Scots chauffeur to the stars is banned from being a company director for seven years

It emerged that Mr Pender's firm, whose clients included British Airways staff, BBC talent and luxury hotel guests went under a year after he was disqualified from operating passenger vehicles or acting as a transport manager for three years having been accused of running the business without a licence.

Chaffeurline's contracts including transporting the pilots and cabin crews for all major airlines landing at Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen Airports, as well as shuttling celebrities such as Tom Jones, Fleetwood Mac and Lionel Richie to and from BBC studios.

His fleet of 19 luxury vehicles - including six top of the range Jaguar XJLs and three 16-seater Mercedes minibuses - also did business with some of Scotland's most upmarket hotels, including the Balmoral in Edinburgh, as well as cruise liner companies such as P&O and Caribbean Cruises.

An earlier traffic commissioner's inquiry heard that the business had been run illegally since November 2014 when Chauffeurline Coaches Ltd - previously known as Cramond Coaches Ltd - ceased trading as a result of an associated company going into liquidation.

Chauffeurline (UK) Ltd continued operating vehicles under the licence held by Chauffeurline Coaches Ltd - despite the fact that operator licences are not transferable between businesses.

The Insolvency Service got the directorship ban at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, after an order was obtained in September against Mr Pender for failing to deliver, maintain and preserve adequate accounting records.

The Insolvency Service said Mr Pender made out cheques, payable to himself, in the final year of trading totalling £116,896.89 and had failed to provide company accounting records that would explain the transactions The court heard evidence that Chauffeurline had arrears with the taxman in excess of £60,000.

Company accounts for the year ended May 31, 2015 disclosed fixed assets of £490,078.

The Insolvency Service said that due to the lack of proper records it was unable to sufficiently explain whether assets were disposed of at fair value and for the benefit of the company and its creditors.

In November, 2016, joint administrators from French Duncan said they were refused full access to the company premises and "could not gather any meaningful information from Mr Pender".

The administrators also said that a number of former staff submitted claims to the Redundancy Payments Office over outstanding arrears of pay, notice pay and redundancy, but "due to the lack of books and records" they were unable to evaluate the level of claims.

Rob Clarke of the Insolvency Service said: Companies are under a legal duty to account for their income and expenditure and fulfilling that duty is a key component of the role of a director. There is no place in the corporate arena for those who neglect their responsibilities in this area.

"All too often, the lack of records to explain transactions is used to cover up other, more serious misconduct and we cannot determine whether that was the case at Chauffeurline, a fact which is reflected in the lengthy ban now in place."

Mr Pender, who was declared bankrupt in 2007, had previously been called before Traffic Commissioner in 2013 as the director of then-named Cramond Coaches over a lack of financial standing.

Operators are required to have a minimum amount of money set aside at any one time as a condition of their licence, but the 2013 inquiry heard that Mr Pender "does not see why he should keep money available in this particular business because he wants to expand all his other businesses".

At the time, his operator licences were reduced but not revoked as a penalty.

He subsequently changed the company's name from Cramond to Chauffeurline Coaches.

Miss Aitken, in a written ruling, said that Mr Pender had "self-servingly" operated his chauffeuring business, Chauffeurline (UK) Ltd without a licence from November 2014, after his application was rejected.