# Bankrupt for £103,000 — what happens next?

- **Episode:** [218](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/218.md) (2025-07-29)
- **Type:** other
- **Tags:** bankruptcy, debt, financial-failure
- **Time:** 32:24–35:29 (start 1944s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/218?t=1944](https://truthliesandwork.com/218?t=1944)

---

[32:24] Al Elliott: Yeah, that's right
[32:25] Leanne Elliott: Bankrupt for £103,000
[32:27] Al Elliott: Mm-hmm
[32:29] Leanne Elliott: And you do what? What, what happens next? You look for a job? Do you move back with your mum and dad? What happened?
[32:38] Al Elliott: Yeah. So at that point, um, I got a job selling off-plan stuff. Now, off-plan properties, I thought it was legit. Turns out it wasn't. In fact, funnily enough, the, um, The person behind that has now been, uh, uh, the Serious Fraud Office have just finished an investigation and I believe that guy's looking at somewhere between 8 to 10 years in the big house in the, in prison. Um, so, uh, yeah, interesting, interesting times. But yes, I went and did that. And then, um, um, and then because I'd had my house repossessed, I was like, I know all about repossession. I'd looked into it. So, um, the, you know, the kid, remember he was 17 who was doing all my, all my, uh, credit card processing. He'd been to university at that point
[33:17] Leanne Elliott: Yeah
[33:18] Al Elliott: Um, and I said, do you fancy starting a business where we go and buy repossessed houses? And he was like, yeah. So we did. So we started a company. We bought, um, quite a number of houses. Um, so around about 40 houses in about, um, 18 months of people getting repossessed. And, um, that built our wealth. So we built, and basically that's the wealth that I suppose to, to this day we have. So it all, it, it all worked out all right in the end
[33:42] Leanne Elliott: It did work out all right in the end. I wanna ask you though about the immediate aftermath of being bankrupt, because that is, it's something that there shouldn't, there shouldn't be shame attached to it, but there is definitely a stigma attached to it, certainly in the UK, not in the entrepreneurial community, 'cause I hear people say like, you're not a real entrepreneur unless you've been bankrupt at least once
[34:03] Al Elliott: Mm-hmm
[34:04] Leanne Elliott: But certainly amongst the general kind of population, bankruptcy is a bit of a, is it? Yeah, it's, it's got a stigma. How did you, how was your mental health in that immediate aftermath?
[34:16] Al Elliott: Well, I think, I suppose immediately, like if we're talking literally immediately, I went to court and I, I don't, I'd never been to court before. Well, I had, I had been to court. I've been in court for the, um, magistrates licensing laws. But, um, I assumed this would be a different court. I assumed it'd be like The Bill, you know, where there'd be like someone in a wig and I'd be stood in a box and basically like it wasn't magistrates that I'd, and so they'd have a big gavel and they'd be like, I declare you bankrupt. Now take him down kind of thing. And actually, I sat in a room, I filled out some forms, and then an hour later she came back and went, there you go, you're bankrupt. And it was such an anticlimax that I went to a local pub and I think I just spent the afternoon in there with the little money I had, just having a few beers and feeling very sorry for myself. But truth was, this was what, 2007? So 2005, so I'd be 28. And something special about being in your 20s because you are so resilient. And so I was like, rather than going, well, mate, you know, my My life's over. I was like, okay, what can we do now? What's next? And so I went and got that, got that job selling dodgy stuff, which I didn't know at the time, um, and then started the business about a year later, maybe 18 months later
[35:22] Leanne Elliott: So same question you asked me. With that in mind, do you still see it as a business failure?