Former Rangers captain Ferguson declared bankrupt

Ex-rangers star Barry Ferguson has been made bankrupt with debts totalling more than £1.4 million.

The former Scotland captain was declared insolvent after failing to settle large bills thought to be owed to the taxman.

He is one of a number of former Ibrox stars who faced paying back money they had received in Employee Benefit Trusts (EBTS) after Rangers lost a battle with HMRC at the Supreme Court earlier this month.

Ferguson, 39, who recently stepped down as manager of Clyde, received £2.5m in EBT payments.

He also invested in a film production partnership called Eclipse which has targeted by HMRC after being ruled to be a tax avoidance scheme.

Ferguson captained Rangers to a host of honours. He also had spells in the English Premier League with Blackburn Rovers and Birmingham City.

He applied for his own bankruptcy after running up debts of £1,425,633 and it was approved by the Accountant In Bankruptcy, Scotland’s insolvency service, earlier this month.

A bankruptcy trustee, Maureen Leslie of Glasgow-based insolvency specialists MLM Solutions, has been appointed to take control of his assets and try to recover money owed to creditors.

Ferguson, who lives in a gated mansion near Larkhall, Lanarkshire, has declared that he has only £3,000 worth of assets available to help pay off his creditors.

The so-called Rangers “big tax case” centred on the use of EBTS. More than £47m was paid to players, managers and directors between 2001 and 2010 in tax-free loans.

Earlier this month judges found that “loans” paid to players and staff were in fact taxable earnings, in a decision that brought to a close legal proceedings that have dragged on for years.

HMRC said the ruling proved the EBT scheme was “contrived” in that it presented payments as “loans” rather than earnings, amounting to “tax avoidance”.

Ferguson was previously listed as a director with Eclipse Film Partners No9, a scheme which allowed investors the opportunity to claim tax relief through investing in the production of films.

In April last year, the Supreme Court upheld a judgement that one of the biggest partnerships, Eclipse 35, was a tax avoidance scheme.