Sugababe Amelle Berrabah left bankrupt by mismanaged accounts
Former Sugababe Amella Berrabah was forced into bankruptcy after her accountant failed to file her tax returns.
The 35-year-old Push The Button singer was declared bankrupt by HMRC in 2013 after failing to pay a tax bill of almost £650k.
But Berrabah complained to the Institute of Chartered Accountants as her accountant at the time, Ben White, had failed to file any tax returns on her behalf, leaving HMRC to estimate the earnings on which she owed tax.
A tribunal has now ruled that the girlband star’s bankruptcy “might have been avoided or postponed” if White – who represented Berrabah between 2011 and 2014 – had acted properly.
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He has been fined £7,500 and ordered to pay £83,000 in legal costs.
Berrabah joined the Sugababes in 2005, replacing founding member Mutya Buena.
She and the then-members of the ever-changing girlband went their separate ways in 2011.
Buena, 34, was declared bankrupt by the High Court in 2014 after she failed to pay a tax bill. She blamed it on an “administrative error.”
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Sometime member Jade Ewen, 32, who joined the band in 2009 replacing Keisha Buchanan, also went bankrupt in 2015 following a string of financial problems.
Heidi Range, 36, who was previously a member of girlband Atomic Kitten, replaced original member Siobhan Donaghy in 2001. She became a mother in 2018, welcoming daughter Aurelia.
Original members Buena, Donaghy, 35 and Buchanan, 35, reformed as MKS in 2012 and managed to win back the rights to the name Sugababes in 2019.
