Galway builder back in business in UK despite €12m Irish collapse

Date Published: 06-Apr-2011

A Galway builder formed a new construction company in England – which specialises in rail contracts – less than three months after his luxury homes development business here collapsed with debts of €12 million.

And the Connacht Tribune has learned that Tom McEvaddy Jr, whose Nexus Homes company went into liquidation in September 2009, is facing a High Court action next month to have him restricted from acting as a director of any Irish company for a period of five years.

He now lives in a €1m detached house around 2.5km from the iconic Wembley Stadium in London.

The collapse of the Galway-based Tom McEvaddy Property Company Ltd (Nexus Homes) in September 2009, saw more than 180 unsecured creditors – who effectively have no chance of ever being paid – owed just under €4m, while Mr McEvaddy himself is owed €7.1m in director’s loans.

Architects, engineers, electricians and electrical suppliers, plasterers, landscapers and builders were among those ‘hit’ for individual amounts ranging up to €320,000 – many of whose businesses since faced serious financial difficulties as a result.

He told creditors when he wound up Nexus: “Whilst it’s of little consolation to those of you who will not get paid as a result of the company’s collapse, I am now in a position where I personally owe the banks many, many millions, with no prospect of repaying that money.”

The 40 year-old developer – who is also a director of Galway United Football Club – and his wife Lorraine went on to set up Brontë Construction in London in December 2009.

The couple, who have dual Irish and British citizenship and had been living between two properties on Taylor’s Hill – still boasting the highest property prices in Galway – have now listed a home address in the affluent Wembley Park area of Brent in Middlesex.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.