Etherington missed an appearance at Bradford Magistrates’ Court in January as it was claimed he was in an induced coma, but magistrates were told there was no evidence he was in hospital and had also been seen shopping in Tesco.
Nadim said the claim about the coma was not the “only untruth” in the course of the proceedings.
Etherington had previously claimed he was due to undergo surgery on the original date the hearing was listed in October 2025, although the Insolvency Service found no local hospitals had a record of him as an inpatient at that time.
Meanwhile, he missed a pre-sentence review with the Probation Service earlier this year which he had claimed was due to him not having a phone.
In May 2022, Etherington had been convicted of an almost identical offence of continuing to act as director while disqualified between 2017 and 2019.
Nadim told Etherington: “The offending commenced immediately after a period covered by an earlier conviction and continued while you were subject to that suspended sentence.”
He said Etherington had “remained the driving force” behind the business while “concealing [his] true role”.
The judge said that while he recognised Etherington’s age, “limited financial means”, physical health difficulties and recent mental health difficulties, he said suspending the sentence for the offence would “fail to reflect its gravity”.
