One of Scotland’s most up and coming businessmen has been barred from being a director after dodging tax in a shady scheme.
The three-and-a-half year disqualification of jet-setting Ryan Bowman, 37, will send shockwaves among legions of directors who have used the dodgy “Atherton scheme” to wind up companies and avoid paying their debts to creditors.
Bowman had been heralded as a major new force on the Scots pub and restaurant scene with the Bow Hospitality Group, which he founded in 2016.
He boasts of the enterprise being “Scotland’s premier hospitality group”, owning 12 pubs and restaurants in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and several towns in the central belt.
Popular venues include the posh Merchant Steakhouse and Saint Judes in Glasgow, Cabo in Edinburgh, the Station Bar, Alloa, and Black Bull in Polmont, Falkirk.
But the front man of the group – made up of a complex network of separate companies – has been forced to retreat from any management role after an investigation by the UK government’s Insolvency Service (IS) found he had improperly used the Atherton scheme to dodge tax with a company called Lemon Bar Ltd.
View 6 ImagesRyan Bowman
When the company was liquidated it owed £297,000 to creditors. A source said: “Ryan Bowman was, until recently, the very visible captain of the ship at Bow Hospitality but he’s now keeping a very low profile.
“His directorship ban means he cannot take on any role in the management of the companies he set up or any other firms.
“The ban is a major embarrassment and will be regarded as a very black mark by anyone in the future who might be looking at advancing credit to Bowman or any enterprise he might be involved in. It is a very bad look.
“His roster of directorships listed at Companies House now appears like a car crash, with most firms failing after a few years, a series of liquidations and many being dissolved.”
The source added: “The Insolvency Service investigation focused on one company but Bowman was also a director in several companies that were strongly linked to people who facilitated the notorious Atherton scheme, which is an effective companies’ graveyard and is a device for dodging debts.”
Bowman caught the eye of IS investigators after he sold his company for a nominal £1, paying the Atherton scheme organisers to provide replacement directors to the debt-ridden company.
View 6 ImagesThe Black Bull pub in Polmont.
Bowman resigned from his role at the same time as Scots sisters Karen Mortimer and Joanna Seawright stepped in to be directors – effectively to allow the company to die.
Kevin Read, chief investigator at the IS, said: “Ryan Bowman’s Lemon Bar Ltd failed to pay a penny of its PAYE bill between July 2022 and August 2023, despite receiving almost £1.7million in the same period.
“Bowman then offloaded the company for just £1, with sisters Karen Mortimer and Joanna Seawright becoming its directors.
“Both Mortimer and Seawright have since been disqualified as directors until October 2032 after our investigations revealed they put the creditors of 138 companies at risk of financial loss.
“Those companies had been referred to them by Atherton Corporate UK Ltd and Atherton Corporate Rescue Ltd.” The IS investigation found Lemon Bar Ltd took in almost £1.7million in revenue but paid no PAYE on behalf of staff members to HMRC.
By the time it was liquidated, Lemon Bar owed £297,000 to creditors – who went unpaid.
View 6 ImagesThe dodgy Atherton scheme is believed to have cost creditors more than £100 million
And the Record can also reveal Bowman was involved with several companies that are closely connected to Neville Taylor – an Atherton-appointed patsy who was paid to take on directorships at firms that were going to the wall with big debts.
The Record has documented how Taylor was later given a nine-year directorship ban in 2024. The IS previously shut down several companies associated with the Atherton scheme – which was devised by Largs-basedbusinessman John Irvin, who has insisted his service is legit.
Previous action against firms linked to the Atherton scheme has laid bare how directors typically sold dead-duck, debt-loaded companies for a nominal £1.
View 6 ImagesCabo restaurant, on Hanover St, Edinburgh
Bosses would have been expected to pay the scheme up to £15,000 for their services, which included the installation of fake directors, who were paid to be the names in all correspondence but would sit back and do nothing. Bowman still lists himself on LinkedIn as the founder of the Bow Hospitality Group.
His ban meant he was forced to resign as director of a host of linked companies. As part of his settlement with the IS, Bowman agreed to sign a “schedule of unfit conduct”.
The order bans him from being a director of a firm or be involved in the management of any company, which would be a criminal offence.
As part of the process instigated by the IS, Bowman agreed to sign a “disqualification undertaking” statement where he admitshis “unfit conduct”. The statement admits liabilities of £297,782.74.
Bowman admits he sold Lemon for £1 on August 17, 2023, at a time when it appears the group had ceased trading.
He adds: “This sale included my resignation as director, as well as a transfer of Lemon’s sole share.
View 6 ImagesThe Merchant Steakhouse Glasgow
“No assets were included in the sale and the purchaser did not cause Lemon to recommence trading. As of August 17, 2023, the company owed £217,341.88 in respect of PAYE.” The statement also accepts that between July 22, 2022 and August 17, 2023, “Lemon” received credits into its bank totalling £1,692,638.04 and had debit payments totalling £1,703,952.35.
In the same period, only £102.73 was paid to HMRC, none of which related to PAYE.
His three-and-a-half year ban runs from July 31 last year.
Up until now, it has only been people paid by Atherton to be puppet directors who have been banned by the IS. Bowman has been asked to comment.
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