Howard Duckett
Introduction
Howard Roland Duckett is a former senior manager at Beauforce Corporation Limited, a UK debt management firm. In August 2026, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) banned him from working in financial services due to a serious lack of honesty and integrity. The ban followed a High Court director disqualification, which he had resisted with what a senior FCA official called “an elaborate fiction”.
Background Information
Duckett was approved by the FCA to perform the SMF3 (Executive Director) and SMF16 (Compliance Oversight) senior management functions at Beauforce Corporation Limited, a firm providing regulated debt advice and debt management services to consumers. He was also a director of an unrelated company, which became the subject of separate High Court proceedings.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Adjudicated vs. alleged. The FCA ban rests on a 2020 High Court disqualification, after the court found Duckett repeatedly lied and attempted to rely on fabricated evidence — including claiming a fictitious individual ran the business. The FCA prohibition is a regulatory sanction, not a criminal conviction, and no criminal charges are recorded in the release.
On 13 November 2020, the High Court disqualified Duckett from acting as a company director for 10 years, with the disqualification taking effect on 4 December 2020. The court found that he had failed to maintain adequate records while director of an unrelated company.
The court also found that Duckett repeatedly lied and attempted to rely on fabricated evidence to distance himself from the company and deny that he was a director. This included falsely claiming that a fictitious individual was responsible for running the business.
Duckett then failed to tell the FCA about his disqualification. He referred the FCA’s Decision Notice banning him to the Upper Tribunal, but the reference was subsequently struck out. Therese Chambers, joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said: “Mr Duckett constructed an elaborate fiction in his attempt to avoid disqualification and did not disclose his disqualification to the FCA. He deserves to be banned from the industry.”
Public Reaction and Consequences
The consequences extended beyond Duckett to his firm. In November 2025, the FCA restricted Beauforce Corporation Limited from carrying out any regulated activities, meaning it could no longer provide regulated debt advice or debt management services to consumers. The regulator also ordered the firm to stop accepting money from consumers and to return any money held in its bank accounts. Consumers holding Beauforce debt management plans were told to stop payments and seek free advice via the MoneyHelper website, and to contact the FCA if asked to make payments since 20 November 2025.
The restrictions on Beauforce themselves trace back to the conduct found at the centre of the case: an approved executive director and compliance-oversight functionary whom the regulator concluded had built his defence on fabricated evidence. The FCA also invited consumers who had been asked by Beauforce to make payments since the restriction to contact it directly, noting that while it cannot investigate individual complaints, the information provided supports ongoing supervisory work. For a firm whose entire business was managing consumers’ debts, the order to stop taking money was effectively an existential one.
Current Status
Duckett is banned from working in financial services. His 10-year director disqualification, imposed on 13 November 2020 and effective from 4 December 2020, runs to December 2030. His Upper Tribunal reference against the FCA’s Decision Notice was struck out, leaving the ban in place. Beauforce Corporation Limited remains under FCA restriction from regulated activities, barred from accepting consumer money, with the FCA continuing to invite information from affected consumers to support ongoing supervisory work.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The disqualification and subsequent ban ended Duckett’s ability to act as a company director and to hold any senior management function in UK financial services. The FCA’s enforcement action publicly attached findings of dishonesty — repeated lies and fabricated evidence — to his record, and the regulator stated that he “deserves to be banned from the industry”. The FCA release was amended on 28 September 2026, correcting a typographical error without changing its substance.
Sources
- FCA, “FCA bans senior manager for lack of honesty and integrity,” 18 August 2026 — source