Lawrence Dallaglio’s bankruptcy hell rumbles on: England rugby legend, 53, faces new insolvency hearing over £500,000 tax bill months after selling marital home for £2.4m amid bitter divorce battle
England rugby legend Lawrence Dallaglio’s bankruptcy has been extended for three months, while he faces a new insolvency hearing over a £500,000 tax bill.
The 2003 World Cup winner was declared bankrupt last year after he and his wife of almost 20 years, Alice, divorced amid accusations of infidelity on both sides.
It ended with Dallaglio being forced into selling their family home for £2.4 million last May – after it had originally gone on the market for £3.3 million months earlier.
The day after the sale, Dallaglio was declared bankrupt and was ordered to hand over his share of the proceeds to pay off an overdrawn directors loan of more than £366,500.
Typically, restrictions imposed by bankruptcy end after 12 months in England and Wales but they can be extended by a judge.
The Telegraph reported that the joint trustee of Dallaglio’s bankruptcy made an application to the High Court in April to extend restrictions for a further three months.
England legend Lawrence Dallaglio’s bankruptcy has been extended for three months, as he faces a new insolvency hearing
Dallaglio has been bankrupt after he and his long-term wife Alice divorced last year
‘This was agreed by mutual consent while I continue to work with my trustee in bankruptcy in dealing with my estate,’ Dallaglio told the Telegraph.
Documents published in December revealed Dallaglio owed a further £423,570 in overdrawn director’s loans for his failed sports company Lawrence Dallaglio Ltd.
Dallaglio, who spent all of his club career with Wasps, also owes more than £60,000 to liquidators – more than two years after they were appointed.
There have also been claims totalling about £350,000 and £61,000 by HM Revenue & Customs and two other creditors.
Dallaglio had originally hoped to pocket £3.3 million from the sale of the idyllic four-bedroom property in Richmond, which had been his home for nearly 25 years after purchasing it at the height of his career.
But, as the Daily Mail revealed in June, he sold the house at a knockdown price – losing out on £600,000 – because of the desperate state of his financial affairs. It was snapped up by a young footballer who plays in the Premier League.
While making a healthy profit on the sale of the property, which Dallaglio bought for £925,000 in 2001, it emerged during an insolvency court hearing that the equity in the home was only around £1.2million.
The hearing was triggered by Dallaglio’s wife Alice, who was seeking an ‘urgent’ order allowing the immediate sale of the house. She was said to have done so in the hope of staving off the imminent threat of Dallaglio’s financial ruin.
Dallaglio was part of the England side that won the 2003 World Cup and earned 85 caps
Despite the sale going through, the bid failed and Dallaglio was declared bankrupt after one of his creditors secured the order.
It came two years after the sportsman, who now works as a TV pundit, narrowly avoided going bust following a petition by HMRC over an unpaid £700,000 tax bill.
During proceedings his financial woes were laid bare after it was revealed his sports business, which he set up the year he became England captain in 1997, owed cash to a string of creditors.
To prevent the firm being wound up by a court order, Dallaglio agreed to an ‘individual voluntary agreement’ to pay off his debts.
The rugby star and his wife, who he married in a romantic ceremony at Lake Como in 2005, sold their home just months after appearing at the Central Family Court in Holborn to finalise the end of their marriage.
The Daily Mail reported in February that Dallaglio had settled into a recently refurbished rented house in a residential street near St Albans, Hertfordshire, with his new partner.
