FORMER FINE Gael Minister Ivan Yates has been declared bankrupt inSwansea,Wales, a move which means that A.I.B. will not recover any of the €3.7 million it claims the failed bookmaker owes them.

Mr. Yates was declared bankrupt in a District Court in Swansea on August 24 (details only emerged at the weekend), just three days after the High Court in Dublin quashed AIB’s application to declare the bookmaker bankrupt.

Mr. Yates moved to Swansea in April after leaving his job as a presenter on Newstalk’s morning show.

He must now hand over all of his assets to an insolvency service in theUKwhich will liquidate them. The farm and family home may still be in jeopardy and Mr. Yates said that he would be an “economic zombie” for the next year. However, after twelve months he will be given a clean bill of financial health, a big contrast to the twelve year exile he would have face in Ireland.