UK Flooring Exec Banned from Boardroom

Glasgow, Scotland, June 11, 2007--A Flooring tycoon siphoned more than £600,000 from his failing firms and fled to Dubai leaving 25 staff on the dole, according to the Sunday Mail.

Darren Gemmell has been banned from being a company director for nine years after a probe by the Insolvency Service.

They found he transferred £645,000 from Glasgow businesses Larry's Laminate Land and Robyn's Rug Gallery days before they collapsed with debts of more than £500,000. It was paid into his personal account in Dubai.

Gemmell, 36, then fled to his luxury flat on Jumeirah beach in the tax haven, where he also owns a property in the £7.2billion Palm development, while 25 staff turned up for work.

Insolvency experts Findlay Hamilton were left to try to get creditors their cash back.

The report says: "Those transfers were to his benefit and to the detriment of creditors."

After the DIY king fled in April 2005, one worker said: "We're sickened he is living it up in Dubai while we scrabble about looking for work."

In March 2005, Gemmell pleaded guilty to threatening his estranged wife Gillian and was fined £350. He shipped thousands of pounds worth of items from their home in Drymen, Stirlingshire, to Dubai without telling her.

Gemmell was shot in Yoker, Glasgow, in 1996. Richard McCluskey was cleared of trying to kill him after Gemmell failed to identify him in court.