A construction company director has been ordered to repay £190,577 or face prison after stripping assets from his failing business to fund a high-performance car and gambling. Vasile Hrusca, 41, from Hornchurch, Essex, has three months to pay the sum following a confiscation hearing at Snaresbrook Crown Court.
Hrusca used more than £67,000 from his company’s bank account in 2019 to clear the outstanding balance on a hire purchase agreement for an Audi RS6, bought the previous year for just under £75,000. He also sold seven items of plant, including mini-diggers, dumpers and excavators, which were still under hire purchase agreements with two banks, and admitted using the proceeds for gambling.
The Insolvency Service investigation found that Hrusca diverted company assets for personal benefit as his business, Vasile Hrusca Ltd, ran into financial trouble. The firm, incorporated in 2007 and registered as carrying out “other construction installation”, entered liquidation in September 2019.
In January 2018, Hrusca acquired the one-year-old Audi RS6 TFSI Quattro for £74,989, paying a £7,500 deposit through the company and financing the remaining £67,489 via hire purchase, backed by a personal guarantee. Two months later, he entered further hire purchase agreements with two banks for plant worth a combined £84,829.
By mid-2019, as the company’s finances deteriorated, Hrusca requested a settlement figure on the Audi and on the same day transferred £67,769 from the company account to clear the finance in full. During confiscation proceedings he disclosed for the first time that the vehicle has been in Romania since early 2020.
Hrusca chose not to meet the company’s obligations on the plant finance, instead selling the machinery for cash. In interviews he admitted using the money for gambling rather than repaying the lenders.
Earlier this year he received an 18‑month prison sentence, suspended for two years, for the offences uncovered by the Insolvency Service. He was also disqualified from acting as a company director for four years and ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and 15 days of rehabilitation activity.
Alexander Grierson, Head of Asset Recovery at the Insolvency Service, said Hrusca had “stripped assets from his failing company to benefit himself, leaving creditors and victims significantly out of pocket.” He added that the confiscation order underlines that directors who misuse company assets for personal gain “will be pursued for the proceeds of their crimes.”
If Hrusca fails to pay the £190,577 within three months, he faces a custodial sentence of two-and-a-half years. The court confirmed that the debt will remain payable in full even if he serves the prison term.
