It is the sort of excuse worthy of a shame-faced schoolboy, but the 40-year-old former French trade minister, Thomas Thévenoud, caused astonishment when he blamed his failure to pay rent or taxes on "administration phobia".

Thévenoud, who was appointed secretary of state for foreign trade in the Socialist government reshuffle at the end of August, was fired just nine days later after it was discovered he had what was euphemistically described as "problems of conformity with his taxes".

On Wednesday, the magazine Le Canard Enchainé revealed Thévenoud had also failed to pay the rent on his Paris apartment on the chic left bank of the river Seine for three years.

Thévenoud had set himself up for a spectacular fall. The minister had been highly critical of another former colleague, Jérôme Cahuzac, who resigned from an earlier Socialist government, after he was accused of not declaring money held in a Swiss bank account.

The webpage on Thévenoud's site relating to the Cahuzac inquiry has since been taken down.

Announcing that Thévenoud would go last week, the French prime minister's office said there was a problem of "financial irregularities". Afterwards, the shamed minister admitted "late payments to the tax office", but said he had since paid up all he owed.

"I can be accused of negligence … but not of dishonesty, he wrote in an article published on his website.

Le Canard reported that Thévenoud had been threatened with eviction from his Paris apartment because of his rent arrears and that he had claimed to suffer from an "administration phobia" that had led him to get behind in dealing with his personal paperwork. He insisted that since being elected to parliament he had paid the back tax, including more than €12,000 (£9,600) in late-payment fines.

The ex-minister has been asked to leave the Socialist party, but is refusing to give up his parliamentary seat.

The scandal has piled on the political agony for the French president, François Hollande, who is not only unpopular – and reeling from damaging allegations in a book written by former first lady Valérie Trierweiler – but whose Socialist government is facing a vote of confidence next week.