Property developer Conor Clarkson now faces bankruptcy as he loses €70m debt deal over forged document
An application for a personal insolvency arrangement writing off more than €70m in debts has been withdrawn after it emerged a forged document was submitted to the High Court.
The dramatic development came in a case involving well-known businessman and horse owner Conor Clarkson.
He claimed transactions recorded in his bank account totalling over €4,000 related to purchases from a computer outlet. An invoice was supplied to the court to support his story, but it emerged yesterday the invoice was not genuine.
Mr Justice Denis McDonald said the case raised serious issues and he would have to consider whether to take further action. Speaking to the Irish Independent, Mr Clarkson said: “The whole process of the High Court application has been a huge amount of pressure and sadly a mistake was made, which I accept ownership of.”
Mr Clarkson, a property developer whose horse Kicking King won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2005, had been facing questions from his main creditor, financial fund Promontoria (Arrow) Ltd, about expenditure recorded in his bank account.
This included more than €4,000 in transactions labelled ‘NCL Reservations’.
Lawyers for Promontoria queried whether the money was spent with the cruise company Norwegian Cruise Line.
But Mr Clarkson claimed the spending related to purchases from an English company, First National Computers Limited and an invoice was produced in court to support his claims.
However, it emerged yesterday an affidavit had been sworn on behalf of the computer outlet firm denying it issued any such invoice.
The affidavit was brought to the court’s attention by Promontoria’s counsel Eoin Martin.
Mr Justice McDonald said the invoice was invalid or, to use Mr Martin’s words, a forgery. The revelation prompted Mr Clarkson’s personal insolvency practitioner to withdraw the application.
The judge had been due to give a ruling on the application next February.
Instead, Mr Clarkson, with an address in Stepaside, Dublin 18, now faces the prospect of bankruptcy.
Mr Justice McDonald said the case raised serious issues for the court as debtors have an obligation to fully disclose matters relating to their finances. He said the situation went beyond a failure to disclose, that an effort had been made to mislead the court, and he would have to consider further measures.
Mr Clarkson’s debts related to investments in property made prior to the financial crash of a decade ago.
Supported by Irish Nationwide Building Society, his company Ardenhill Property invested in property in the north of England.
Following the financial crash his debts ended up in Nama and were later sold to Promontoria, an Irish affiliate of vulture fund Cerberus.
Promontoria is his largest creditor and is owed €64m.
Under the proposed personal insolvency arrangement, a lump sum payment of €100,000 would have been available to the businessman’s debtors.
It was argued this was a better deal for creditors than forcing him into bankruptcy.
Mr Clarkson told the Irish Independent he had worked “exceptionally hard with many creditors to work out the company debt position” over the past decade.
He said Nama accepted he had fully assisted it and Promontoria had, to the best of his knowledge, been satisfied with his cooperation.
“This whole episode over the last 10 years has created the most enormous pressure for me. I have tried to handle it as best I can,” he said.
“But the whole process of the personal insolvency situation, where Promontoria agreed to allow me to enter the process and then for some reason subsequently changed their mind, has had a huge effect on me.
“I worked so hard with them and for them to allow me into a process and then to unilaterally turn around has had a very, very serious effect on me.
“Sadly the net result of this is all creditors will be worse off as a result of the failure of this personal insolvency arrangement and the fact I will probably have to consider going into bankruptcy.”