Bankrupts are a tourist the UK doesn’t need
The UK has become the magnate for libel tourism and the venue where foreigners settle their divorces, oligarchs argue commercial disputes and overseas visitors come for medical care. Britain really must not become the location of choice for international bankruptcy too.
The UK has eased its insolvency laws so much that foreigners are finding it useful to go bust here rather than in the home countries where they ran up their debts. A person going bust in Britain can be back in business after just a year when some regimes rightly think that the debtors should share the pain for much longer.
So the decision by Mr Justice Deeny on Sean Quinn is to be welcomed. Quinn was once Ireland’s richest man. After the collapse of his property and business empire, he is now that country’s biggest debtor, owing more than 2 billion euros. If he had been declared bankrupt in his home country, Quinn would face 12 years of insolvency: by filing his petition over the border in Ulster his slate would have been wiped clean in just 12 months.
There are other differences between the two countries’ insolvency regimes too, not least that a UK bankruptcy would allow Quinn to keep his pension pot when the Irish proceedings would claim that asset to repay his creditors too.
Quinn claims to have operated his business from a small office in County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, but he had no UK passport (only his Irish document) and lived south of the border, where he was registered to vote. But so simple is the process of going bust in the UK, however, he was granted his petition. Luckily, Justice Deeny subsequently reversed that decision.
Now the UK parliament should consider reversing the law. We don’t have to return to the Victorian regime of debtors’ prisons but restoring a real penalty for people who don’t repay their debts would make them properly consider the risks of their venture at the outset.
January 11th, 2012 at 1:32 pm
What gives you the right to judge people in this way? You really are ignorant of the cause of many bankruptcies. Do you think entrepreneurs should be punished for having a go?
There a millions of debt slaves all over the world and you see fit to blame them for their misfortune when they are no longer able to repay the drug dealers who were once given bonuses on the size of their loan-book.
Where is your sense of empathy? I sincerely hope you never have to experience debt yourself. You have no heart, and acquit your conscience all too easily. You strike me as a coward.
@mikeriddell62
January 11th, 2012 at 9:08 pm
He was in his own country, just in a different state and jurisdiction.
January 12th, 2012 at 9:45 pm
I think Mike above has made some valid points and the man was responsible for building great businesses and creating employment for thousands of people in this country and indeed over the border.
He has also confessed to becoming too greedy which has caused him to be in the place he is now. At least he didn’t leave the country during the good times to avoid paying tax. There is worst than Quinn out there!