FOUR brothers who carried out poor work and supplied inadequate refurbished car engines have been banned from being company directors following an Insolvency Service probe.

Taqeer Ahmed, aged 39, Kabir Ahmed, aged 30, Saghir Ahmed, aged 52 , from Bolton, and Qadeer Ahmed, aged 36, who is living in Saudi Arabia, were involved in running Engine World, formerly of Crossford Drive, Ladybridge, and RMI Engines in Bark Street, Bolton.

A hearing heard the companies also took unauthorised payments from customer credit cards and the brothers ignored guidance from Bolton Trading Standards, who stepped in following customer complaints.

The businesses went into liquidation and resulted in debts to creditors and shareholders of more than £500,000.

The brothers were directors of Engine World Limited, which went into liquidation in December 2011 owing creditors and shareholders £233,489 and RMI Engines Ltd was wound up in June 2012, owing £354,333.

Ken Beasley, official receiver of the Insolvency Service’s public interest unit, said: “The disqualifications are wholly deserved. The services provided by the companies fell well below the standards reasonably expected by customers and the defective motor parts supplied by the companies could have been a serious danger to the public.

“I am grateful to Bolton Trading Standards for assisting our investigations and enabling a joined up approach to address the directors’ misconduct.

“The Insolvency Service will not hesitate to use its statutory powers to investigate and disqualify directors who fail to uphold reasonable standards of conduct in the market place.”

Taqeer Ahmed was banned from being a director of a firm for nine years, Kabir Ahmed for six years, Saghir Ahmed for six years, Qadeer Ahmed for four years — they all agreed not to work as a company director for the time frames.