Fallen property tycoon Mark Harris has launched a legal bid to have his bankruptcy quashed due to “incompetent” serving of his sequestration papers.
A Dundee sheriff has remitted his application to the Court of Session in Edinburgh for consideration and a further hearing will be held at Dundee Sheriff Court once the higher authority has given its ruling.
Harris, 43, who is also facing prosecution on road traffic matters after allegedly leading police on a high-speed chase before crashing his car into the wall of a house in Longforgan, was made bankrupt in May last year following a court battle with the Allied Irish Bank, which succeeded with a petition for sequestration against him for more than £300,000.
At the time he vowed to fight the decision in the Court of Session, saying he hoped that “commonsense will prevail”.
The decision to grant sequestration was taken by Sheriff Tom Hughes at the civil court in Dundee.
Lawyers for Harris later presented an application against AIB Group UK PLC, Gerard Patrick Crampsey (Glasgow-based trustee appointed to Harris’ estate) and insolvency practitioners Accountant in Bankruptcy for the Recall of Sequestration.
A debate was held last month over a plea-in-law from AIB that challenged the relevancy of the application.
Sheriff Alastair Brown heard the debate, during which Harris averred that the petition for sequestration proceeded on the basis that he was apparently unaware of the service of sequestration papers in February last year.
Lawyers for Harris stated that it wasn’t until May 9 that reference was made to him of the execution of the charge, evidence of which was produced in court during last month’s debate.
Harris stated therefore that the service of the charge was incompetent and said that the respondents “knew where he was to be found”.
As a result, he said the sequestration order should be recalled.
AIB stated that application was not relevant and said for a sequestration to be recalled it firstly had to be reduced.
Sheriff Brown agreed and continued the hearing to a later date to allow Harris to make an application to the court of session, and to determine further procedure.
In May last year, Harris’s lawyer Ross Taylor said there was not enough evidence to suggest that court officers had tried to contact his client.
He said: “There is nothing that I can see to vouch for the fact that inquiries were made as to where he was.”
And, despite failing to pay the demand for payment to AIB within the allowed time limit of 14 days, Harris said he would challenge the decision.
He told reporters: “We are going to appeal it and go for an interim interdict against the order.
“If I had had the charge of payment, I would have said AIB weren’t entitled to the money and I would have challenged it.”
He continued: “We were prepared for the fact that it was an uphill struggle with the fact there was an expired charge for payment, so it hasn’t come as any surprise that sequestration was granted.”
Harris did not appear in person at the court yesterday, but said he was confident that he could successfully challenge the decision.
He said: “I am very confident that the court of session will apply the fairness test.”
It is understood the action is being taken against Harris through his position as director of West Court Developments, formerly known as Top Rowan Developments (Dundee) Ltd.