More than ten years after his bankruptcy started, self-employed artist Michael Craig Scott, also known as Makoure Scott, remains bankrupt with a discharge refused following his abject failure to engage with both Insolvency Service and the courts. Details emerged of Scott wrongly pocketing whilst bankrupt a USD100,000 refund from Virgin Galactic, his deposit for a commercial space flight.
The High Court was told Scott was bankrupted by Bank of New Zealand in 2012 after sale of his Carey’s Bay property in Dunedin left a shortfall of some $483,000 owed the Bank. He has apparently lived overseas since; in the United Kingdom and more recently Australia. Creditor claims in his bankruptcy totalled $673,100; personal property and paintings left behind in Dunedin raised $3,114 at an Insolvency Service auction.
Because he failed to file with Insolvency Service a statement of financial position, the three year period for automatic discharge from bankruptcy never started running.
In 2022, whilst in Australia, Mr Scott applied to the High Court for a bankruptcy discharge, saying he was not going to return to New Zealand while still bankrupt. He failed to attend the New Zealand court hearing by audio-visual link. He claimed to have no assets. Discharge was refused.
Associate judge Paulsen said that creditors received no distribution in the bankruptcy, that Scott had failed to provide information to Insolvency Service as required and that there was evidence of assets being hidden from Insolvency Service, in particular his status as beneficiary of a family trust and a USD100,000 Virgin Galactic refund.
Insolvency Service told the court Mr Scott did provide some financial information in March 2021 such that an automatic discharge from bankruptcy will operate from March 2024.
Scott v. Bank of New Zealand – High Court (5.05.23)
23.060