Snowie attempts to halt court case
Claims he is not fit enough to face action
Troubled tycoon Euan Snowie has failed in a bid to put off court action to ban him from running a limited company – despite claims he is too unwell to sit still.
Government lawyers are trying to have him disqualified from holding office as a director of any limited company, arguing he is “not a fit and proper person” to do so.
They allege that one of his former waste businesses was mismanaged on his watch.
Stirling Sheriff Court has been told that Snowie, 50, intends to conduct his defence in person at the planned civil action scheduled to be heard at the court on Friday.
But solicitor Audrey McGhee, appearing for him at a preliminary hearing yesterday (Tuesday) said she had been informed that Snowie was “seriously unwell”, suffering from deep vein thrombosis “and other serious health issues”.
She presented a letter from Snowie’s GP saying the businessman’s condition would preclude him from “sitting immobile for a long period of time”.
Rejecting Mrs McGhee’s motion to discharge Friday’s hearing – known as a proof – Sheriff Simon Collins retorted: “He wouldn’t have to sit immobile for a long period of time – reasonable adjustments can be made.
“This letter does not sufficiently justify discharge of the proof.”
Lawyers for HM’s Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy opposed Mrs McGhee’s motion.
Mrs McGhee said: “It is likely that on Friday a further motion will be made to discharge the proof.”
The hearing, when it does take place, is estimated to take a full day.
A firm belonging to the Snowie family, was paid £38 million in 2001 for the disposal of millions of animal carcasses following the nationwide foot–and–mouth outbreak. It was sold four years later for £40 million,
Last year joint administrators appointed to handle the affairs of one of Mr Snowie’s companies, Snowie Solutions Ltd, revealed it had debts of more than £12 million.
Snowie Solutions was incorporated in May, 2001, and involved in the development and letting of commercial and residential property in the Stirling area.
It was revealed earlier this month Snowie was facing eviction from his home on the Boquhan Estate, near Kippen.
A decree was granted at Stirling Sheriff Court in October, formalising his eviction.
But he is battling to remain at Boquhan House, his sevenbedroom mansion at the centre of the 70-acre estate.
He told a reporter: “We are recalling the sequestration, which we are doing with our own finance, and that’s the truth.
“We’ve raised over £2.5 million already to recall it. I sold a farm and I sold two areas of land. So it’s done.”
Mr Snowie was reported as saying he had a written agreement with his administrator and he denied he was about to lose his home.
He said he was paying back the money he owed and also making a claim against a bank which he alleged had sold him “fraudulent business loans to a total of £7 to £8 million”.
He wouldn’t have to sit immobile for a long period of time