LOCAL businessman Patrick Martin and his wife Margaret were declared bankrupt at a hearing in Cardiff County Court last week following the bankruptcy of their son Alex Martin earlier this month.

At 3.12pm on Thursday, November 27, Judge Andrew Keyser QC accepted the petition from Oasis Communication Services and others to declare Mr and Mrs Martin bankrupt, as they were deemed to be partners in the company Martins Jewellers.

The opposition to the bankruptcy petitions, Paul Caldicot, solicitor for the Martins, claimed that there was not substantial evidence to show that Patrick and Margaret Martin were 'partners' in the business, but the counsel for the bankruptcy declared that documentation of bank statement and accounts, insurance policies and mastheads of paperwork showed clearly that the Martins were partners, albeit silent partners, in the business.

Following this, Mr Caldicot from Blake Morgan, asked the court for an adjournment, on the basis that the hearing had been held too soon for them to get the necessary information for the Martins to make their case that they were not partners in the business.

He told the court that the hearing had brought forward from its original date of December 17, the couple, who were vulnerable, elderly and frail, had not been given the necessary time to put together their opposition to the bankruptcy petition

Judge Keyser, following argument from Paul French, the counsel proposing the bankruptcy petition, said that as items had been removed from the Martins' property earlier last month, there was an indicated risk that more assets might be removed from the home and it was necessary for the procedures to be closed on the day.

The court was told that several items, including a valuable painting had been taken from the house ahead of an inventory of the assets being made, and despite the claims that the Martins were not involved in the removals, the fact that no authorities had been alerted to the possible burglary highlighted the risk that would be created by postponing the hearing any further.

Therefore Judge Keyser made the decision to accept the bankruptcy petitions and the petitions to wind down the business Martins Jewellers.

Now the Martins' assets will be taken over by an insolvency practitioner which will act as a trustee to sell them and pay the £6million Mr Alex Martin and the company Martins Jewellers owes to the various creditors.

Mr Caldicot said after the decision that he was saddened by the outcome of the hearing and feared that the frail and elderly couple would lose all that they had, including their home, to pay the various creditors, leaving them vulnerable.