STORY
A disqualified company director who claimed to be in an induced coma when he was due to appear in court has been jailed after admitting that he continued to run a football magazine business while banned. Peter Etherington, 68, of Ilkley, West Yorkshire, was sentenced at Bradford Crown Court to 18 and a half months in prison, including five months from an activated suspended sentence. He was also disqualified from acting as a company director for a further ten years, taking the ban through to August 2036.
Etherington admitted acting as a director of PP Global Media Limited between April 2019 and October 2022 while disqualified. The company produced Professional Player, described as a luxury lifestyle magazine for professional footballers and their families. The Insolvency Service said Etherington exercised control over the company’s finances, staffing and contracts despite other people being formally listed as directors. Bank records showed that he received more than £100,000 from the company account, more than any named director during the same period.
Etherington had been due before Bradford Magistrates’ Court in January, but an email said to have been sent by a family member claimed that he was in an induced coma. The Insolvency Service contacted two local hospitals and found no record of him being a recent inpatient, while he had also updated his Facebook profile and signed a legal document during the same period. Officials said information suggested that he “may have been seen in Tesco”. Etherington had previously been disqualified as a director three times, in 2017, 2020 and 2022.