The liabilities owed by the owner of a trust services firm which went into liquidation in 2020 have been set out in a judgment handed down in the high court.

Judge of appeal Anthony Cross KC said the case revealed a ‘complex picture of failure to both abide by and to enforce orders of this court’.

Montpelier (Trust and Corporate) Services Ltd was wound up by the high court in the public interest in 2020, Gordon Wilson having been appointed as receiver and manager the previous year.

Regulator the Financial Services Authority had accused Montpelier of diverting millions of pounds of client money.

Montpelier’s managing director and beneficial owner was island resident Edward Watkin Gittins.

In his judgment, Deemster Cross described him as ‘someone who repeatedly fails to honour his obligations to the court which is reflected in his failure to honour obligations elsewhere’.

He said Mr Gittins’s conduct in relation to costs ordered in 2022 and 2024, amounting to more than £240,000, demonstrated a ‘contempt’ for orders of the court.

The latest judgment concerns an order for costs of £52,451 to be paid to the company in liquidation. Mr Gittins has sought £35,000 to be stayed but agreed the balance was payable.

But the judge of appeal heard there had been a failure to pay £192,000 ordered by the same court.

And the liabilities didn’t end there.

The court heard that Mr Gittins owed £21,672.87 to Manx Utilities, there is a joint loan outstanding to the Royal Bank of Scotland in the sum of £938,844 and he owed a company £30,000 for fees to his own legal counsel.

He owed the Assessor of Income Tax no less than £183,687, the Financial Services Authority £12,490 and was indebted to Douglas Borough Council to a total of £7,848 in respect of 59 parking fines.

Nevertheless, Mr Gittins professed to be a wealthy man whose assets exceeded his liabilities and who assured the Deemster in writing that he could lay his hands on the £192,000 ordered by the court.

Among his assets are his £7m home in the island, Ballavale mansion, a £20,000 Mercedes Benz 380 SL and an island-based company which bought a stud in the Republic of Ireland in 2009 which he believes to be worth Euro 4-5m.

But the judge of appeal said Mr Gittins’ claim to wealth was ‘barely borne out’ by his failure to pay the £17,451 by the due date and he had sought extra time to pay by either borrowing and/or pawning family treasures. ‘These are not the actions of a rich man,’ said the Deemster who ruled there was no good reason not to impose the substantive orders set out.

He gave the appellant 14 days to apply to the Privy Council if he wished to appeal the rulings.