THE man who has represented a £150 million scheme for Bournemouth town centre has in fact been made bankrupt three times, it has emerged.

Former Bournemouth councillor and planning agent Anthony Ramsden-Geary was made bankrupt on Monday along with his wife Harriet.

On Friday, a court refused his application to delay the appointment of a receiver.

Mr Ramsden-Geary said: “What we’re now looking at today and the early part of next week is whether we can prepare an application to annul the bankruptcy and to pay everybody back.”

It had been thought that was the second time he had been made bankrupt.

But records published in The London Gazette on October 8, 1993, show that Mr Ramsden-Geary, then of Garden Lane, Verwood, was made bankrupt on October 1, 1993, before he was a public figure as a councillor in Bournemouth.

As reported in the Daily Echo, the latest order made against Mr Ramsden-Geary this week relates to unpaid rent on a property in Western Road, Branksome Park, Poole, believed to total around £13,000.

District Judge Willis made the order at Bournemouth's County Court after hearing from Petitioner Gary Williams, the owner of the Western Road property.

The court confirmed that the order was made.

Mr Ramsden-Geary appeared in front of councillors later the same day to speak in favour of the £150 million scheme for a hotel, apartment and leisure complex on the former Winter Gardens site.

They threw the scheme out unanimously, despite a recommendation from planning officers to approve it.

Mr Ramsden-Geary said he was no longer representing the Winter Gardens scheme or the developer, APB Park. Mr Ramsden-Geary, formerly Cllr Tony Ramsden, resigned from Bournemouth council in 2003 after being declared bankrupt. On that occasion the order related to a shop he ran in Poole town centre and a dispute with shop-fitters.

Of his three bankruptcies, he said: “They’re all very different circumstances and over a very long period and the court no longer recognises the first one because of the time scale.”

SEPTEMBER COURT DATE

MR Ramsden-Geary and his wife are due to appear at Bournemouth Crown Court for trial on a number of charges on September 2.

Mr Ramsden-Geary faces two charges of acting as a director while an undisclosed bankrupt, two of re-using a prohibited company name, one of a bankrupt obtaining credit and one of a bankrupt making a material omission on a statement.

Mrs Ramsden-Geary is accused of two counts of acting as a director while an undisclosed bankrupt, one of re-using a prohibited name and one of making a material omission in a statement.

He said his first bankruptcy was down to overspending on credit cards as a young man.