A Yorkshire-based finance boss has been found guilty of fraud and sentenced to 7 years imprisonment at Leeds Crown Court, according to a U.K. Insolvency Service press release. An investigation by the Insolvency Service found Liam Francis Wainwright, 61, from Leeds, had falsified documents to mislead investors and spend their money on ventures including a racehorse syndicate and his own failed private businesses. These investors were victims of a classic Ponzi scheme, whereby the returns paid to them were funded by the capital injections from later investors.

The Daily Telegraph, a more than 150-year-old, politically influential British newspaper, has effectively been put up for sale after its parent company entered a form of insolvency proceedings, the Wall Street Journal reported. The move could offer a rare chance to buy a trophy asset with strong ties to the ruling Conservative Party, while signaling the further erosion of the business empire of the Barclay family, once one of Britain’s richest clans.

A London commuter town effectively declared bankruptcy, after a risky investment spree meant to offset a central government funding squeeze backfired and left the local authority — which covers a population of just over 100,000 people — facing a £1.2 billion ($1.5 billion) deficit, Bloomberg News reported. Woking Borough Council issued a so-called Section 114 notice on Wednesday, meaning that all but essential spending will stop due to the financial shortfall, which it blamed on “unaffordable borrowing” triggered by historic spending.

Hogganfield Care operates a 44-bed nursing home, Hogganfield Care Centre, in Millerston, Glasgow, while Skye Care Limited manages Skye View Care Centre, a 24-bed facility specialising in dementia care in Airdrie, Scottish Housing News reported. Insolvency practitioners Mark Harper and Steven John Parker, partners at Opus Restructuring and Insolvency, were appointed joint provisional on June 5.

U.K. house builders cut back on developments at a pace last seen during the pandemic and the global financial crisis 14 years ago after a jump in mortgage rates, a closely watched survey found. S&P Global said its PMI index for the sector dropped to 42.7, the lowest since May 2020 when homebuilding was brought to a standstill by the first Covid-19 lockdown. Excluding the pandemic, it was the weakest since 2009. It bucked a wider pickup in the construction industry in May. The overall PMI rose to 51.6 from 51.1 in April, boosted by commercial building and civil engineering work.

The Bank of England has completed its planned sales of corporate bonds originally bought as part of a program to stabilize markets in the wake of the Brexit vote and the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, Bloomberg News reported.

Wejo, a Manchester, England-based company that deals in connected vehicle data, has filed a notice of intention to enter administration to save it from liquidation, InsideRadio.com reported. The company, whose largest shareholder is General Motors Ventures, says it does not expect the move to impact its operations or business, according to BusinessLive. Wejo has been supplying connected car data to at least one U.S. broadcaster and has been working on signing others as clients.

A Scottish Parliament committee has launched a public consultation to seek views on new Scottish bankruptcy laws, Scottish Legal News reported. The Bankruptcy and Diligence Bill will, among other provisions, create a “mental health moratorium”, meaning enforcement action against someone with serious mental health problems can be stopped. The bill will also make changes to the process for recovering money for creditors, including a requirement for creditors to provide a debtor with information about debt advice before enforcement.

An investigation could be launched into an energy company which went bust owing more than £1m to livid customers, the Dorset Echo reported. Dorset, U.K.-based Daylight Energy officially went into liquidation in early May after racking up extensive debts and leaving hundreds of customers out of pocket. According to the report, compiled by insolvency practitioners Verulam Advisory, there are 397 customers who paid deposits totalling £1,014,427 - all of which is unsecured.

Britain's Treasury chief said he would be prepared to see the U.K. economy slip back into recession if further interest rate hikes are necessary to bring down inflation, the Associated Press reported. With the Bank of England expected to keep raising rates following higher-than-anticipated inflation figures this week, Jeremy Hunt said it was necessary to prioritize measures to slow the pace of price increases. In an interview with Sky News that aired Friday, Hunt said the “only path to sustainable growth” is to bring inflation under control.