Insolvency Act 1986

[F1Grounds for making orderE+W

2(1)The court shall grant an application for a debt relief restrictions order if it thinks it appropriate to do so having regard to the conduct of the debtor (whether before or after the making of the debt relief order).E+W

(2)The court shall, in particular, take into account any of the following kinds of behaviour on the part of the debtor—

(a)failing to keep records which account for a loss of property by the debtor, or by a business carried on by him, where the loss occurred in the period beginning two years before the application date for the debt relief order and ending with the date of the application for the debt relief restrictions order;

(b)failing to produce records of that kind on demand by the official receiver;

(c)entering into a transaction at an undervalue in the period beginning two years before the application date for the debt relief order and ending with the date of the determination of that application;

(d)giving a preference in the period beginning two years before the application date for the debt relief order and ending with the date of the determination of that application;

(e)making an excessive pension contribution;

(f)a failure to supply goods or services that were wholly or partly paid for;

(g)trading at a time, before the date of the determination of the application for the debt relief order, when the debtor knew or ought to have known that he was himself to be unable to pay his debts;

(h)incurring, before the date of the determination of the application for the debt relief order, a debt which the debtor had no reasonable expectation of being able to pay;

(i)failing to account satisfactorily to the court or the official receiver for a loss of property or for an insufficiency of property to meet his debts;

(j)carrying on any gambling, rash and hazardous speculation or unreasonable extravagance which may have materially contributed to or increased the extent of his inability to pay his debts before the application date for the debt relief order or which took place between that date and the date of the determination of the application for the debt relief order;

(k)neglect of business affairs of a kind which may have materially contributed to or increased the extent of his inability to pay his debts;

(l)fraud or fraudulent breach of trust;

(m)failing to co-operate with the official receiver.

(3)The court shall also, in particular, consider whether the debtor was an undischarged bankrupt at some time during the period of six years ending with the date of the application for the debt relief order.

(4)For the purposes of sub-paragraph (2)—

• “excessive pension contribution” shall be construed in accordance with section 342A;

• “preference” shall be construed in accordance with paragraph 10(2) of Schedule 4ZA;

• “undervalue” shall be construed in accordance with paragraph 9(2) of that Schedule.]