A WOMAN who dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur has been barred from being a director for six years after a judge in Hull branded her "totally incompetent".
Sarah Viles, 37, cost a royal charity, companies and her own staff almost £30,000 by continuing to trade after being declared bankrupt three times.
A judge called her "a menace to the business community" after hearing she wanted to be successful to win friends and influence people.
Viles, the wife of a respected Army corporal, admitted three counts of obtaining credit while bankrupt, and two of acting as a director while bankrupt and without leave of the court.
Hull Crown Court heard her victims included youth charity the Prince's Trust, a London hotel, a printing press, and two female employees who were not paid.
Viles was awarded two contracts by the Prince's Trust and failed to deliver on the second one, leaving the trust out of pocket and forced to engage another provider so its young people could complete their courses and get their certificates.
As a director of Blaze Management, Viles failed to pay for a print run of her magazine, Pukka, costing Pensord Press Ltd £2,860.07 in June 2009.
She was awarded a contract worth almost £10,000 by the Prince's Trust in January 2012 to run hair, beauty, nail and make-up courses.
One course took place in Bradford, but the charity had to step in to pay for the room hire and catering because Viles had not paid the bill.
Equipment had also not been supplied, causing the trust to shell out a further £1,500.
At another event at Jury's Inn hotel in Birmingham, Viles similarly failed to pay for catering, leading one of her employees, Zara Khan, to pay for the students' lunches out of her own pocket.
Miss Khan, who was also not paid, is still owed £4,850 by Viles.
Another employee, Natalie Flint, was not paid for months and is owed £743.02.
On May 22 last year, Viles was interviewed by police under caution and said she did not really understand the restrictions she was under.
Two months later she was trading as Chic Mystique, but failed to pay the £1,787 fee for a group booking at a Premier Inn in Kensington, London.
Paul Norton, defending, said Viles would probably lose her home if she was sent straight to prison, while her husband would have to abandon a 20-year Army career to look after their children.
Mr Norton said her parents had agreed to pay Miss Flint and Miss Khan back on her behalf.
Viles, of Rufforth Drive, Leconfield, near Beverley, was sentenced to 200 hours of unpaid work and received a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.
Recorder Eric Elliott QC told her: "You are totally incompetent and you represent a menace to the business community.
"The business community deserves to be protected, as do the public, from you.
"People like you get ideas way above their abilities and common sense."
