Trustees appointed in du Cann bankruptcy

TWO SENIOR accountants were appointed yesterday as trustees to handle the bankruptcy of Sir Edward du Cann, the former Conservative Party chairman.

Christopher Morris, of Touche Ross, and Christopher Hughes, of Coopers & Lybrand, will realise Mr du Cann's assets, investigate past transactions and pay off creditors.

Sir Edward, who quit as chairman of the trading company Lonrho three years ago, has liabilities estimated at more than pounds 1.2m, the trustees say.

In February he failed in his latest attempt to reverse a bankruptcy order made against him in the High Court in March last year.

The Official Receiver called a creditors' meeting yesterday where the trustees were appointed.

Sir Edward's financial woes stem from his involvement with a mortgage company at the centre of a City scandal. His links with Homes Assured Corporation, a mortgage broker that collapsed in 1989 owing creditors nearly pounds 11m, led to government moves to have him disqualified as a company director.

He resigned as a non-executive director of HAC in August 1989, 15 days before liquidators were appointed. The Department of Trade and Industry then started proceedings seeking to ban him from being a director of a public company. These proceedings are continuing.