SAS Who Dares Wins star Ant Middleton banned as company director over £1m unpaid taxes

The former SAS: Who Dares Wins chief instructor was the director of Sway and Starting Limited along with his wife, Emilie Middleton. The company, which was described as offering media representation services, was set up to manage income from his television and media work.

But both directors failed to ensure the company paid more than £300,000 in VAT and over £800,000 in corporation tax between 2019 and 2022.

This was despite more than £4.5m being paid into the company’s accounts from 2020 to 2022.

The pair had also taken out almost £3m from the company in the form of a director’s loan account by the time the company went into liquidation in December 2022.

Ant Middleton later agreed to repay £300,000 of the director’s loan as a full and final settlement with the liquidator.

The Middletons, both 44 and with correspondence addresses in Chelmsford, Essex, have been banned as company directors for four years.

Dave Magrath, director of investigation and enforcement services at the Insolvency Service, said: “Companies not paying the tax they should deprives the government of the money it needs to pay for the country’s defence services, our NHS, schools and universities, and transport systems.

“Ant and Emilie Middleton had legal and financial duties as directors to ensure their company paid the corporation tax and VAT it owed. Instead, they were taking millions of pounds out of the company at that time.

“This disqualification should serve as a deterrent to other directors that if you do not pay your taxes while directing money elsewhere, you are at risk of being banned.”

Ant Middleton formed Sway and Starting in September 2014, with his wife becoming a director of the company in May 2019.

The company, previously known as Middleton Global Limited, failed to pay any of the £869,351 in corporation tax it owed between September 2019 and March 2021.

Sway and Starting also only paid £267,443 in VAT out of a total of £651,961 it owed between March 2020 and September 2022, leaving £384,518 unpaid.

Insolvency Service analysis of the company’s bank accounts showed that £4,592,200 was paid into the company between April 2020 and November 2022. By the time of the company’s liquidation, the pair also owed Sway and Starting at least £2,961,745 through their director’s loan account.

The Secretary of State for Business and Trade accepted disqualification undertakings from Ant and Emilie Middleton, and their bans started on Monday, March 24 and Wednesday, March 19 respectively. It prevents them from being involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company, without the permission of the court.

In 2022 Ant Middleton stepped in to save a Portsmouth butcher from going bust. As reported in NationalWorld’s sister title The News in the city - Middleton’s home town - he saw an appeal in The News from butcher Paul Cripps and stepped in to offer some money to keep the business afloat amid skyrocketing energy prices. The business stayed open but closed its doors the following September.