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Belfast High Court rejects bankruptcy claims of an Irish Republican businessman (4 March 2013)

Date: 04/03/2013
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, Belfast High Court rejects bankruptcy claims of an Irish Republican businessman

A Wicklow based property developer Sean McCann who had tried to get a bankruptcy order in NI was refused by the Belfast High Court after finding that the McCann had not moved his business interests to Northern Ireland.
Mr McCann has debts of more than 7m Euros (£6m) in Republic of Ireland but was bankrupted north of the border over £1,400 rent arrears.
Bankruptcy usually lasts one year in NI compared to 12 years in the Republic.
Mr McCann was bankrupted in Belfast in August 2012, prompting a challenge from ACC bank.
The bank had been pursuing him through the Dublin courts over an alleged personal guarantee he gave as director of a Killorglin Investments Ltd on a 5.5m Euros (£4.7m) company loan in 2006.
The loan related to a planned development of more than 11 acres of land in Killorglin, County Kerry.
The bank challenged the bankruptcy on the grounds that Mr McCann’s main business interests were still in the Republic which made him ineligible for a Northern Ireland bankruptcy.
The court found that Mr McCann was only having a very fragile link to the jurisdiction of Northern Ireland and had in fact not moved any of his business or professional interest to Northern Ireland as he claimed.
The court added that there was no evidence which showed that he had a purposeful link to the Northern Ireland while claiming that he lived in the Botanic area of Belfast which was his new home.
The person who presented the petition to bankrupt Mr McCann was also described as at "very least" an acquaintance of his, if not a friend.
However the bankruptcy was overturned on two procedural grounds: that it was heard on a 'fast track' basis when it should not have been and that full evidence had not been heard from all relevant parties, meaning the court did not have the jurisdiction to make the order.
Mr McCann now faces being made bankrupt in the Republic.
A string of Republic of Ireland businessmen have been made bankrupt in the UK in what has become known as bankruptcy tourism.

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