'Induced coma' businessman admits breaching order

A businessman who was seen shopping while allegedly in a coma has admitted running a media company while being banned from operating a business.

Peter Etherington pleaded guilty to the charge at Bradford Crown Court on Friday and will be sentenced in May.

The 69-year-old, of Belle Vue, Ilkley, had been due to appear at Bradford Magistrates in January, but the court was read a letter on the day purporting to be from a family member saying he had been placed in an induced coma.

A representative of the Insolvency Service, the national body prosecuting the case, cast doubt on this claim, saying he had reportedly been spotted in a Tesco store in the time he was alleged to have been incapacitated.

It was also claimed he had updated his Facebook profile and signed a legal document in this period, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Magistrates issued a warrant for his arrest, and Etherington eventually appeared in court in February.

On Friday, he admitted a charge stating that between April 2019 and October 2022 he had "acted as a director or in the management of PP Global Media Limited whilst disqualified from acting as a director and without leave of the court".

The Insolvency Service said Etherington had been the subject of a number of disqualification orders during that period, starting with one issued in 2017 which was due to run to 2028.

Releasing Etherington on bail ahead of sentencing on 27 May, Judge Sophie McKone said: "You must attend on that date. If you don't, you will be committing an offence."

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