THE boss of a failed care company at the heart of an abuse scandal has been disqualified as a company director for eight years.

Neil Cruickshanks, 56, was managing director of Castlebeck Care (Teesdale) Ltd, which had its headquarters in Chesnut Street, Darlington.

In 2011, the company hit the headlines after a BBC Panorama documentary highlighted whistle-blower revelations of abuse at its Winterbourne View nursing home, near Bristol.

Six members of staff were subsequently jailed and five given suspended sentences.

The Insolvency Service found Mr Cruickshank failed to follow proper company procedures after being sent information from the whistle-blower in October 2010.

The whistle-blowing was in the form of an email, dated October 11, 2010, titled “I’ve had enough”.

It was sent by a charge nurse at Winterbourne View to the hospital manager.

The level of detail in the email indicated the seriousness of the concerns and should have been a sufficient alert for the company’s director to act rapidly, robustly and responsibly.

On October 22 2010, a senior manager sent Mr Cruickshank both this email and further communications, both from the whistle-blower and internally, which clearly demonstrated that the Whistleblowing Policy was not being adhered to.

The disqualification, dated from May 1, prevents Mr Cruickshank from directly or indirectly becoming involved in the promotion, formation or management of a company for the duration of the term.

Sue MacLeod, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: “Company directors should note from this enforcement result that any failure to follow their own internal policies is likely to lead to serious censure.

"They should also note the breadth of misconduct which can be considered for proceedings under The Company Directors’ Disqualification Act 1986.”

“In this particular case, Mr Cruickshank was aware, or should have been aware, of a series of indicators of poor quality of care within Castlebeck Care (Teesdale) Ltd, long before these were highlighted by Panorama.

“The most serious of these was his clear contemporaneous knowledge both of a serious whistle-blowing at Winterbourne View and that it was being mishandled by the senior staff-members who reported to him.

"Patients and their families deserved far higher levels of internal governance."

Castlebeck went into administration in 2013.