A controversial Scottish electronics entrepreneur will come under courtroom scrutiny next month in an action involving liquidators seeking the recovery of £3 million dividends paid by a company he closed in 2007.

Sam Russell and two other former directors of the Simclar Ayrshire business are named in an action launched by liquidators who took control after the company's operations were shut down with the loss of 420 jobs.

Experts from PricewaterhouseCoopers have been pursuing the action since 2009. They have challenged the lawfulness of a £3m dividend declared by the firm, payable to the parent Simclar Group, in June 2006. The closure of Simclar plants in Kilwinning and Irvine months later dealt a body blow to the local economy.

After two years of procedural wrangling the case will finally come to a head next month.

Following a hearing in the Court of Session yesterday, Lord Hodge said the case could proceed to the stage in which evidence will be considered by the court.

The court was told two partners in Grant Thornton, Robert Hannah and Toby Rintoul, have refused requests to provide statements. The accountancy firm audited the Simclar Group accounts for the years from 2006 to 2009, the last it has filed.

Lord Hodge has allowed 10 days for a proof before answer during which Mr Russell's account of events will be put under the microscope.

This may be a challenging experience for a man who was lauded as one of Scotland's entrepreneurial success stories. After starting Simclar in his garage in Fife in 1976 Mr Russell built the company into a group with operations in the Americas and China.

However, in June last year he placed Simclar Group into administration with the loss of 138 jobs at its plant in Dunfermline.

Two months later Mr Russell was criticised by John Park, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, for spurning a £10,000 offer from Scottish Enterprise to fund work on a survival plan in May.

But Mr Russell said: "They could not have done anything; they certainly could not have saved jobs. It was so far down the line when they came in."

He claimed the firm had provided huge benefits for parts of Scotland. Ian Durie and Stephen Donnelly, formerly directors of Simclar Ayrshire and Simclar Group, are also defenders in the liquidators' action.

In the company's accounts for 2009, Simclar Group said: "The company and certain of its directors are the subject of a claim by the liquidators of Simclar (Ayrshire). This claim is being defended vigorously."

A spokeswoman for Grant Thornton said: "The firm as a matter of policy does not comment on third party litigation matters."

Mr Russell did not respond to a telephone call made to his home seeking comment.