Dungannon restauranteur banned from boardroom after racking up £400,000 debts

A Dungannon restauranteur and his wife, who were once behind one of Belfast's top dining-spots, have been banned from the boardroom for eight years after racking up debts of £400,000, it has emerged.

Dermot John Regan (41), of Dungannon Road, Moy, and Catherine Mary Regan (43), of Ross Mill Avenue, Belfast, both ran the Potted Hen at St Anne’s Square in the Cathedral Quarter.

The restaurant operated under Oregano Belfast Ltd.

The reasons for the disqualifications included amassing debts of £408,000, which included sizeable tax debts.

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According to the Department for the Economy, the former restaurant owners also failed “to deliver up all company books and records to the joint liquidators”.

It said they failed to “promote the success of the company in that company funds of £64,000 were diverted away from the company and its creditors and instead were used for the benefit of their partnership business”.

Other reasons included owing around £232,000 in VAT between 2012 and 2014, along with £93,000 for the same period, and PAYE tax debts of £7,200.

The firm had owned The Potted Hen in Belfast’s St Anne’s Square and Oregano, on the Ballyrobert Road in Newtownabbey.

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A petition to wind up Oregano Belfast Ltd was first presented on March 19, 2014.

Documents filed to Companies House on behalf of Oregano Belfast Ltd by liquidators show the scale of the firm’s debts, with those owed to unsecured creditors amounting to more than £400,000.

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