FORMER Northwich Victoria chairman Mike Connett has been made bankrupt for a second time.

A mystery creditor secured an order against the club’s ex-landlord at Manchester County Court earlier this month, seven days before the taxman had been due to ask a judge to do the same.

The Wincham-based outfit have now severed all links with a man that took them to the brink of oblivion little more than a year ago with tax debts totalling more than half a million pounds.

He will now be banned from becoming a company director.

Last month Mr Connett’s firm, Beaconet Limited, was wound up after failing to pay back a £60,000 bank loan.

That company had acted as Vics’ landlord, charging £1,000 a week for the past year, since he took over the club in 2004.

He handed over the keys to the stadium he once described as his ‘pension fund’ following a meeting with an official receiver appointed to oversee Beaconet’s liquidation.

Mr Connett, who lives in High Legh, near Knutsford, had been due in London’s High Court last Tuesday after allegedly failing to pay instalments on a six-figure personal debt claimed by HM Revenue and Customs.

That sum is believed to be close to £200,000.

The taxman issued a petition against him in November, according to public records at the Land Registry.

The Guardian has seen a document, obtained under the Land Charges Act 1972, confirming that Vics’ former owner was subject to bankruptcy proceedings.

Court records also show that he agreed in June 2007 to pay off the money in instalments following a hearing at Crewe County Court.

Mr Connett was first made subject to a bankruptcy order in 1993.

That was lifted shortly before he was installed as Vics’ chairman four years ago.

The Football Association has since confirmed to the Guardian that he did pass their Fit and Proper Persons Test prior to taking over.