Receiver cleared to seek possession of Trevor White’s family home

Publisher and food critic Trevor White has pulled out of moves to seek a personal insolvency arrangement to deal with his debts, the High Court has heard.

It means a fund-appointed receiver's application to take possession of Mr White's family home in Mountpleasant Square, Ranelagh, Dublin, valued at about €1.3 million, can proceed against him and other members of his family.

Mr White had obtained a protective certificate – a precursor to a personal insolvency arrangement – from the Circuit Court.

However, at the High Court on Friday, Rossa Fanning SC, for the receiver and fund, said Mr White has consented to withdraw the certificate, and the Circuit Court would be so informed next Tuesday.

His protective cert application arose out of separate proceedings relating to €5.6 million in debts against himself, his wife, cookbook author Susan Jane White, and Mr White's parents, Peter and Alicia White.

Those proceedings mainly arose out of an alleged breach of a settlement agreement entered into in May 2017 in relation to a number of loan facilities advanced in 2005.

Trust

The loans were from Bank of Scotland Ireland to Peter, Alicia and Trevor White, to a trust into which ownership of the house was put, and a company, Dublin Land Securities, Wellington Road, Dublin.

The trustees of the trust, the Mountpleasant Settlement, are Trevor White and his parents.

The loans were later bought by Feniton Property Finance.

Feniton claimed they breached the 2017 settlement because they did not make a promised payment of €4 million and, as a result, it appointed Ken Tyrrell as receiver and issued proceedings.

A central issue in the case was the Mountpleasant Square house where Trevor and Susan Jane White live with their two children.

Feniton’s security over the property is a first-ranking deed of mortgage created by the trustees of the Mountpleasant Settlement.