A BAD WEEK: Terry Serepisos has been adjudged bankrupt only days after he lost control of the Phoenix.

Access has been blocked to the head office of Terry Serepisos' Century City group in Wellington.



Serepisos was today declared bankrupt owing more than $22 million.



The offices are on the 14th floor of the ASB Bank Tower, which also housed the offices of Wellington Phoenix Football Club.

Century City Developments commercial assets manager Stathis Moutos said he ordered the lifts to the 14th floor locked off so staff weren't hassled by media.

Reports that the furniture had been removed were incorrect, he said.

Moutos said he and a couple of other staff were at the office today and that it was business as usual "until we hear otherwise''.

Serepisos was not at the office, Moutos said.

Serepisos was declared bankrupt in the High Court at Wellington this morning despite a last-minute bid to put off the application to allow funds to arrive from a Hong Kong merchant bank.

» Serepisos loses Phoenix » Timeline » Details of the deal

The total figure identified by the court was $22,461,165.76. The action was taken by South Canterbury Finance.



Serepisos' lawyer, John Billington, QC, asked associate judge David Gendall for four days to allow the overseas money to arrive, however, the judge said it was time for the official assignee to investigate Serepisos' situation and it was in the interests of all parties for Serepisos to be made bankrupt.

Billington had told the judge the first drawdown of the overseas money had been last Thursday.



The overseas finance was the reason no creditors meeting went ahead last week, as Serepisos had originally proposed.

Billington said by Friday he would no longer be able to ask for an adjournment if the funds did not arrive and the inevitable would happen.



The overseas loan was for an initial US$5m then US$15m to Century City Trust Ltd, a company for which Serepisos is the sole director and shareholder.



Judge Gendall said he only had before him a letter from an Auckland solicitor and a letter which appeared to confirm the overseas loan.



"I am quite unable to determine the veracity of the arrangement or whether the loaned monies will arrive in the New Zealand banking system as promised," he said.



The judge said the eleventh hour bid was unsatisfactory and if the money did come through Serepisos could apply to come out of bankruptcy early.



South Canterbury Finance has little confidence in the loan bearing fruit and opposed the application, the judge said.

The debt-burdened property developer had proposed an "orderly sale" of property to try to satisfy creditors owed $203 million.

Despite offering up his property portfolio to stave off creditors, Serepisos had remained adamant his beloved Phoenix was not for sale. But a consortium of seven businessmen took control of the club on Friday after he relinquished his licence to the A-League.

Meanwhile one of Serepisos' creditors has obtained court orders allowing it to seize and sell his household effects, including his clothes.

And on Saturday his baby blue 2007 Ferrari F430 F1 Spider sold at auction for $205,000.