DRAGON'S Den star Duncan Bannatyne has dropped off Britain's Rich List after becoming locked in a battle to pay off £122 million of debts.
The Scots entrepreneur and philanthropist is facing demands to pay off the money, which he borrowed from the now collapsed Anglo Irish Bank.
The health club tycoon, who was raised in Clydebank, said his company, Bannatyne Fitness, was being strangled by the dispute and admitted he was going through a "very tense time".
He borrowed the money to buy 24 fitness clubs from the Hilton Group in 2004 in an expansion of his empire. However, the bank was nationalised by the Irish Government in 2009 and liquidators KPMG were called in earlier this year to recover debts.
Bannatyne, 64, said he had already spent £500,000 hiring a team of legal and financial experts to resolve the matter.
He said: "Everything else is on hold until I sort this out. It's a very tense period for me at the moment and is taking up all my time.
"I have spent half-a-million pounds trying to sort my affairs out. That's a lot of people to pay.
"It's very frustrating. I have offered a sum to reduce the debt but it has been refused. At the moment, I feel my company is being strangled."
Bannatyne also took to Twitter yesterday to criticise the Irish Government for refusing his offers to pay off part of the loan.
He tweeted: "Amazingly the Irish government has turned down 100p in the pound for some of my companies' debt. Why would any sane person do that? The people of Ireland should know their government is turning down offers of one pound in the pound for part repayment of debt."
The latest financial setback for Bannatyne, who once had an estimated fortune of £365m, comes after a costly divorce from his second wife, Joanna McCue, last year. The businessman suffered a stress attack last year that he blamed on the acrimonious split. He insisted his financial woes would not affect his Dragon's Den investments and revealed he is writing a book about his troubles.
He added: "I am absolutely not looking to invest in any new projects for Bannatyne Fitness at the moment, but that is independent to my investments on Dragons' Den. In fact, I'm bringing out another book this October, which I'm calling, Riding The Storm."
Philip Beresford, who compiles the Sunday Times Rich List, said Bannatyne's problems had seen him drop off the list of Britain's wealthiest people.
He said: "When I looked at his accounts I could not find enough assets to justify his inclusion."
Bannatyne also donates a significant amount of money to charity and in 2008 pledged to give away his then £300m fortune to good causes before he dies.
His Bannatyne Foundation already helps youngsters in Romania, Malawi, Colombia and the UK, with a project in Glasgow's Easterhouse also among those to have benefited.
In 2008, he said: "I want to give away almost all of my fortune. At the moment that stands at £310m but I want to give away half a billion. My businesses are doing very well and are continuing to make profits."
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