Katie Price could be arrested for missing bankruptcy hearings, High Court told
The former glamour model was due to face questions about her finances in court on Friday but did not attend.
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Katie Price could face arrest if she continues to miss hearings over her bankruptcy without a reasonable excuse, the High Court has been told.
The former glamour model, who was declared bankrupt in November 2019 and again in March this year, was due to face questions about her finances before a specialist bankruptcy court in London on Friday.
But the court was told that she had provided evidence saying she could not attend for medical reasons less than 24 hours beforehand, which a judge described as “scanty”.
Barristers for the trustees of Ms Price’s first bankruptcy asked the judge to order her attendance at a future hearing and said she should be “on notice” that she could be arrested if she did not attend.
The respondent should be in no doubt that any future non-attendance without a reasonable excuse will constitute contempt of court and necessitate an application for a warrant for her arrest
Darragh Connell, representing the trustees, told the court: “It is important that she is on notice of the fact that this is a possibility.”
In written submissions, he said: “The respondent should be in no doubt that any future non-attendance without a reasonable excuse will constitute contempt of court and necessitate an application for a warrant for her arrest.
“As with any other litigant, the respondent must comply with the orders of the Insolvency and Companies Court or face severe consequences.”
The court heard that Ms Price’s personal assistant had sent a statement from a consultant psychiatrist saying she had anxiety and depression, as well as other issues affecting her mental health, which meant she could not attend the hearing.
She asked for an adjournment of at least six months but was not represented in court.
Mr Connell said Ms Price had been aware of the hearing “for a considerable period of time” and her evidence “simply is not good enough”.
It is important that Ms Price is under no illusion that just like any other bankrupt, she is expected to attend unless there are reasonable reasons why she should be excused
He said: “It is clear that the evidence filed very late is of a variety that is deeply, deeply unsatisfactory and we are in a very serious situation as a consequence.
“In these circumstances, there is deep concern from the trustees that what is happening here is an attempt at the 11th hour to kick things off into the long grass and that should not be allowed to happen.”
Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Mark Mullen said “similarly brief” letters had been sent before previous court hearings which Ms Price also did not attend.
While he described the court as “sympathetic” to people with health conditions, he said: “There is a consistent pattern of last-minute adjournments being sought on the basis of scanty medical evidence.
“This can’t be allowed to drag on on such an unsatisfactory basis.”
Judge Mullen ordered that Ms Price attend the next hearing unless she gave a reasonable excuse and that she provide medical information so adjustments could be made to “facilitate” her giving evidence.
He said: “It is a fact that those who do not attend without a reasonable excuse for public examinations are likely to be arrested.
“It is important that Ms Price is under no illusion that just like any other bankrupt, she is expected to attend unless there are reasonable reasons why she should be excused.”
Ms Price’s former husband, Alex Reid, attended the hearing and made notes throughout.
At a hearing in February this year, Ms Price was ordered to pay 40% of her monthly income from the adult entertainment website OnlyFans to trustees for the next three years, in relation to her first bankruptcy.
In March, she was declared bankrupt for a second time due to an unpaid tax bill worth more than £750,000 owed to HM Revenue & Customs.
In October last year, Ms Price said she was “fed up” with being threatened with legal action and would go to prison to be “done with it all”.
Speaking to TV personality Michelle Visage on her Rule Breakers podcast, Ms Price discussed her bankruptcy and said she had recently been to court “more times than I’ve had hot dinners” and would “genuinely” not care if she was jailed.
In March 2023, Ms Price told Jeremy Vine’s Channel 5 show that people should not be “ashamed” of being declared bankrupt and she had been struggling with her mental health in recent years.
During a hearing in October 2020, Ms Price apologised to the court, saying: “I just haven’t been able to deal with these issues or in the right mental state to understand everything that has been going on.”