A BUSINESSMAN married to one of Scotland’s most senior prosecutors is facing prison after being convicted of running companies while a disqualified director.

Stephen Roberts, 50, was in effective control of two health and medical technology firms – one of which his law officer wife was a major shareholder in – while he was banned.

Roberts’ wife Nicky Patrick, procurator fiscal for homicide and major crime, is listed at Companies House as having had the largest holding of 8,997 shares in one of the firms, Log Six Systems (LSS), in 2013. Her husband owned 7,503, giving the couple a majority of the shares.

There is no absolutely suggestion Patrick knew about the management of the business at the time. The Crown Office is now investigating her husband’s financial affairs and have applied for a confiscation order under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Former bankrupt Roberts, of Troon, Ayrshire, was disqualified for four years in July 2010 after failing to ensure a previous firm, Innova Business Solutions, had paid tax. Innova owed £292,882 when it was liquidated. An appeal judge described him as “evasive" and “devious” in cross-examination.

In 2013, a Sunday Herald investigation revealed Roberts was involved in a healthcare start-up, LSS, that won a £50,000 prize at a Dragons' Den-style event funded by Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Government.

John Swinney, then finance secretary, presented the prize to Roberts and a former director but Scottish Enterprise later withheld some of the money. Despite Roberts’ directorship ban, which stopped him forming, promoting or managing a company, this newspaper uncovered footage of him saying on a crowdfunding site: “We kill superbugs, but we can do it 12 times faster and 100 times cheaper than existing disinfectant methods.

Log Six has the ability to save lives, time and money on a global scale with proven technology to a global problem. And with your help we can make it happen faster.”

In another video, Roberts addressed an audience at Heriot-Watt University and said: “We have developed a high-efficacy disinfectant chemical, which has been proven to kill every pathogen known to man.”

The articles were followed by a police investigation and Roberts later denied two charges of being involved in the “formation, promotion and management” of LSS and another company, Nightingale Intensive Systems International, between September 2011 and July 2014.

After a lengthy trial at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court, Roberts was found guilty of both charges after Sheriff Iona McDonald ruled he had been a “driving force” of Nightingale and co-founder of LSS, where he referred to his “investors”.

McDonald told Roberts: “It’s clear you told almost everyone you were a disqualified director.”

Gary Allan QC, defence counsel, told the court: “The whole sorry saga has been a social, family and financial catastrophe.”

McDonald continued the case for 10 weeks for prosecutors to produce a statement of Roberts’ financial affairs for a confiscation order under the Proceeds of Crime Act.