paying it off that is.

After 25 years of building a construction company, real estate holdings and a chain of four laundromats he ran into a terrifying debt load of $2.3 million in 1994 and had about 35 creditors knocking at his door.

At one time Mr. Davis was even thrown in Hamilton jail for a couple of hours because of his debt. Instead of going into bankruptcy Mr. Davis and his accountants persuaded creditors that a scheme of arrangement could be worked out to pay them back.

He pledges every penny will be paid off and that's exactly what he's doing now, working for a creditor's trust which holds all his remaining assets. It might have been easier to declare bankruptcy and get out from under the burden of debt.

"I can't look at my creditors and boldly turn my back on commitments which I helped create,'' Mr. Davis said in answer to such a suggestion. "I want to find a way in which I can honour those commitments. There is always a way to do that if you are creative.'' Mr. Davis now manages the reopened Pembroke Laundromat on Parsons Road, which has been renamed the New Park Fluff & Fold. But he is manager in name only.

All business decisions and money handling is done by a trust set up for the benefit of his creditors.

Rental income from his real estate holdings also goes into the trust.

Eventually, when the debt is paid years from now ownership will revert back to Mr. Davis. Paget Drycleaners, which was purchased amid controversy in 1997, is owned by his wife Amatullah Bashir. Mr. Davis is delivery man and does the marketing for the Paget operation.

The process of getting the creditors to agree to setting up the trust has been a long and rocky one. The Pembroke Laundromat was closed in 1997 while the scheme was worked out, and officially reopened in July this year.

Mr. Davis began his career learning his trade as a carpenter at Bermuda Technical Institute. At 20 he was self-employed. Three years later he hired his first full construction crew and formed Comprehensive Builders. The firm was involved in building Hamilton Pharmacy and was a sub-contractor for work at the Sonesta Beach Hotel.

At its peak Comprehensive Builders had 100 employees. Mr. Davis leveraged the business into real estate and property development. One day he was washing children's clothes in a laundromat using 15 washers. He and his wife have nine children. He decided then the laundry business was a good thing to get into.

He opened the Pembroke operation in 1987 and duplicated the success into three others. But by 1992 his little empire started to come crashing down on the heels of a recession. He had to liquidate Comprehensive Builders.

Then in 1994 he began falling behind paying off loans to the three banks.

There were also about 30 other institutional creditors, mainly suppliers. Mr.

Davis said his problems stemmed from cash flow problems. He had enough equity to cover the loans, he said. The laundromats also started to look run down because he didn't have the money for upkeep and improvements.

"I was just spread too wide and I didn't have a cushion,'' he said. "The banks no long had the confidence that I had the resources. I should have hired an accountant. I should have invested in giving a clear picture to the banks.

They didn't see the whole picture. The litigation started popping up here and there. It was the domino factor. They lost confidence and so did my suppliers.'' Mr. Davis started selling off chunks of his assets, including the land the current Salvation Army building is on. He also sold off three laundromats.

During that time he was struggling to support his family.

"I didn't want to compromise their education,'' he said. "It got to the point where I could afford to buy them a pair of sneakers. It was difficult to explain to them that I couldn't do the simple things. We had to prioritise our spending.'' Still, during the period a daughter graduated from university and a son from college. Two other children graduated from Warwick Academy. The path out of a fall toward bankruptcy began when a friend suggested he see an accountant.

He decided to approach Roger Titterton of Deloitte & Touche. As Mr. Davis tells the story Mr. Titterton sat down with him and outlined how he could pay off the debts.

"He basically laid the foundation to see what was possible,'' Mr. Davis said.

Mr. Titterton referred him to accountant Craig Christensen of Arthur Morris, Christensen & Co.

"Craig took the ball all the way,'' Mr. Davis said. "He knew the business.

He understood the potential. He negotiated with the creditors. He had to first believe in it himself. I would say to anybody who has a serious debt problem one of the things is to find a competent accountant and agree to let that person make decisions for you. What I have done is basically I had to follow the advice of my accountant.'' The first meetings with creditors began in 1997. Unfortunately Mr. Davis ran into trouble when he took over Hamilton Valcleaners and Paget Drycleaners from businessman Stephen Thomson, who had run into problems with the Bermuda Industrial Union over collective bargaining at the two businesses.

When news of the takeover hit the headlines Mr. Davis was thrown into Hamilton jail for two hours over a debt to a creditor. He paid off the debt and was released. The Hamilton drycleaning operation was later sold.

Mr. Davis is angered that people can still be thrown in jail for debt and called for changes.

"We operate in an old mercantile legal system that criminalises people for debt,'' he said. It needs to be looked at.'' Mr. Christensen's task was to convince all the creditors they were better off with the remaining assets operating and continuing to produce revenue rather than being liquidated. The banks had the first rights to the assets. Mr. Davis credits them with going along with the eventual solution.

"I have often been a critic of our major institutions (the banks),'' he said.

"But I'm humbled that they agreed to the scheme. They have showed some wisdom in agreeing to the plan. They realised that they are secured. But what they have done is open an option so that the small guys would get paid. It's a win-win situation.'' By 1998 the plan to pay off the debts was basically in place. The next phase was to get new funding to start the Pembroke laundry operation again. Some private investors kicked in the money.

Now he must work off the debt ensuring that the business is run properly and continues to generate income. Eventually, and he doesn't want to guess when, the debts will be paid off and the assets will come under his control again.

However he realises the startup of the Pembroke operation is just a start out of a debt spiral. The situation is under control.

"I am comfortable that my creditors will be paid,'' he said. "We are now just at the position where we can start to address them. Several people have come to me who have been in a similar position and I have tried to advise them not to lose hope and lose belief in themselves. One of the things that often happen when people get into financial problems is they lose confidence. It's the embarrassment. And it can lead to family problems.'' Mr. Davis, who is a Moslem, credits his family and his belief in God with keeping his resolve firm.

"I don't think that anything happens except by God's permission,'' he said.