The National Crime Agency (NCA) has announced that 11,500 companies have been struck off following a collaborative investigation by the NCA, the Insolvency Service, HMRC, the Financial Conduct Authority and the police (amongst others). The companies reportedly did not comply with registered office requirements, under the Companies Act 2006, and officers attended 11 addresses where no business activity was found to be taking place. In one example, a company registered between 4,000 and 5,000 businesses at an address in London. The companies, however, were based in other parts of the UK and, in some cases, overseas. The investigation resulted in the closure of three high risk trust and company service providers, key individuals being barred from registering further companies, criminal referrals to the Insolvency Service and significant criminal property being identified for recovery.

This enforcement action coincides with the recent publication of the Insolvency Service's Investigations and Enforcement strategy 2026 to 2031, representing a significant change of approach towards the fight against “fraudsters and others who would seek to abuse corporate structures”. We wrote about that strategy paper in detail when it was first released. The new strategy shifts focus from the traditional insolvency-specific offences (such as directors’ disqualification and bankruptcy restrictions) to tackling economic crime and enforcing corporate and insolvency standards to align with the major reforms introduced by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA).

This recent enforcement action could be the first of many such collaborative investigations following improved information sharing with enforcement partners, as signposted in the new strategy paper. The director of investigation and enforcement at the Insolvency Service said that: “Our investigations into the companies which are potentially linked to fraud are ongoing and we will use all the appropriate criminal and civil sanctions at our disposal to ensure the UK remains a safe place to do business.”