LARGE parts of a former Bury FC chairman's empire have crumbled into dust - with more than £27 million owed to creditors.

Stewart Day, and his Mederco development arm, had major student property schemes in progress up and down the country.

The Blackburn-based property magnate, who sold the Shakers to current owner Steve Dale back in December, had also secured a lucrative deal to sell off more than 250 parking spaces at the club's Gigg Lane ground.

As part of the scheme, the firm had pledged to provide a nine per cent return for investors, with the transaction currently £190,000 in arrears.

In December, Mr Day stepped down as Bury chairman, a position he had held since May 2013, a period which saw a number of financial problems for The Shakers.

Administrators for several of Day's companies, all based out of a small rented offices in Cunningham Court, on Shadsworth Business Park, have spelled out the debts each of his ambitious schemes have incurred in recent years.

Dozens of investors, ranging from corporate lenders to people who have paid out deposits on student accommodation, look set to lose out, under terms proposed by two sets of different insolvency experts.

The news comes just a day before Bury face a winding-up petition in the High Court.

Further investigations are also being made regarding any inter-company loans and debts between the various Mederco outfits and Bury FC, joint administrator Phil Deyes confirmed in a report.

READ MORE: MP writes to Bury FC owner to seek assurances over club's future

Manchester-based Leonard Curtis has been drafted in to deal with the winding-up of Mederco Ltd, which has interests in parking spaces at Appleton Point, in Bradford, as well as at Bury FC.

Earlier this year residents at Appleton Point were forced to move out after West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service refused to grant a fire safety certificate for the building, which was originally developed by Mederco.

Mr Deyes, in a report, said Mederco had sold their interest in the 160 flats there to Appleton Point Management Ltd, in May 2015, for £850,000.

But the firm retained the parking provisions there and had sold off 34 of the 40 parking spaces, for under-leases of £9,995 each.

Another Mederco scheme, for student housing at Great Moor Street, in Bolton, also collapsed, according to Mr Deyes, when the funder, a company called Collateral, went bust. This left Mederco owing builders Tamworth-based Quantum Construction £1.96million.

An estimated £3.95milllion is owed to unsecured creditors by Mederco, including Quantum.

Duff and Phelps, another Manchester administrators, has been handling the affairs of three related Day outfits, Mederco Cardiff, Mederco Glasgow and Mederco Richmond Road.

For Mederco Cardiff planning permission was secured, after a long battle, for 350 studio flats with a community centre and boxing club, on land to the north of the city, situated between two university campuses.

Joint administrator Philip Duffy said that further delays in the planning process had resulted in construction work still not commencing by January 2019, following which the scheme’s backers pulled the plug, prompting the Cardiff company to go under.

More than 100 investors had placed deposits of between 25 and 75 per cent for the studio flats. The total amount owed to unsecured creditors is £9.26million. Another £6.46million is owed to the secured creditor Saving Stream Security, a division of Lendy Ltd.

Mr Duffy said: “The joint administrators are now reviewing the financial position of the company and liaising with the selling agents to devise a strategy that will maximise any return to creditors, including the sale of the property.”

In the case of Mederco Glasgow, land close to the city’s High Court was identified and planning permission secured in late 2016 for 169 apartments, with a residents’ gym, cafe and laundry.

Mr Duffy and his colleague Steven Muncaster were appointed as joint administrators and found that the Glasgow company had become insolvent after considerable sums were left owing to a secured creditor, again part of Lendy Ltd, before construction had even begun.

An estimated £4.5million was owed, set against the property’s value, of around £3.26million.

Mederco Richmond Road was based around a site which formed part of the Bradford Learning Quarter and planning consent was gained in 2011 and modified in 2014.

Mr Duffy said in a further report that, again, this company had become insolvent before construction had started, with Lendy Ltd owed £2.9million, against potential assets of £1.2million.

Mr Day, 38, who has a previous registered address in Blundellsands, on Merseyside, still has interests in Mederco Huddersfield and Mederco BFC, which are listed as continuing to trade.