Former footballer wins court battle over house

Marcus Bent played for teams including Everton, Crystal Palace and Leicester

A former Premier League footballer has won a second High Court fight over the ownership of a house in Surrey.

Marcus Bent, who was declared bankrupt in 2019, was involved in legal action against the trustees of his bankruptcy over the ownership of an Epsom property and whether it formed part of his estate.

The trustees had appealed against a ruling that the house belonged to his daughter, Aliyah Bent, 20, and argued that the judge was wrong.

But on Wednesday, Mr Justice Edwin Johnson dismissed the appeal, and said he was “completely unable to see how the judge went wrong in his analysis”.

Mr Justice Johnson said Mr Bent had debts that were “said to have been substantial” and that were “said to have amounted to a figure in excess of £2.2 million” at the end of 2021.

In July 2023, Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Clive Jones ruled that the Epsom property “fell outside the bankruptcy estate”.

He ruled trustees had “no interest” in it after Mr Bent told the court he had bought the house in 2006 and intended it to be held in trust for his daughter until she turned 18.

Mr Bent, who played as a striker for teams including Crystal Palace, Brentford, Everton and Leicester, represented himself at the two-day appeal hearing in June.

Barrister Michael Horton KC, representing the trustees, said in written submissions that the property “was understood to be the only significant asset in the bankrupt’s estate”.

But Mr Justice Johnson rejected the trustees’ arguments, saying he could not see an “identifiable flaw” in Judge Jones’s ruling and that it was not an “unreasonable conclusion”.