TV star battles £1m property 'firesale'

TV star battles £1m property 'firesale'




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After a property portfolio consisting of almost 30 homes collapsed, a former star of Britain’s Got Talent (BGT), Liam Collins, has pleaded with a judge to grant an individual voluntary agreement (IVA) instead of bankruptcy.

Mr Collins, who started a property business alongside his cousin David Bones Jnr, is appealing to a Tyneside judge after his company suffered from the property market crash.

Most famous for his stint on BGT, he has recently taken to the streets of Newcastle with a ‘Faces of Disco’ act in an effort to raise money for an Olympic bobsleigh team. However, he is now faced with the prospect of bankruptcy after he and his cousin offered creditors promissory notes on their investments against their own homes.

He told the Chronicle Live: “We had about 30 properties that we owned between 2002 and 2006 when the market was good.

“We borrowed money to buy properties to let them in student areas, but eventually the lending was withdrawn and the market crashed.”

The company ended up having almost £1 million of investments to pay back, after they offered a personal guarantee to investors.

Mr Collins reportedly pleaded with the authorities to refrain from carrying out a “firesale” of properties because of the risk that this would negatively impact on people’s investments in his firm.

Rather than risk bankruptcy, he wants to present a formal repayment proposal to creditors in the form of an IVA. Although 87 per cent of the company’s investors have, in principle, agreed to the IVA scheme, according to the Chronicle there are a group of investors who do not want to enter into this type of scheme.

Mr Collins added, “We’ve made big mistakes in business but we’ve not defrauded anyone. We can understand why people are irate but there’s no logic or common sense for people to file for bankruptcy rather than an IVA.

“If it takes me 50 years of dancing then I’ll pay back the money. We are incredibly sorry.”

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