lawyers. The writ was entered into the Supreme Court cause book by former Focus boss, Mr. Mark Hardy yesterday before flying back to London.

Mr. Hardy alleges a conspiracy to injure and abuse and he applies for a mandatory injunction seeking a Bar Council investigation into the complaints he has filed against Mello, Hollis, Jones and Martin lawyers, Mr. Saul Froomkin and Mr. Andrew Martin.

The two lawyers are named in the action, as are liquidators Mr. David Lines and Mr. Peter Mitchell.

The legal action also seeks from the court a discharge of a mareva injunction against Mr. Hardy and asks the court to strike out the $20 million statement of claim in the original Focus action.

Mr. Hardy is claiming substantial damages. It is the latest move in the legal chess game being played between he and the liquidators.

Just this week, Mr. Hardy fired off a letter to British Telecommunications plc (BT) in London, a firm of which he holds shares in trust for his children, claiming that "Coopers and Lybrand is an illegal partnership under the provisions of The Companies Act and is not eligible to be a firm of chartered accountants under the Institute (of Chartered Accountants) rules.

Coopers and Lybrand, BT's auditors, is associated with Cooper and Lines in Bermuda, the firm handling the Focus liquidation.

Addressed to BT's company secretary, Mr. Malcolm Argent, the letter states "I believe that you are duty bound to obtain judicial clarification as to the status of prior years' accounts and whether these must be withdrawn.'' But Mr. Hardy has also lodged a detailed complaint with the London's Metropolitan Police Fraud Squad, "setting out in detail that the partnership is illegal as it has consisted of 687 persons more than 25 percent of whom, 186 are not Chartered Accountants which makes it illegal under English law and unable to act as an auditor.'' Mr. Hardy copied his letter to the chairman of the London Stock Exchange who he said "must consider how it affects the listing requirements of companies audited by Coopers and Lybrand.'' He also sent a copy to the director of practice regulation at the Institute, but he told BT: "I clearly believe that until this matter is judicially determined, it would be neither correct nor in the interests of the shareholders, to seek to, nor indeed actually to, reappoint Coopers and Lybrand as auditors of British Telecommunications plc.'' Mr. Hardy was adjudged a bankrupt last year in England, after a petition by two Bermuda resident partners of Cork Gully and/or Cooper and Lybrand, using as its foundation the Bermuda Supreme Court's default judgment for US$20 million. He currently is appealing the bankruptcy to the Court of Appeals in London.

He believes that the matter of the judgment leading to the bankruptcy is "likely destined for the House of Lords as it is a case of `first instance' seemingly relying upon 19th century case law providing an avenue to bankruptcy for foreigners not available to UK or EEC persons.'' He has won the right to appeal the default judgment to the Privy Council. He wrote that it was a "surprising judgment, made without there ever being a trial on the merits in any tribunal whatsoever and to which I have good, valid and complete defence; and in the absence of which I am completely solvent.''