Former World Darts finalist Mervyn King fears losing his home and three beloved dogs after being declared bankrupt
MERVYN KING fears he could lose his home and struggle to look after his three dogs after being declared bankrupt.
The two-time Lakeside world championship finalist says he has owed “north of £500,000” to HMRC after falling into financial ruin by not paying his taxes.
For the past two decades, the oche veteran admits: “I hid my head in the sand,” as the debts mounted up.
Last Tuesday, King, 58, was made insolvent at the High Court of Justice in London.
Now he and wife Tracey are concerned about their living arrangements following this judgement.
And if they have to move home, the Norfolk-based couple need to find a property where they can house their three large pets — a Pyrenean Mountain Dog, a Pyrenees-Newfoundland cross and a Golden Retriever.
King told SunSport: “Tracey is worried that we’re going to lose the house. But if we do, we do.
“There’s nothing I can do about that. It’s all down to the official receiver and what he wants to do.
“I’ll have to deal with him fairly and honestly, so anything he wants to know, he can have.
“I made the move to contact them. I knew this was coming.
“It was better than them finding me and saying, ‘Excuse us Mr King, why haven’t you paid tax for 20 years?’. Because I think I’d have been straight inside.
“Now it’s all going to be cleared one way or another — whether I lose everything and the house goes. If it does, then at least it’s back to square one and I’ll start again.
“The dogs are a worry. If they take the house, we’re going to have to find somewhere to live.
“We’ll have to take the dogs with us.
“Over the past four or five years, I haven’t slept a lot at night, worrying about this.
“The trouble is you think the gravy train will last for ever and it doesn’t.
“I cannot turn back time, unfortunately.”
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Ipswich-born thrower was one of the biggest names in the sport. In 2002, he was beaten in the Lakeside world final by Australian Tony David and then two years later he was defeated by Andy Fordham.
Yet all the money he was making during this period — and especially when he moved to the PDC in 2007 — was not made known to the tax authorities.
King mistakenly thought the income amounted to ‘winnings’ and not ‘earnings’.
It was during Covid — when he started delivering parcels for Amazon — that things came to a head.
King realised he was moving towards bankruptcy and “has been trying to survive since”.
He also set up a construction business but he has “got rid of it” as he is ineligible to be a company director.
One outlet to earn cash will be playing on the Challenge Tour and on the Seniors Darts circuit after he lost his professional Tour Card at the end of 2024.
The reason he wants to tell his story now is that he does not want anybody, particularly a young player, to follow his path.
King said: “It’s trying to help others so they don’t end up in this position. It’s not a place to be, trust me. I wouldn’t wish this on anybody.
“I want to hopefully try to help any up-and-coming youngsters so they don’t end up in the same predicament as I did. If I can help one youngster, then it’s worth doing.
“My message is: don’t do what I did. Don’t hide your head in the sand when you realise you’re in a bit of a slump with HMRC.
“For want of a better word, I was quite naive when it came to tax.
“Believe it or not, I actually thought with it being winnings, I didn’t have to pay tax on it, because it wasn’t earnings as such.
“I was then waiting for that big win, that really big win, so I could square everything up.
“Obviously that was not the case. From either organisation — the BDO or PDC — there was little or no help at all for guidance.
“They paid your prize money and left you to it. When I found out I should be paying tax, I was already x-number of pounds in debt to HMRC. It gets to a couple of years down the line and I’m in even more debt to HMRC.
“You think, ‘How the hell am I going to be able to pay this?’. It has been a very scary thing.”