There are between 50 and 100 cases of corporate identity fraud every month. One of the more serious examples of this is company hijacking where fraudsters change a creditworthy company’s details at Companies House using paper forms and then use the stolen company identity to obtain goods and services before disappearing, leaving the company with serious debts.

Companies House has developed Protected Online Filing (PROOF), a scheme to help companies protect themselves from this type of fraud. Thomas Westcott offers a comprehensive company secretarial package that will also enable our corporate clients to benefit from PROOF, thus reducing their risk of corporate identity fraud.

The Thomas Westcott Secretarial service is based in a fixed annual fee which includes the Companies House annual return filing.

As soon as you register for this service you will start benefiting from increased corporate identity security and a fixed price company secretarial service.

The service includes:

• Setting up of a secure e-filing base with Companies House under the PROtected Online Filing (PROOF) scheme
• Completion and submission of the company’s confirmation statement
• Completion and submission of forms to appoint or remove directors or the company secretary, as required
• Completion and submission of forms to change the accounting date of the company
• Completion and submission of forms to change the registered office of the company
• Optional use of our address as the company’s registered office address, for the serving of documents etc.
• The directors’ optional use of our address as a service address to ensure that their private addresses are not on the public Register
• Completion and submission of forms to Companies House in respect of any changes in shares issued by the company
• Maintaining the statutory register of the company for all matters mentioned above
• Completion and submission of the ‘People with Significant Control’ register required at companies house

If you would like more information please speak to your usual Thomas Westcott contact.