The ruling was made at the Court of Session on Thursday 20 August 2026, and the government says the disqualification runs until 2035. (gov.uk) Lord Lake said the case sat at the "top end" of the middle bracket for disqualification. For readers across the North, it is a sharp reminder that when a public-services supplier starts to fail, the consequences do not stop at the company gates. (gov.uk)

The official timeline set out by the Insolvency Service is stark. Healthcare Environmental Services began losing major NHS England contracts in early October 2018, after Pettigrew had attended a September meeting with NHS and government officials over allegations that waste was being stockpiled in breach of Environment Agency permits. Just days before 17 contracts were lost, equipment started being moved out of the business, with further transfers continuing into December as more NHS contracts were terminated. (gov.uk) By April 2019 the company was in liquidation with debts of more than £15 million, and an attempted sale had already fallen apart. Trading ceased in December 2018 and staff were made redundant, turning what had been a major contractor into another hard lesson in what happens when governance gives way under pressure. (gov.uk)

At the centre of the case were transfers worth £2,979,383 from Healthcare Environmental Services Limited to HEG Sustainable Solutions Limited and Starryshaw Consultants Ltd, both described by the government as connected companies where Pettigrew and his wife were then the only directors. The Insolvency Service says those moves put assets beyond the reach of creditors at the very point the company knew, or ought to have known, that its trading position had been badly hit. (gov.uk) The transfers were made without the consent of the firm’s bank, despite advice from accountants and solicitors that permission was needed because the bank held security over the assets. In plain terms, this was not a paperwork slip or a last-minute muddle; the official case was that the rules were known and ignored. (gov.uk)

That matters well beyond one Lanarkshire business. Plenty of firms across the North run on bank lending, public contracts and tight margins, but director duties do not vanish when the cashflow turns. The lesson from this ruling is hard to miss: once a company is plainly in trouble, moving value to connected parties can bring years of scrutiny and a long ban from business life. (gov.uk) Companies House still shows Healthcare Environmental Services Limited in liquidation. For creditors, former staff and public bodies left to clear up the aftermath, insolvency law is not only about shutting a failed business down; it is also about whether anything that should have stayed in the company was moved out before the end. (find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk)

The Insolvency Service opened its investigation shortly after the liquidation, and it has already taken action against others connected to the company. Alison Pettigrew, a co-director, gave a disqualification undertaking in August 2021 for three and a half years after allowing the asset transfers to take place, according to the government release. (gov.uk) An Insolvency Service spokesperson said the agency hoped the case would warn directors tempted to put their own interests first when a business is heading towards insolvency. That message will ring loudly in sectors where NHS, council and environmental contracts can make or break a regional employer in a matter of weeks. (gov.uk)

The wider legal history matters too. The official release notes that criminal proceedings brought in Scotland over allegations of illegally storing medical waste were dropped in October 2023, so the disqualification ruling turned on director conduct and asset transfers rather than any criminal conviction over the storage allegations. (gov.uk) Separate court records also show Pettigrew was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay costs in June 2025 after being found in contempt of court for taking photographs of witnesses and republishing them online with offensive comments. A sheriff found the conduct had the potential to intimidate witnesses and prejudice the proper administration of justice. (gov.uk)

For towns like Shotts, stories like this are never only about company law. They are about jobs, trust in local employers and the strain placed on public services when a supplier tied to the NHS unravels with more than £15 million in debts. The company’s collapse is years old now, but the ruling shows the reckoning can keep coming long after trading has stopped. (gov.uk) Pettigrew is now barred from being involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company without court permission. After years of hearings and investigation, the message from the court and the Insolvency Service is plain enough: if directors move assets out of reach when a business is going under, enforcement does not end with liquidation. (gov.uk)