CLARETS director Brendan Flood has filed a £250 million claim against an Irish bank following the collapse of part of his property empire.

Mr Flood, along with former business partner Mike Riddell, have lodged the writ at the High Court in London after dozens of their subsidiary companies were placed into admini-stration last year.

The Lancashire Telegraph revealed last year that Mr Flood planned to take action against Anglo Irish Bank, which financed some of the shopping centres built by his Modus Ventures firm.

Anglo Irish had itself already filed a £35million claim against Mr Flood, operations director at Turf Moor, and Mr Riddell following the collapse of Modus shopping centres in Wakefield and Blackpool.

But now the duo have officially lodged a £251million counterclaim against Anglo Irish Asset Finance, alleging breach of contract and misrepre-sentation.

In their claim, the pair allege that the bank misrepresented its financial situation by offering to finance the £181million Trinity Walk shopping centre in Wakefield in 2007.

Anglo Irish was bailed out by the Irish government last year.

The £251million writ is made up of £35million to fight the initial Anglo Irish claim; £19.4million relating to Houndshill in Blackpool; £18.8million for Trinity Walk; £28million for the Grand Arcade in Wigan which failed after the Wakefield and Blackpool sites collapsed; and £150million relating to the administration of Modus Ventures, the holding company for Mr Flood’s and Mr Riddell’s property empire.

The claim comes after Modus Ventures was placed into administration last year.

Mr Flood had sought to restructure Modus Ventures in April in a bid to ride out the recession.

However, just two months later, the firm, along with around 40 subsidiaries, was in administration with Manchester-based KPMG.

Most of the failed companies were involved in property, including the ones behind failed shopping centre schemes in Blackpool, Wigan and Wakefield.

Administrators also said around 100 other firms were thought to be related to Modus Ventures.

In a bid to claw back money for creditors, KPMG requested Burnley FC return a £3.7million loan made by Modus, which was payable on the club’s promotion to the Premier League.

The Lancashire Telegraph learned earlier this month that club bosses had paid back more than £5million for the loan.

Yesterday Mr Flood said he was unable to comment on the claim on the advice of his lawyer, Reuben Berg. Mr Berg was also unavailable for comment.

Mr Flood’s Manchester-based Modus Ventures remains in administration with KPMG.

Anglo Irish Bank and KPMG both refused to comment on the claims.