Director banned over collapse of landscaping business

A Sunshine Coast-based director of two failed landscaping companies has been hit with a two-year ban by the corporate watchdog over his involvement in the collapses.

A Sunshine Coast-based director of two failed landscaping companies has been hit with a two-year ban by the corporate watchdog.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) disqualified Michael Higgs from managing corporations for two years due to his involvement in the collapse of Tropic Landscapes and Tropic Developments.

From July 2015, Mr Higgs was the director of the two companies that were involved in providing structural landscaping services.

ASIC found that Mr Higgs’s failed to meet his obligations as director when he failed to ensure that Tropic Landscapes and Tropic Developments complied with obligations to lodge tax documents with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

The watchdog also found he had allowed Tropic Developments to provide loans without ensuring the company was left with funds to pay its taxes, and failed to ensure Tropic Landscapes maintained adequate books and records.

At the time of ASIC’s decision, the two companies owed a combined total of $503,110 to unsecured creditors, including $366,791 to the ATO.

In disqualifying Mr Higgs, ASIC relied on supplementary reports lodged by Tropic Landscapes’ liquidator Glenn Michael Shannon of Hall Chadwick and Tropic Developments’ liquidator, Darryl Edward Kirk of Cor Cordis.

Mr Higgs is disqualified from managing corporations until 10 October 2024. He has the right to seek a review of ASIC’s decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.