Bankrupt Birmingham UB40 stars owe £750,000

Nov 6 2011 by Jonny Greatrex, Sunday Mercury

BANKRUPT members of music legends UB40 are being chased for an astonishing £750,000, the Sunday Mercury can reveal.

Last month, we told how four of the original line-up were officially declared broke after a hearing at Birmingham County Court.

The news came despite the famous reggae group selling 70 million records in a glittering three-decade career.

Now accounts have confirmed that sax player Brian Travers, drummer Jimmy Brown, trumpeter Terence Oswald and percussionist Norman Hassan are £750,000 in the red.

Marks Sands is a spokesman for RSM Tenon, the financial firm handling the bankruptcy.

“The amount we are looking to recover is £750,000,” he told the Sunday Mercury.

“We will assess their assets, which includes their properties and earnings, and see what we can get back.

“It may be that they don’t have anything, in which case we will look at them, then move on. It might be they have £100,000 equity in their homes.

“If they can give us that amount, or close to that amount, in cash, then we won’t go to the lengths of them selling their homes.”

But Mr Sands had comforting words for fans who feared the bankruptcy would stop the chart-topping group from performing.

“It’s absolutely not the case that this means they cannot play anymore,” he said.