Collapsed E-Clear £89million in debt

E-CLEAR – the company linked to the demise of Scottish budget airline Flyglobespan – owed £89million to unsecured creditors after its own collapse, according to the credit-card processor’s former chief executive.

Elias Elia’s figure is set out in a statement of affairs released by Companies House yesterday.

E-Clear’s administrators have registered creditor claims of about £82million, but this does not include £35million said to be owed to Flyglobespan. A spokeswoman for BDO, the accountant handling E-Clear’s messy finances, said the administrators for Flyglobespan had yet to submit their claim.

Flyglobespan and parent Globespan Group collapsed in December, leaving thousands of passengers stranded and about 100,000 other people with worthless bookings.

About 550 employees of the airline lost their jobs.

A statement of Globespan’s affairs drawn up by its former directors highlighted more than £32million of assets, but unsecured creditors are owed nearly £71million.

People who lost out financially with the demise of Globespan will find out later this month what progress has been made by administrators from professional service firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. Creditor meetings are due to be held on Tuesday, March 23, in Edinburgh.

E-Clear went into administration in January, since when BDO has been trying to establish precisely what it owed and how much money – if any – is left for creditors.