BBC presenter Ugo Monye is now facing bankruptcy over an unpaid £200,000 tax bill after his company was liquidated.
A year after the BBC axed A Question of Sport, the former England and British & Irish Lions wing is struggling financially.
His ‘physical well-being’ company Show Me The Monye was set up in 2012 and Companies House shows HMRC obtained a winding-up order in December 2023.
This was over the reported non-payment of nearly £200,000 in tax and National Insurance payments.
On December 4 this year, a bankruptcy petition against ‘Ugochukwu Monye’ was lodged with the High Court.
The company’s accounts for the year ended June 30, 2022, showed it owed £108,562 in corporation tax and £72,967 in other tax and National Insurance.
It comes after A Question of Sport, the world’s longest-running television sports quiz, was dropped by the BBC two years into a revamp featuring Monye and Sam Quek as the captains and Paddy McGuinness as the host.
Monye is the latest former England star to face bankruptcy after World Cup winners Lawrence Dallaglio and Phil Vickery. MailOnline has approached Monye for comment.
Ugo Monye at Sandy Park during the Gallagher Premiership match between Exeter Chiefs and Gloucester Rugby at Sandy Park, Exeter on December 29, 2024
TNT Sports presenters Sarra Elgan and Ugo Monye present, whilst stood next to the Allianz Premiership Women’s Rugby trophy on May 12 2024
Ugo Monye pictured right on Question of Sport
Monye retired from playing at 31 in 2015 after spending his 13-year career with Harlequins.
He helped them to their first Premiership title in 2012, while he also won 14 caps for England and two for the Lions, finishing top try-scorer on the latter’s 2009 tour to South Africa.
Before retiring, he joined BT Sport as a rugby analyst and he took part in the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing in 2021, a week after it emerged he split from his wife of five years.
In an interview he told how the break up has been a ‘tough period for us both’ and that there was no ‘third party’ involved, quipping: ‘Forget the Strictly curse – it’s the Covid curse!’
He told The Sun: ‘It’s been hard, at times things have seemed a bit overwhelming but it’s been a tough period for us both. In some relationships there is a moment, a ‘thing’, that breaks the couple.
‘It can be an exterior influence. It can be anything. But with us it was a number of things. We weren’t in a volatile relationship, we never hated each other and there was no third party. Forget the Strictly curse – it’s the Covid curse! We ended up where we ended up.
‘It’s been a difficult, multi-faceted situation but there is no animosity. We’ve got two incredible young girls who we love so much, so our focus is very much on the kids, protecting and fostering this amazing family unit.’
The Princess of Wales with Ugo Monye as she take part in rugby drills during her visit to meet local and national male rugby players at Maidenhead Rugby Club in 2023
The presenter is now facing bankruptcy over an unpaid £200,000 tax bill after his company was liquidated
Monye retired from playing at 31 in 2015 after spending his 13-year career with Harlequins
Meanwhile, former England rugby captain Lawrence Dallaglio has not responded to demands for cash to pay a £354,000 tax bill, new documents claim.
The World Cup winner is being pursued liquidators who are trying to recover money he had loaned himself from his company.
A report said that accountants trawled through the records of his company Lawrence Dallaglio Limited and discovered that he owes £423,570.43 for money loaned from the company. This was more than the £366,510 they initially thought he owed.
It said: ‘We corresponded with the director and ultimately demanded this sum. However, no response was received.’
The cash is needed by the company to pay a list of creditors which is headed by HMRC which has demanded payments of £290,000 and £64,000.
Other creditors include taxi firm Parker Cars Limited owed £1,891.82 and Coutts Bank owed £24,000.
The Liquidators Progress report said that Dallaglio’s company had lost cash went it went into liquidation last year.
It said that ITV had paid £37,903 for work on last year’s Rugby World Cup during the group stage.
But when the company went into liquidation midway through the tournament the TV company exercised an ‘insolvency clause’ which meant it did not have to pay the company for work in the knockout stage.
Former England rugby captain Lawrence Dallaglio has blanked demands for cash to pay a £354,000 tax bill, documents claim
Dallaglio avoided the company being legally wound up in the High Court after his representatives told a judge he was liquidating the firm last year
But now it is uncertain when or if, those owed cash will get money back.
The report said: ‘After taking into account assets realisations together with fees and expenses incurred to date, together with estimated future realisations, fees and expenses, the likelihood of a distribution to any class of creditor will depend on the recoverability of the Director’s Loan Account.’
Dallaglio avoided the company being legally wound up in the High Court after his representatives told a judge he was liquidating the firm last year.
HMRC had brought the case against the company, which he set up in 1997 when he first captained England, as it chased unpaid tax bills.
Instead it went into creditors’ voluntary liquidation.
In a separate case in September last year another judge dismissed a bankruptcy petition lodged by tax officials against Dallaglio, who won 85 England caps and now works in television.
An HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) official told Judge Sebastian Prentis that a ‘voluntary agreement’ had been reached.
The judge had, in May, given Dallaglio time to pay after being told that he owed about £700,000 in tax.
