A 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year was told by a judge on Thursday to pay a €27,592 debt owed by a company she founded in the Midlands only two years earlier.

Judge Jacqueline Linnane heard in the Circuit Civil Court that Michelle O'Keeffe had signed a written personal guarantee for Travel Affiliate Ltd, a performance-based digital advertising company specialising in travel, which she founded in 2007.

Barrister Daniel O'Connor, counsel for AIB, told the court that Ms O'Keeffe, of Drynam Drive, Drynam Hall, Kinsealy, was a director of Travel Affiliate which was opened in Mullingar, Co Westmeath, in 2007 and was now in liquidation.

He said the bank was seeking judgment against her in the sum of €27,592 which Travel Affiliate had failed to pay on demand from the bank and for which she had provided a written personal guarantee.

Mr O’Connor told the court Travel Affiliate had gone into liquidation in October 2010 and no monies had been forwarded by the liquidator to meet or lower the debt.

Judge Linnane told Ms O’Keeffe that the fact the company she was operating had gone into liquidation did not excuse her from her personal guarantee liability.

Ms O’Keeffe said she had engaged with a personal insolvency practitioner with regard to her affairs.

Judge Linnane said she had read the papers in the case and was satisfied there was no bona fide defence to the bank’s claim. The bank was entitled to judgment and to its legal costs.

The judge said she appreciated Ms O’Keeffe was in a difficult situation and said matters might improve for her if she took steps under the personal insolvency legislation. Engaging with the bank was the best practice and some arrangement might be possible.