A BUSINESSMAN who was once named in the Sunday Times Rich List has been declared bankrupt.
Thomas Coakley, once estimated to be worth £70 million, has been placed in sequestration after failing to pay Luxembourg-based firm Hadrian SARL.
The 50-year-old, who operates a commercial and residential property business, is also being pursued by Scots heating company Mmaxx Underfloor Heating Ltd over an alleged six-figure debt for work at his £1.5m home in Lochwinnoch, Renfrewshire.
Neil McFarlane, director of Mmaxx, said: "I imagine there are going to be a lot of people affected by this, a lot of people will lose money.
"We've been chasing Mr Coakley for more than £100,000 for five years now and I always suspected there might be nothing there to pursue.
"Thankfully our business has managed to survive without the cash but there may be others out there who are not as lucky."
Mr McFarlane recently lodged a legal action against Mr Coakley at Airdrie Sheriff Court seeking payment of the money.
However, Mr Coakley, whose address was given as Bothwell, South Lanarkshire, on the bankruptcy extract, denies that he owes the money.
Accountancy firm PriceWaterhouseCooper has been appointed as trustee in Mr Coakley's bankruptcy case.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article