INSOLVENCY bosses have used the case of a Bolton chief executive — banned over £1.4 million losses through pay-by-results contracts — as a warning to others.

The Bolton News revealed earlier this week that Ian Wardle, 70, who headed up the drugs rehab charity Lifeline Project, had been disqualified as a company director for seven years.

Under his stewardship the charity, which had two intervention teams in Bolton, took on a series of pay-by-results deals with three unnamed local authorities.

However the contracts, for £378,000, £588,000, and £441,000, signed between August, 2015 and January, 2016, helped to drag the organisation under.

Robert Clarke, chief investigator for the Insolvency Service, said: “This case highlights the damage an irresponsible director can do even to longstanding charities and businesses that have served their communities well for decades.

“The lengthy disqualification is a warning to other directors who handle charitable funds that the Insolvency Service stands ready to take action to prevent the infliction of further damage to the charity sector.”

The government agency’s inquiry found that Wardle, from Bromley Cross, had failed to enter into “due diligence” over the deals, leaving Lifeline with “unachievable targets”

The charity, which ran Bolton Community Drugs and Alcohol Team and the borough’s integrated drug and alcohol treatment service, as part of a national network, employed more than 1,300 and looked after 80,000 people UK-wide. Change Grow Live took over their services in 2017.

Their turnover had risen from £13million in 2006 to £53million by 2016.

Lifeline’s expansion had been funded by cash flow and reserves — but these were exhausted by 2017 after a series of contract losses in the preceding 12 months.