CORRIE icon Bill Roache avoided being declared bankrupt today after his long-running battle with the taxman was dismissed.
The ITV soap star, 92, who has played Ken Barlow for more than 60 years, owed more than half a million pounds to HMRC.
A previous tribunal ordered him to settle a £588,015.18 tax bill after ruling he participated in “a tax-avoidance agreement”.
High Court papers obtained by The Sun showed he had paid back £41,666.65 by February.
The following month, Roache was ordered to pay off the remaining debt within 12 weeks or face being declared bankrupt.
The dad-of-five, who owns a £900k mortgage-free home in Wilmslow, Cheshire, was given more time to “allow for the sale of property”.
But HMRC today submitted an application to dismiss the adjourned bankruptcy petition brought against him.
Chief Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Nicholas Briggs accepted the application but ordered the actor to pay £1,129.20 in costs.
He told the Rolls Building in London during a minute-long hearing: “I will dismiss with the costs summary at £1,129.20.”
No explanation was given during the 2pm hearing as to why the insolvency case against Corrie fave Bill Roache was dismissed.
The £250k-a-year telly star was saved from being declared penniless for a second time following his bankruptcy in 1999.
Roache, who holds the world record for the longest serving TV actor in a continuous role, first appeared on the classic cobbles in 1960.
He did not attend today’s hearing after being pictured nipping into a bakery for some sweet treats in Cheshire on Sunday.
Roache was awarded an OBE for services to drama and charity in the Queen’s New Years Honours list in 2021.
Bill Roache’s life and previous money woes
Twice-wed dad-of-five Bill Roache holds the record for being the longest-serving TV star in a continuous role, having featured on the cobbles since Corrie’s first episode aired in 1960.
Roache is the world’s longest-serving soap star, appearing on Corrie’s very first episode more than 63 years ago.
In 2012, he boasted in an interview with Piers Morgan that he had bedded up to 1,000 women, and led to his co-stars nicknaming him “c**k Roache”.
But he said he regretted his infidelity which led to the break-up of his first marriage with Anna Cropper in 1974.
His second wife Sara Mottram died suddenly in 2009.
Roache found love again with weather presenter Emma Jesson but they split in 2013. His eldest son is actor Linus Roache, 59.
He was previously declared bankrupt in 1999, and two years later creditors estimated he had £600,000 in unpaid debts.
In 2012 he became a “designated member” of a Cayman Islands-registered firm called Twofold First Services LLP, which ran a scheme that included claiming tax relief on artificial losses of a land-owning firm.
A 2018 tribunal ruled it was a tax-avoidance arrangement.
It was branded “abusive and artificial” by the Treasury and a London court rejected the prospect of further appeals.
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