PROPERTY DEVELOPER John Fleming has filed for bankruptcy to a British court, which will allow him to emerge from the process after a year, compared with up to 12 years under the Irish system.

The Cork developer, whose construction and investment firms owe €1 billion to their banks, is the first of Ireland’s major developers to make such a move.

A receiver is now in control of Mr Fleming’s finances, following a declaration of bankruptcy in an Essex court. The petition gives the address of Mr Fleming and his wife as Billericay in Essex, England.

Under English bankruptcy legislation, people who are not permanently resident in the country can petition for bankruptcy once they have had residential or business connections in England or Wales in the previous three years.

Mr Fleming’s creditors will have to make a claim for sums owed through the receiver.

The developer, who is from Bandon, Co Cork, set up his building company in the mid-1970s, building houses in west Cork. In the 1990s, he moved into buying land and building retail and industrial parks and he later got involved in the overcrowded hotels industry.

Mr Fleming joined the list of financially troubled Irish developers last year when ACCBank sought to have one of his companies put into receivership over an unpaid loan on a site in Sandyford, Co Dublin. Several firms within Mr Fleming’s group of companies subsequently went into liquidation.

Meanwhile, in July, AIB secured a €25.9 million summary judgment order against Mr Fleming.