An application to have well-known businessman Philip Marley declared bankrupt has opened before the High Court.

Malachy Stephens wants Mr Marley, founder of Ely Properties, adjudicated a bankrupt over failure to satisfy a judgment of €37,142 obtained against the businessman at Dublin Circuit Court in July 2011.

In proceedings before Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne aimed at having the bankruptcy petition struck out, Mr Marley disputes the debt claimed and also claims Ireland is not his main centre of business interests.

Mr Stephens claims that, in 2004, he had leased an apartment of his at Railway Street/Beaver Street, Dublin, for 10 years to Student Accommodation Services, a company of Mr Marley's.

He says the annual rent on the apartment was €15,000 but he only received half the rent due between March and June of 2009 and no payments from August of that year.

Personal guarantees
Mr Stephens, Presentation House, Harbour Street, Mullingar, Co Westmeath, sued on foot of personal guarantees given by Mr Marley on the company's obligations to the landlords.

He claims Mr Marley is domiciled in Ireland and either he or his company withheld rents due and owing to him. He obtained a judgment against Mr Marley and wants the court to adjudge him bankrupt due to failure to satisfy that.

Cross-examined yesterday by counsel for Mr Stephens, Mr Marley denied he resides in or conducts business from here. He left Ireland in 2010 following the break-up of his marriage and because he “could not make any money here” following the collapse of the property market.

He said he lives in and conducts his business interests from London. He has a house in Chelsea, which he shared with his girlfriend and business partner, US reality TV star Dana Wilkey.

He works as a consultant involved in a number of different projects and also spends time in Gibraltar and the US. He spends just a few days in Ireland per month to visit his children when he stays “in the Shelbourne Hotel”.

He was unsure exactly how much time he spent in each location and would need his PA to provide him with that sort of information as he was just “that kind of a guy”.

'No debt'
Asked about the rents for Mr Stephens's apartment, he said occupancy rates fell when the property market crashed, there was "no debt" owing to Mr Stephens. He was opposing the petition as "a matter of principle".

He said he negotiated a deal with Mr Stephens in 2012 after entering into an Individual Voluntary Arrangement in the UK. That agreement involved the lease on the apartment being assigned to a separate UK-based firm Space Student Living Ltd so Mr Stephens could recoup some funds, he said.

While Mr Stephens claimed it was never a term of that deal that Mr Marley be released from his guarantee, Mr Marley argued the deal extinguished any personal guarantee debt he had to Mr Stephens.

Mr Marley also told the court that he left Space Student Living, which was wound up earlier this year, following disagreements with other parties in the firm.

The hearing will resume later this week.