Booth's knew of club's fragility

Next block of flats??

Louis Doyle, the Barrister representing the Millers told Leeds high court that former chairman Ken Booth and his sons knew the poor financial state of the club during the the time when they did the deal to hand over the club to Millers05.

"They leased Millmoor back in the full knowledge of the club's financial position," he said. "This is a club that had been failing since the ITV Digital collapse. It could be seen as an act of benevolence, but they knew that if the club could not fulfil its obligations, they were sitting on a piece of prime development land."

Louis Doyle

Doyle then explained that the Booths could have one eye on using Millmoor as new housing estate, "The council's preferred option was to keep it for community use but they realised this might not be possible, It is likely that the club would get planning permission for a mixed use development."

"The whole site (including C.F. Booth's adjacent scrapyard) would be considered suitable for residential use. The council's preferred route for the site was likely to be redevelopment along with the Booths' land as this would redevelop a large area of the town centre." he added.

One of the clubs main arguements in the case is that the clubs former assets, Millmoor, Hooton Lodge training ground and the Tivoli club were all undervalued at £1.8m when the deal was done.

Mr Doyle claimed that the Booths had a bigger intrest in the land becuase it was worth more to them because they (the Booths) already owned all the land that surrounds Millmoor. "It is impossible to view Booths as being in the same position as any other prospective buyer," he said.