Aviation firm wound up

A High Court judge has ordered the winding up an Irish aviation leasing consulting company over the alleged non-payment of a multimillion-dollar loan owed in relation to the purchase of a luxury jet which the court heard was later used by former Indian Premier League boss Lalit Modi to fly around that country.

The 13-seater Bombardier Challenger 300 was bought with a loan facility of over $15m (€13.4) 11 years ago, the High Court heard, and has been kept at a warehouse at Biggin Hill Airport, London, for the last nine years.

According to the petition filed by Corporate Aircraft Funding Company LLC, with an address at Avenue of the Americas, New York, seeking to have Peel Aviation Ltd, with a registered office at Furry Park Road, Dublin 5, wound up, it is claimed the indebtedness to it was in the sum of over $14m, made of the principal sum of $12m and about $2.5m expended in relation to the storage, maintenance of Peel Aviation’s only asset, the aeroplane.

A $15.5m loan facility had been advanced to Peel Aviation as part funding of its purchase of a Bombardier Challenger 300 aircraft in 2008. It was claimed the last payment received in relation to the loan was in 2016.

The aircraft, it is claimed, is owned by Peel Aviation and is registered with the Indian aviation authority.

It has also been the subject of court proceedings in India. Peel Aviation, it is claimed, in 2008 entered into a lease agreement with Golden Wings Pvt Ltd which is registered in India, and the import of the aircraft to India was sanctioned.

When importing the aircraft, it is claimed a customs duty exemption was claimed in relation to planes used for non-scheduled air transport services.

But in 2010, the director general of Civil Aviation in India (DGCA) decided after certain investigations the plane was being used for other than non-scheduled air transport services and it is claimed it was being used for the personal use of Lalit Modi.

The Supreme Court of India later held the DGCA could exercise jurisdiction regarding the deregistration of the aircraft notwithstanding its physical location in the UK and in October 2013, the DGCA recorded the plane was liable to be confiscated and refused to de-register the aircraft on public interest grounds.

In the High Court yesterday, Ms Justice Miriam O’Regan granting the order for the winding up of Peel Aviation Ltd put a stay on the order until today to allow for an affidavit to be filed by the appointed liquidator Shane McCarthy of KPMG.