TAYLOR International failed to buy many of the British broker funds it had been chasing over the past 18 months.

The British brokers involved have been breathing collective sighs of relief over recent days, as news of the affair broke.

In March last year Mr Tony Taylor was predicting he would have £100 million of British broker fund money on his books by the end of the year.

He had signed heads of agreement with Bolton based Farmworth Thomasson to buy £43 million sterling of funds. Mr Taylor was planning to manage the money while the British broker would provide the administrative back up.

At the last minute the money wasn't forthcoming from Dublin and the deal fell through. "That was one of the luckiest days," one director recalled. "Although we didn't realise it at the time. We ended up buying the funds ourselves, which was not the plan."

After that fell through Mr Taylor approached another company, Lawson Alexander Blank, in the north of England. In May this year the company set up an independent brokerage LAM and Mr Taylor was appointed a non executive director.

However, the deal was never finalised and last week at an emergency board meeting the company severed all links with Mr Taylor.