Vasile Hrusca used more than £67,000 from his own failing company in 2019 to pay off the remaining balance on a hire purchase agreement for an Audi RS6 which he had bought the previous year for just under £75,000.
He also sold seven diggers and other machinery which were still subject to hire purchase agreements with two separate banks to fund gambling.
Hrusca, of Hornchurch, Essex was ordered to pay £190,577 at a confiscation hearing at Snaresbrook Crown Court.
The 41-year-old was given three months to make the payments in full or face two-and-a-half years in prison. Hrusca will still owe the full amount even if he goes to jail.
Investigations by the Insolvency Service resulted in Hrusca being handed a suspended sentence earlier this year for these offences.
Alexander Grierson, Head of Asset Recovery at the Insolvency Service, said: “Vasile Hrusca stripped assets from his failing company to benefit himself, leaving creditors and victims significantly out of pocket.
“Asset recovery is a vital tool in holding fraudulent directors to account and ensuring they cannot profit from their dishonesty.
“This confiscation order sends a clear message that directors who misuse company assets for personal gain will be pursued for the proceeds of their crimes.”
Vasile Hrusca Ltd was incorporated in January 2007. The company was listed as being in the business of “other construction installation”.
Hrusca was the only active director at the time of his criminal actions, describing himself as a builder.
His company entered into three hire purchase agreements over the course of 2018.
In January 2018, Hrusca bought a one-year-old Audi RS6 TFSI Quattro for £74,989 having paid a deposit of £7,500 through his company. The remaining £67,489 was funded by the bank through the hire purchase agreement. Hrusca also signed a personal guarantee should his company fail to make the repayments.
Two months later, Hrusca arranged hire purchase agreements with two separate banks for seven pieces of plant machinery, including mini-diggers, dumpers and excavators.
The items had a combined value of £84,829.
By September 2019, Hrusca’s company was in financial difficulty leading to the appointment of liquidators that month.
Just three months earlier, Hrusca had requested a settlement calculation for the hire purchase agreement on the Audi.
On the same day, he transferred £67,769 from his company’s bank account to settle the outstanding balance in full. During the confiscation proceedings, Hrusca revealed for the first time that since early 2020, the car had been in Romania.
Hrusca chose not to settle his company’s other hire purchase agreements.
In interviews, he said he sold the machinery for cash and used the money for gambling.
Hrusca was sentenced to 18 months in prison, suspended for two years, when he appeared in court this January.
He was also disqualified as a company director for four years and ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and 15 days of rehabilitation activity.
