Eighteen months after leaving the Island with debts of more than $1 million, missing businessman Tony Duggan has broken his silence to The Royal Gazette to claim he is the victim of a "gross miscarriage of justice".

The Scot, who has not been seen on the Island since sailing off in his luxury catamaran Assegai in July 2001, blames "incompetent architects," deliberate withholding of payments, and the Bank of Bermuda for his financial woes.

Mr. Duggan's two companies, Precision Engineering-Technical Company and Office Supplies, have gone into receivership with debts of over $1 million.

In an e-mail to The Royal Gazette, Mr. Duggan says he is living in Britain, but denies he has been in hiding.

He says he has been attending to the affairs of his father, who recently died, and is "keeping his options open" about returning to Bermuda.

The former Oasis nightclub owner said he will be suing Bank of Bermuda, a creditor over the collapse of Precision Engineering, for "costs and other damages" and is in the process of appealing against "false awards and injunctions" given to the bank.

In May this year, Bank of Bermuda got a judgment for $528,651 against Mr. Duggan for a guarantee he undertook on an overdraft for Precision Engineering.

The Bank said last night: "We are aware of an appeal of the judgment by Mr. Duggan, which we will defend vigorously.

"We are confident that we have acted properly throughout on this matter and that the courts will uphold all actions taken by the Bank in collecting the amounts owed to it."According to Mr. Duggan, he doesn't own Assegai, which the bank has been trying to find and seize to recover money owed.

He said "the owners (whom he does not name) wanted it removed out of Bermuda as a safety measure".

In October this year, Capital G, which is pursuing Mr. Duggan for $893,683 placed an advert in a Scottish newspaper listing Mr. Duggan's address as the Perthshire village of Meikloeur.

The Royal Gazette reported last week that the Herald newspaper in Scotland had run a story saying Mr. Duggan had been traced to Spain.

But in his e-mail to The Royal Gazette, Mr. Duggan says: "Your portraying me as an international fugitive with the Police chasing me is extremely hurtful to my family and relatives at this time.

"Your story is completely untrue. I have never hidden anywhere or avoided dealing with this situation.

"I choose not to fight my battles in the press. However, this story has taken on bizarre and malicious twists perpetrated by vindictive individuals in Bermuda.

"I have had enough and I am now forced to publicly defend myself, which I resent. I will be suing those responsible for damage to my reputation and good name."

According to Mr. Duggan, some of the legal proceedings surrounding his companies caught him unawares when he was at sea after leaving Bermuda last year.

He said he had gone to the Bank of Bermuda for an overdraft extension because Precision Engineering was in financial difficulty and awaiting money "solely as the result of the actions of some incompetent architects".

When he left in July 2001, his lawyers Conyers, Dill and Pearman resigned, he said, because of a conflict of interest with the bank, which he alleges he was unaware of.

"The bank's lawyers exploited this loophole and went to court and obtained a judgment in excess of what the disputed figure was," Mr. Duggan states.

"This was possible because they obtained automatic judgment in default of an appearance by either my legal representatives or myself. I was unaware I did not have legal representation being out of touch at sea."

Four days after he slipped out the Island, Office Supplies was also put into receivership "despite being audited on the bank's behalf and being profitable.

"This company, like the construction company, was not behind in any bank payments or had ever been," stated Mr. Duggan.

According to Mr. Duggan, he had met Office Supplies' bankers, Bank of NT Butterfield, and they agreed to him leaving the Island for three days and said they should meet again in seven weeks.

"I was stunned upon arriving in port to find out the events that had taken place in my absence," he continued.

"What was there left for me to go back to with a heavily pregnant wife to look after who was not even supposed to fly when she was forced to leave Bermuda?"

Mr. Duggan states he employed Diel and Myers "immediately" to look after his interests.

Mr. Duggan accused the Bank of Bermuda of "inciting people to theft" by chasing down Assegai, which he says he does not own.

He further claims the bank withheld documents they were legally required to release for his defence and that he had to "threaten to subpoena the president of the bank in order to force them to hand over these documents.

"In any case, they have seized assets of value far in excess of any amount claimed. Most of those assets don't even belong to me".

Mr. Duggan described himself as a "minor shareholder" in Precision Engineering and one of the company's guarantors.

Mr. Duggan says he has documentary proof that payment to Precision Engineering was "deliberately withheld" for "work done, approved, accepted and certified".

He claims the Bermuda Land Development Company board was "fired by the present government for their actions regarding Precision".

The whole episode was indicative of some "rampant corruption" in some organisations in Bermuda which, he said, did the Island's reputation no good.