Damelian declares bankruptcy - Wily gets the gig.

INSOLVENT auto boss Rick Damelian has declared himself bankrupt, heading off a creditors petition hearing scheduled for next week.

SiN learnt today that the Australian Armenian from Uruguay took matters into his own hands on November 9, appointing Armstrong Wily's Andrew Wily as his trustee in bankruptcy.

Wily told SiN that secured lender NAB would now move to take possession of Damelian's multimillion dollar home at McMahons Point.

Damelian had been scheduled to face a creditors petition hearing next Tuesday brought by Steve Sherman and Jim Sarantinos.

The Ferrier Hodgson duo are receivers appointed to Damelian Automobile Pty Limited.

In August the NSW Supreme Court ordered Damelian to pay almost $1.9 million in outstanding loans to Damelian Automobile, which had been the main trading entity of his once sprawling auto empire.

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Receivers move to bankrupt Rick Damelian

A tasty trustee appointment is in the offing after Ferrier Hodgson moved to bankrupt former luxury car czar Rick Damelian.

Lawyers for Ferrier’s Steve Sherman and Jim Sarantinos - the receivers of Damelian Automobile Pty Limited - filed a creditor’s petition in the Federal Magistrates Court on October 26. 

This came after the flamboyant auto dealer failed to comply with a bankruptcy notice ordering him to pay $1.876 million.

The bankruptcy notice was the natural consequence of a Supreme Court judgement handed down in August in which Justice David Hammerschlag was moved to observe that Damelian “was an entirely unsatisfactory witness who gave untruthful evidence.”

The bankruptcy notice was served on Damelian on September 20. His failure to comply or file any sort of cross or counter claim by October 12 triggered the filing of the creditors petition, which will be heard on November 20. 

The receiver’s case is being run by Allen’s insolvency guru John Warde. At time of writing no trustee consent to act declaration had been filed.  

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