According to its website, Companies House is a government agency in the UK that,
Companies House incorporates and dissolves limited companies, registers the information companies are legally required to supply, and makes that information available to the public.
In February 2009, Companies House intended to update its registry to indicate that Taylor & Son, Ltd. had filed for bankruptcy, but instead it updated the registry for Taylor & Sons, Ltd., an engineering firm that was not, in fact, in any financial distress.
However, this simple mistake quickly led to financial problems for the firm, ultimately pushing it into bankruptcy.
According to a Telegraph story about a lawsuit filed by Taylor & Sons, Ltd., against Companies House,
The information was wrongly recorded on the companies register on February 20 and was corrected three days later on February 23.
But Mr Freedman said that was already too late, as it had already got around that the company was in trouble and the record remained elsewhere.
Despite attempts to reassure customers and suppliers, Taylor & Sons Ltd, which employed more than 250 people, was hit hard.
It lost its best customer in Tata Steel, which had provided it with a £400,000-a-month income.
And contracts to construct three Royal National Lifeboat Institute stations never materialised, costing £3m in lost business.
Paging Terry Gilliam…