former boss has been refused by a High Court judge in England.

Liquidators for Focus Insurance Co. Ltd. -- who were instrumental in having Mark Gregory Hardy declared bankrupt three years ago -- sought to have the bankruptcy continue past the usually automatic three year term.

But papers from the High Court of Justice, Chancery Division in Bankruptcy, show that Mr. Justice Robert Walker allowed Mr. Hardy's appeal, and set aside an ex parte order of a district judge, which had suspended the discharge.

Focus had applied for the suspension of the automatic discharge "until the Court is satisfied that the bankrupt has made full disclosure of all his property and assets.'' The application was made on the alleged grounds that Mr. Hardy "has failed and is continuing to fail to comply'' with his obligation "to make full disclosure to his trustee'' of all his property and assets.

The whole question of Mr. Hardy's assets will continue to be scrutinised anyway, during the course of a second bankruptcy this year, after an application by Coopers & Lybrand.

Mr. Hardy has been battling for years with Coopers, as liquidators for his failed Focus Insurance Company. The liquidators are David Lines and Peter Mitchell of the Bermuda firm of Coopers & Lybrand.

Coopers had been awarded more than 44,000 by the courts in legal costs from Mr. Hardy, involving litigation resolved in Coopers' favour.

In April, in the absence of the payment of those debts, and as a result of moves by Coopers, Mr. Hardy was declared bankrupt a second time.

The court papers also reveal that before that, in March, Mr. Hardy's trustee in bankruptcy, Mr. David Pallen of Ernst & Young in London, swore out an affidavit that he was not satisfied that Mr. Hardy had disclosed all of his property.

Mr. Pallen asked the official receiver to apply to the court for a suspension of Mr. Hardy's discharge. The receiver declined.

Christine Derrett of D.J. Freeman, the Focus liquidators' lawyers, wrote to the trustee, expressing dismay at the receiver's decision and asking that the trustee pursue the matter.

A representative for Mr. Pallen wrote back saying that the trustee failed to see how Focus liquidators were being prejudiced by the bankruptcy discharge.

The letter read, "The trustee does not consider that Mr. Hardy's conduct in the course of this bankruptcy has been such to justify an application for the postponement of his discharge. The official receiver is of the same opinion.

This is particularly the case in view of the fact that the trustee will still be able to take action against Mr. Hardy for any bankruptcy offences that he has committed and indeed those offences will also be caught by his second bankruptcy.'' Justice Walker noted in his judgement: "...I can see that Focus (who have, in a very personal way, been on the receiving end of hostile litigation initiated by Mr. Hardy) have very strong views on this matter.

"They are clearly surprised and upset at the official receiver's decision and they may have some reason to think that the trustee in bankruptcy has performed something of a surprising about-turn in accepting the official receiver's position without further argument.'' Justice Walker pointed out that both the trustee in bankruptcy and the official receiver have to weigh the public interest in such matters against the interests of creditors.

Central to the Focus liquidation is the disappearance of some $20 million from the Bermuda company, money that liquidators claim was taken by Mr. Hardy, at one time the company boss. Mr. Hardy has denied the allegation.

COURT CTS