A COMPANY director has been disqualified from running a business for five years after the firm he helped manage failed with debts of £81,479.

Kevin Marklew, of Far Forest, was one of three company directors of FMTS Ltd disqualified from acting as a director of a company at a hearing in Dudley County Court.

The firm, which manufactured press brake tools, began trading in March 1998. Its last trading address before it went into liquidation in December 1999 was in Stourbridge.

Mr Marklew was previously a director of Falcon Sheet Metal Services, which went into liquidation with estimated total debts of £99,458 in May 1998 and Falcon Press Brake Tooling and Services which went into liquidation in December 1993 with estimated total debts on £240,858.