LAWRENCE DALLAGLIO BANKRUPTCY EXTENDED BY A YEAR AFTER LAVISH LIFESTYLE ALLEGATIONS
Lawrence Dallaglio’s bankruptcy has been further extended by up to a year.
Telegraph Sport can reveal that the Insolvency Register was updated on Wednesday to show the Rugby World Cup-winning forward’s discharge from bankruptcy has been suspended until August 31, 2027.
The news comes two months after Telegraph Sport revealed Dallaglio had been accused of spending thousands of pounds a month on his lavish lifestyle and leaving “nothing” to pay his debts.
His “excessive spending” allegedly included £1,000 a month on clothing and footwear, £500 a month on alcohol, £1,000 a month on travel and transport and £800 on groceries.
It was claimed Dallaglio spent “everything he earned” between last August and this January – about £200,000 – without setting any aside to pay tax or even a court-ordered monthly spousal maintenance payment to his ex-wife, Alice.
He was also accused of being “largely uncooperative” with trustees of his bankruptcy, one of whom has alleged there was “evidence of an undisclosed bank account” held by the former England and British and Irish Lions player.
The serious claims were made in High Court documents filed in May that resulted in Dallaglio’s bankruptcy being extended by three months until a hearing scheduled for this Friday.
It can be revealed that the hearing has been postponed and a new date – potentially in spring next year – has yet to be confirmed.
Dallaglio has been approached for comment.
Bankruptcies are ordinarily discharged after a year in England and Wales, but a judge added three months to Dallaglio’s term in May following an application by Nick Parsk, a joint trustee, who was seeking an Income Payments Order (IPO) against the 53-year-old.
Paul Greenwood, an Insolvency and Companies Court judge, stated in an order on May 12 that the court had “not reached a conclusion on the respondent’s alleged conduct” and gave Dallaglio until 4pm on June 3 to “file and serve his evidence in response to the underlying application”.
That was after Dallaglio submitted his own witness statement accusing Parsk of giving “an incomplete picture” of his co-operation.
Dallaglio was declared bankrupt last year, owing hundreds of thousands of pounds in tax and tens of thousands to two other creditors.
‘Mr Dallaglio should not be allowed to benefit from delay’
A “skeleton argument” filed with the High Court on behalf of Parsk on May 6 stated: “The trustees have found Mr Dallaglio to be largely uncooperative: he cancelled several appointments at which his rugby career memorabilia was to be valued (and when this valuation did take place, one significant item was missing) he has provided information about income and expenditure sporadically, late and incompletely; he has spent significant sums of money without the applicant’s knowledge; and he continues to spend all of his income without transparency.
“As to income and expenditure in particular, it appears that Mr Dallaglio has spent all of the money he earned from August 2025 to January 2026 – around £200,000. No further income has been reported since then.
“Over the course of many months, information about income and expenditure was provided sporadically and unclearly. Numerous attempts were made to meet with Mr Dallaglio to discuss income, expenditure, and an Income Payment Agreement. While certain meetings took place, the information that had been requested to enable those meetings to be productive was not provided in full, and often what was provided was late.
“Mr Dallaglio is not meeting his debts as they fall due – including a court-ordered monthly spousal maintenance payment which has been in arrears since August 2025. There is also evidence of an undisclosed bank account.
“The most recent statements of income and expenditure show continued habits of excessive spending – including up to £1,000 a month on travel & transport, £1,000 a month on clothing & footwear, £800 on groceries, and £500 a month on alcohol.”
During the period in question, Dallaglio worked as a pundit on Premier Sports’s coverage of the Champions Cup and as a columnist for the Sunday Times, for which he continued to write until at least March.
The application filed by Parsk was transferred to the High Court from Kingston County Court, at which Dallaglio had been declared bankrupt. It continued: “Mr Dallaglio’s spending habits mean that there is currently nothing left over to go towards the claims against his bankruptcy estate. There are no signs of Mr Dallaglio voluntarily reducing his spending – see the figures supplied earlier this year, where expected income decreased but intended expenditure did not.
“Furthermore, it was only at this time that it came to the applicant’s attention that all earnings in the period August 1, 2025 to January 31, 2026 have been spent without savings for tax.
“The correspondence from Mr Dallaglio’s solicitors is also concerning: it indicates that Mr Dallaglio actively wants the underlying application to be dealt with slowly in the County Court – the natural inference is that he does not want an IPO to interfere with his current excessive spending. Mr Dallaglio should not be allowed to benefit from delay in the court system to the detriment of his creditors.”
The witness statement submitted by Dallaglio in May did not address his alleged spending habits but stated he had “made significant efforts” to assist the trustee in bankruptcy (TiB) and had “never sought to frustrate or evade” Parsk’s application for an extension.
“I readily agreed to the urgent suspension of my discharge as soon as I received the application before the court,” he added.
He also stated that he had “consistently engaged with the TiB’s requests for information”, had “attended in-person meetings and calls with the TiB whenever requested”, and that he had “recently updated” his income and expenditure figures.
“Contrary to the TiB’s implication that I concealed assets, I did disclose my significant sporting memorabilia (including my Rugby World Cup medal and shirt) when asked, and I permitted a professional valuer (Bonhams) to inspect and value these items.”
He added: “I wish to explain that my level of engagement has at times been affected by personal circumstances. In particular, my late father was very ill for much of late 2025 (we lost him just before Christmas 2025) and I was his primary carer during that period. This inevitably impacted my ability to respond as quickly or thoroughly as I (and the TiB) would have liked.
“The TiB and his solicitors were made aware of my father’s illness and passing – indeed, their correspondence expressly acknowledged my bereavement and afforded me additional time in consideration of those circumstances.”
The statement disclosed Dallaglio was the “sole beneficiary” of his father’s estate and he said he signed a document “effectively handing over my entire inheritance to the bankruptcy estate”.
He added: “These are not the actions of a person seeking to evade obligations. On the contrary, I have strived to comply with my duties as a bankrupt, especially once I understood exactly what was required.”
Dallaglio said he had “serious concerns that if this matter remains in the High Court, then there is a risk that circulation as to the details of my affairs will likely affect my ability to generate income”.
But he concluded: “If, however, this court decides to retain the matter, I will of course cooperate fully with any case management directions and work constructively with the TiB (through my solicitors) to achieve a fair and swift resolution of the substantive application.”
Dallaglio’s lawyer, Sanjeev Punj of SP Legal Solutions, told Telegraph Sport: “The trustee’s skeleton argument contains a number of allegations which are strongly disputed by Mr Dallaglio and not accepted.”
Documents filed to Companies House at the end of last year showed Dallaglio owed £423,570 in overdrawn director’s loans for Lawrence Dallaglio Limited, which went bust almost three years ago.
The filing also showed more than £60,000 was owed to liquidators, and that claims totalling about £350,000 and £61,000 had been made, respectively, by HM Revenue & Customs and two other creditors.
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