Katie Price claimed she had been ‘signed off’ from appearing in court as a judge has issued a warrant for her arrest.
The judge issued the warrant after she failed to appear at her £760,000 bankruptcy court hearing – having seemingly flown abroad.
The former glamour model, 46, is thought to have travelled to Turkey for another round of cosmetic surgery, despite ‘very clear warnings’ she needed to attend court
During an appearance on the Mail’s Straight To The Comments podcast in March, Katie reacted to a news story saying she had just been declared bankrupt for a second time over an unpaid tax bill.
Asked if she could speak about it, Katie replied: ‘I know I had court um, I think it was last week or the week before.
Because of what’s going on in my life, I’ve actually been signed off because I’m dealing with serious stuff.
‘There’s all different kinds of bankruptcy. I think they just use the word bankruptcy, no one actually knows the ins and outs of everything.
‘Trust me, I don’t get away with stuff either. You can’t. Tax, you can’t run away from. Don’t think I sit here and don’t pay stuff because I do.’
In May, Katie again claimed on her own podcast that she has been signed off from appearing in court for her mental health, after receiving backlash for missing her last bankruptcy hearing to go on holiday to Cyprus.
She had been due to give evidence about her finances at the High Court in May, but at the start of the hearing, lawyers said that she had told them at the last minute she couldn’t attend due to health issues. A judge described this excuse as ‘scanty’.
Katie then jetted off on holiday to Ayia Napa with her MAFS star boyfriend JJ Slater, facing public backlash after being spotted sunbathing together by the pool.
Taking to her podcast, The Katie Price Show, Katie hit back and claimed she had been signed off from court because she was ‘mentally not strong enough’.
She said: ‘Everyone is like “oh she’s missed bankruptcy and she’s gone on holiday!” No, let me address it.
‘The court knew that I wasn’t going to my bankruptcy, because mentally – my consultant at The Priory – I’ve been signed off for any kind of activity for court.
‘I’m mentally not strong enough at the moment to stand in court, be cross examined in front of the media and public.’
She went on: ‘I am taking my bankruptcy so serious, like I do everything else. It’s a very serious situation I’m in and it does look like “oh she’s just gone on holiday”.
‘No, my head at the moment needs a break. I had four days in my diary where I was able to go away.
‘When I say I’m not mentally able and stable to stand in court at the moment because I have a lot of things going on behind the scenes I’m dealing with.
‘Hence, I haven’t been on TikTok for months, since December, I’m only doing what my body and brain will let me do at the moment.’
She continued: ‘I am taking the bankruptcy seriously. It’s not like I’ve jetted off on a bloody five star holiday. I’m not in a £760 a night hotel.
‘It’s not my fault that my friend came to this hotel a week before me and told them that I was coming and to look after me. So when I came here they upgraded me for nothing, this holiday was actually a very cheap holiday.’
Katie then added that she wouldn’t be going to her next hearing and that she was getting a signed letter to allow her not to appear.
She said: ‘There is another court hearing and I won’t be going to that either. I want everyone to know I’ve had a letter from my trustees.
‘Before I went away on holiday I had an hours conversation with my trustees who handle both of my bankruptcies and explained fully my situation. Since then I’ve had a letter from them and a letter from court.
‘[My consultant] has now given a list of things I need to do to discharge me and suspend me from this which has to be signed off by a lawyer.
‘I’m back today, I have the appointments with my consultant, my therapist and everyone around me who will be signing me off legally.’
It comes as Katie appeared to share a snap of herself on a plane munching a sandwich yesterday just hours before her looming court hearing on July 30.
Posting on Instagram, the debt-riddled beauty model shared a picture of her snack, adding: ‘Crisp sandwich is the best.It’s believed Price – whose £2million ‘mucky mansion’ was recently repossessed – was joined on the jaunt by pal Lou Anderson.
As entrepreneur and influencer Lou shared the news she was heading to Turkey for a tummy tuck next week, Price seemed to confirm she would be joining her as she replied: ‘Yes girl turkey here we go’
Lou then replied with a series of clapping emojis and wrote: ‘Come on my girl’.
According to The Sun a court official disclosed earlier this week that the case against Price was still listed for 10.30am.
She could now be taken into custody having failed to appear at court.
As entrepreneur and influencer Lou shared the news she was heading to Turkey for a tummy tuck next week, Price seemed to confirm she would be joining her as she replied: ‘Yes girl turkey here we go’
Lou then replied with a series of clapping emojis and wrote: ‘Come on my girl’.
According to The Sun a court official disclosed earlier this week that the case against Price was still listed for 10.30am.
She could now be taken into custody having failed to appear at court.
MailOnline has approached Katie’s representatives for comment.
Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Catherine Burton said Price had received ‘very clear warnings’ that she must attend the hearing on Tuesday.
The former model was due to face questions about her finances in the specialist bankruptcy court in London from barristers representing the trustee of her two bankruptcies.
A judge at a previous hearing said Price risked arrest if she did not attend further court dates, adding evidence must be provided if she could not appear.
Issuing the arrest warrant, Judge Burton said Price had ‘failed to attend today’s hearing’ and had provided no explanation for her absence.
She said: ‘It is in my judgment necessary that the court issue a warrant for Ms Price’s arrest.
‘She has no real excuse in failing to attend today’s hearing.’
She continued: ‘The reason for her absence today is irrelevant.’
Judge Burton said that an arrest warrant was not issued ‘lightly’ but that Price had offered only ‘piecemeal co-operation’ and failed to provide the ‘most basic information’ in relation to her bankruptcies.
Price was declared bankrupt for a second time in March over an unpaid tax bill of £761,994.05 after first being declared bankrupt in 2019.
She was then served an eviction notice that ordered her to leave her Mucky Mansion by the end of May and has since moved into a £5,000 per month new Tudor-style property.
However, last week she claimed ‘everything is sorted’ with her second bankruptcy after being evicted from her Sussex bolthole.
Insisting she now knows ‘how to deal with issues,’ the model promised to ‘never hit rock bottom again’ in an interview with Channel 5 News on Monday.
Speaking on the programme, she said: ‘I’m doing really, really good. I’ve learned a lot about myself, a lot about mental health and obviously being diagnosed with the severe ADHD, learnt a lot about that, which I wish I knew years ago.
‘It becomes noise in your head, and then you just can’t cope with it, you think there’s no light at the end of the tunnel and then that caused depression, then a breakdown, suicidal, ended up at the Priory.’
At a hearing in February, Price was ordered to pay 40 per cent of her monthly income from the adult entertainment website OnlyFans to the trustee for the next three years, in relation to her first bankruptcy.
She was then declared bankrupt for a second time in March due to an unpaid tax bill worth more than £750,000 owed to HM Revenue & Customs.
In October last year, Price said she was ‘fed up’ with being threatened with legal action and would go to prison to be ‘done with it all’.
She was due to face questions on Tuesday related to her finances at a hearing known as a public examination, with barrister Darragh Connell, for the trustee, telling the court in written submissions that there ‘remains significant information missing as regards the bankrupt’s income and asset position’.
Speaking in court, he said the trustee does not ‘have any information as to her whereabouts’, adding that Ms Price ‘would not be kept in custody for a long period of time’, but would be detained to secure her attendance at a future hearing.
He said: ‘Her liberty is on the line, but unfortunately we are at the end of the road in relation to this matter.’
The court heard that Price had previously made a number of ‘last-minute’ requests for changes to her previous hearings.
The former model was first declared bankrupt on November 26, 2019, with the first preliminary application issued on January 30, 2020.
‘The hearing of that application came before me at the beginning of lockdown – at the very last moment Ms Price contacted the court to be allowed to attend remotely on the basis that her son was in hospital,’ the judge said.
‘The court acceded to that request.
‘Since that time there have been many other adjournments of that private examination…usually on the basis that Ms Price decided at the last-minute to seek to co-operate with trustees to provide the basic information they’d been trying to obtain from her since she was first made bankrupt in 2019.
‘Latterly adjournments have been purportedly on the basis of ill health; at a hearing before ICC Judge Mullen on 26 April 2024, he noted the inadequacy of the medical evidence.
‘(He) set out a very clear penal notice that if you Katrina Price failed, without reasonable excuse, to attend a public examination at a time and place specified in this order, you are liable to be arrested without further notice.’
The judge said Katie could be held in contempt of court and ‘imprisoned or fined or made subject to other punishment under the law.’
She continued: ‘The judge adjourned a public examination at 10.30am on May 14, however once again very shortly before the adjourned hearing Ms Price decided to co-operate and provide yet more piecemeal information.
‘It was provided so late in the day that the trustee did not have sufficient opportunity to establish whether all the information was present.’
Judge Burton said the court is satisfied Katie ‘can have been in no doubt that today’s public examination was taking place.
‘She informed the trustee staff that she would be attending this hearing remotely.’
But no application for attending the hearing remotely was made, the court heard.
The judge said it was ‘possible for an individual to be discharged from bankruptcy after a year, providing they fully co-operate.
‘Contrary to finding her full co-operation since 2021, Ms Price has failed not only to co-operate and provide the most basic information required of her, but has also now been made a subject of a second bankruptcy order as a result of failure to pay more than £700,000 in taxes,’ the judge told the court.
‘Ms Price is frequently in the press and appears to court press interest in order to make her income.
‘Ms Price in no way delays in seeking the assistance of police and emergency services when there is damage apparently to her property.’
The judge said ‘unlike every other taxpayer’ Price has ‘failed’ to pay her dues.
‘It falls to her to provide detail of income and expenditure,’ Judge Burton said.
‘It was open to her to avoid any publicity in relation to private financial affairs by co-operating with trustees, but failed to do so.’
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Source: New York Post
