ABOUT 1,000 companies are still to register with the new Guernsey Registry ahead of the annual validation deadline of 31 January.

If they fail to do that and also fail to undertake the annual validation, they will be committing an offence under the new Companies Law and on top of a £5-per-day late filing fee could be faced with sanctions.

Guernsey registrar of companies Mark Whiteley (pictured) said the strength of that sanction would depend on the nature of the failure to register in time.

That could include naming directors publicly, or for the more persistent offenders, who for example have failed to register any of their 30 companies, the registry could go to the Royal Court for a disqualification order as the director would have failed to adhere to their responsibilities under the Companies Law.

The registry has already had to extend the deadline for company and director registrations on two occasions from the original one of 31 October.

‘In essence, these deadlines are now redundant because there is an annual validation deadline of 31 January,’ said Mr Whiteley.