Directors, and sometimes their accountants, often forget that a company must have sufficient profit and loss account reserves before it may a dividend. If it does not do so then the dividend is regarded as unauthorised. Usually this is only picked up when a company goes into liquidation.
The liquidator will then ask the shareholder/director to repay the dividend to the company. Usually the amount to be repaid will be the difference between the reserves and the dividend actually paid. It is again, worthwhile taking a careful look at the reserves figure. For example, are there credits in the balance sheet that should have been written off, thereby increasing the reserves figure.