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“As the old saying goes: ‘Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion.’ Shouldn’t we expect the same from those at the very top of politics?”
Reform councillor David Bowker is a frequent critic of the Labour Party on tax, with the above post being one of many targeting former deputy PM Angela Rayner, who recently settled a stamp duty bill following an investigation by HMRC.
However, Cllr Bowker, now a Reform council colleague of Makerfield candidate Robert Kenyon, ran firms that went bust owing taxpayers nearly £300,000, Byline Times can reveal – and may have left the public on the hook for what appears to have been a £50,000 Covid Bounce Back Loan.
David Bowker was elected as Reform UK councillor for Abram on Wigan Council on 7 May 2026. Reform swept all but one seat up for grabs in the local elections in Wigan, where the party now forms the principal opposition to a Labour administration and would almost certainly have taken control of the council were elections there not done in thirds.
But a Byline Times investigation into Cllr Bowker’s company affairs reveals a trail of failed companies – some at significant cost to the taxpayer – that voters in Abram were not informed about.
Bowker has been a director of four companies that entered Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidation (CVL) – voluntarily dissolving the firm, sometimes with large liabilities left unpaid.
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‘The Phoenix Pattern’
In 2010, Bowker’s taxi firm Aristacars Ltd was liquidated owing HMRC nearly £98,000. The liquidator explicitly characterised another of Bowker’s companies, set up around the same time of Aristacars’ collapse, as a “phoenix company” — a term used to describe firms that quickly spring up with the same backers when another goes bust, leaving creditors with little or nothing and the new company a blank balance sheet.
Just before it was liquidated, Bowker set up another company with a near-identical name, Aristacars Wigan Ltd, appearing to offer very similar taxi services.
In March 2012, that alleged ‘phoenix’ firm was also dissolved owing £214,899 to creditors — the majority, £153,726, owed to HMRC. It also owed Wigan Council £27,833 in Business Rates, and owed Wigan and Leigh Magistrates Court £3,918. It means about £185,000 owed to taxpayers went unrecovered for that company alone.
In Aristacars Ltd’s case, the liquidator wrote: “In accordance with the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986 I would confirm that I have submitted a report on the conduct of the Directors of the Company to the Department for Business Innovation & Skills. As this is a confidential report, I am not able to disclose the contents. I was not able to fully investigate the affairs of the Company prior to filing the report, as the directors failed to deliver up any Company books and records to me.”
In another filing on the firm, the liquidator added: “Time has been spent corresponding with creditors to agree claims, investigating the directors’ conduct and liaising with the debtor of the phoenix company regarding the erroneous payments and arranging for the balance to be returned to the directors.”
Another company set up by Bowker, Wigan Fast Foods, went under in 2013 owing £7,383 in unpaid redundancy claims.
‘A £50,000 Question’
But it is the collapse of a hygiene supplies firm which went under in 2022 which raises the most questions.
Bowker’s company Overall Hygiene Ltd went into liquidation in May that year, owing £50,000 to the bank RBS. This debt bears the hallmarks of a Covid Bounce Back Loan. It is the exact figure for the maximum Bounce Back loans available at the time, RBS was an approved lender for the scheme, the timeline matches, and the RBS debt recovery team was known to be involved in trying to reclaim at-risk funds. Because BBLS loans carry a 100% government guarantee, the public ultimately covers this loss. No creditor recovered a penny from the firm when it collapsed.
This outlet can also reveal that the liquidator of Overall Hygiene Ltd concluded after investigation that Bowker had taken £12,639 out of his insolvent company in a transaction that constituted an unjustified “preference” under section 239 of the Insolvency Act 1986 — in other words, a transaction that improperly disadvantaged the company’s other creditors.
Bowker settled the claim for £1,000, under 8p in the pound, because the liquidator found he could not afford to repay more.
Before the company went bust, two of Bowker’s firms lent it £100,000 in total — two lots of £50,000 each. But one of those firms never filed accounts and the other was registered as dormant. Byline Times has contacted Cllr Bowker to ask where the money came from.
The liquidator wrote: “My investigations highlighted several transactions between the company and its director which constituted a preference in the sum of £12,639.24. Following several conversations regarding the matter, the director offered £1,000 to settle the claim. After a thorough review of the director’s financial circumstances, it was concluded that this was the best settlement figure that could be reached. The offer was accepted, and the funds were received on 31 October 2023.”
Two-thirds of Overall Hygiene’s recorded debt — £100,000 across two £50,000 entries — was owed to other companies Bowker controlled, Croftmark Limited and Corebowk Ltd. That means that, if the RBS cash was a Bounce Back Loan, the taxpayer was the overwhelming loser in the hygiene firm’s collapse.
The Overall Hygiene liquidator confirms in writing that he submitted a conduct report on Bowker to the Insolvency Service. The outcome of any review is not public. There appears to have been no action to disqualify Bowker as a company director, as he went on to set up multiple firms.
Across all four liquidated companies, the cost to the public purse sits at £286,000 — encompassing the two Aristacars debts to HMRC, unpaid council rates, and the £7,383 redundancy-fund debt at Wigan Fast Foods. It rises to roughly £336,000 if Overall Hygiene Ltd’s £50,000 RBS debt was a Government-backed Bounce Back Loan.
Don’t miss a story
Six of Bowker’s companies were incorporated within a ten-week window in spring and summer 2020, during the Covid Bounce Back Loan eligibility period, designed to help businesses survive during the economic downturn and lockdowns. Byline Times has not seen evidence of other potential Bounce Back Loans claimed by Cllr Bowker, though some of the firms failed to publish any accounts and were then subject to compulsory strike-off, or have gone dormant, making it nearly impossible to find out.
Of 14 company directorships disclosed on Companies House, eleven firms were dissolved, struck off or have been through liquidation, and three remain active (The Dog Outlet, Croftmark, Bowker Property Investments). He lists another firm, Feed Um Raw Ltd, on his council register of interests.
Mike Lewis, Director of the non-profit campaign group TaxWatch, told Byline Times: “Phoenixing — liquidating a company to wipe out tax and other debts, while shifting the business to a new company — is one of the most overlooked threats to the UK’s public finances. Of the £6bn of taxes owed that HMRC has to write off annually, it estimates that over a fifth is due to phoenixing. That’s roughly the cost of a face-to-face GP appointment for every child and pensioner in Britain. Small businesses and employees also typically go unpaid.
“Companies House and the Insolvency Service need to get much tougher at disqualifying serial phoenixers as directors. Changes to insolvency law could help to boost HMRC and employees’ creditor rights, preventing company owners from siphoning off remaining funds through debentures and other secured loans before workers and the tax authority get paid.”
Cllr Bowker was contacted for comment but did not respond.
The chair of Wigan Reform initially told Byline Times: “Thank you for raising this. I will investigate the matter and come back to you with an update as soon as possible.”
Upon chasing, he replied: “The vetting process is completed by HQ and not by Branches or sitting Reform UK councillors,” and failed to answer specific questions.
| Company/CH No. | Incorporated | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aristacars Ltd (05905569) | 14 Aug 2006 | Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidation (CVL) 2010 | Earliest taxi business; ~£128,719 deficit, ~£97,700 to HMRC; liquidator referred to a “phoenix”/successor company |
| Aristacars Wigan Ltd (07125214) | 14 Jan 2010 | CVL 2012 | Taxi/pizza/chip shop; ~£214,899 deficiency, £153,726 to HMRC; no adverse conduct finding |
| Fone-A-Car Limited (07747664) | 22 Aug 2011 | Compulsory strike-off 2016 | Wallgate cluster (firms operating from same address in Wigan) |
| Wigan Fast Foods Limited (07757760) | 31 Aug 2011 | CVL 2013 | Fish & chip / steakhouse, 48-50 Wallgate; ~£29k deficit; employee redundancies; no large HMRC debt |
| The Dog Outlet Ltd (12532473) | 24 Mar 2020 | Active | Lent £3,360 to fund Overall Hygiene’s liquidation costs |
| MDS Development Ltd (12568388) | 22 Apr 2020 | Compulsory strike-off 2021 | Active about 17 months |
| Croftmark Limited (11225968) | 26 Feb 2018 | Active | Bowker joined 8 Jun 2020; dormant filings; “agent for a person” disclosure (2025); £50k creditor of OH; no claim lodged |
| Corebowk Ltd (12695280) | 24 Jun 2020 | Compulsory strike-off 2022 | Never filed accounts; struck off 9 Aug 2022; £50k creditor of OH; no claim lodged. Clothing firm. |
| Bowker Motorhomes Limited (12703173) | 29 Jun 2020 | Compulsory strike-off 2022 | Struck off; no accounts ever filed |
| Overall Hygiene Ltd (12739384) | 13 Jul 2020 | CVL 2022 | §239 preference finding; £50k BBLS lost; ~£155k deficit |
| My Electric Ride Ltd (12905334) | 25 Sep 2020 | Compulsory strike-off 2022 | Never filed accounts |
| Feed Um Raw Ltd (13957658) | 5 Mar 2022 | Active | Pet-food manufacture (SIC 10920) but files dormant; “agent for a person” disclosure (2025); same Unit 16 hub |
| Madabow Ltd (15854365) | 23 Jul 2024 | Compulsory strike-off Dec 2025 | Property-letting vehicle; struck off having never filed its first confirmation statement or accounts |
| Bowker Property Investments Limited (16822729) | 31 Oct 2025 | Active | Sole director/shareholder/PSC; SIC 68100/68209 (buying-selling and letting own real estate); incorporated six months before standing. No land declared on council register of interests. |
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