Tory party donor Lycamobile faces being struck off UK company register

Companies House reveals telephone airtime retailer has failed to file accounts for last year amid continuing questions over firm’s financial affairs

Lycamobile, a major Tory party donor, faces a possible £9.5m bill from HMRC for unpaid tax. Photograph: Alamy

Rob Davies and Solomon Hughes-Tuesday 26 January 2016

Lycamobile, one of the Conservative party’s largest corporate donors, is at risk of being struck off the register of UK businesses after failing to file accounts on time.

The company, which has handed millions to the Tory party, is already facing the possibility of a £9.5m bill from HM Revenue & Customs for unpaid tax.

Now Lycamobile, which sells international telephone airtime, has missed a deadline to publish accounts for last year by two months, according to Companies House filings.

Companies House is understood to have sent two warning letters to the company, controlled by the Sri Lankan businessman Subaskaran Allirajah, without reply.

The next step would involve having the company listed for late filing in the London Gazette in early February.

The listing would begin an ultimatum period that could see the company struck off the register of British businesses within two months.

At that point a new company would have to be set up to house Lycamobile’s UK business.

Despite its failure to file accounts, Lycamobile has been a generous donor to the Conservative party, handing it £1.5m since 2011.

Its latest available figures, from 2014, reveal it swelled Tory coffers by £146,600 last year, despite making a profit of just £767,000 after tax.

The delay in filing new accounts comes with Lycamobile facing a string of questions over its financial affairs.

The company is in talks with HMRC over a potential tax liability of around £9.5m linked to its complex international corporate structure.                             

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