Debts of £1.5bn led to a Government investigation into the white knight hoping to rescue Oxford United, writes Chris Koenig.

Tycoon John Gunn was criticised by the Department of Trade and Industry after his former company collapsed with the huge debts. The British and Commonwealth finance group - B&C - went into administration in 1990 after a disastrous £408m acquisition of Atlantic Computers in 1988.

Earlier this year a High Court action was brought by the DTI with the aim of disqualifying him from holding a directorship. But after a 36-day hearing, he was cleared of blame.

Mr Gunn, the 56-year-old former chairman of B&C, told the Oxford Mail the United deal, which he described as "high risk", was one of the first he could consider since the investigation. Mr Gunn is acting as spokesman for Bahamas-based company Grenoble Investments, which is negotiating to buy the cash-strapped football club.

It also wants to buy and develop land owned by the city council next to United's half-built new stadium at Littlemore.

This is Mr Gunn's second attempt to run a football stadium within a leisure complex. Earlier this year he wanted to join the board of Chelsea Village, a complex around Chelsea Football Club in London but was hampered by the DTI investigation.

At the end of the case in June he said: "I have got absolute and total exoneration. "The DTI have sent me into the gulag for eight years and wrecked my career. This sort of thing should not be allowed to happen in this country." Mr Gunn told the Oxford Mail more than £1bn had now been recovered by the administrators - and there was more to come.

He added: "I am interested in football but I don't want to be seen primarily as a football fan.

"I see United's stadium as part of an integrated leisure development.

"It's a pretty desperate situation, but I am not prepared to put one penny into something that is potentially loss-making.

"This is one of two or three leisure projects I've got up and running, though this has the highest profile.

"There are others involved in the consortium to develop the leisure site, but it's a high-risk venture and if we can't do it we'll simply walk away."

The consortium plans to build a hotel, conference centre and health club on land to the south-east of the stadium.

It also wants to develop land on the opposite side, possibly including a multi-screen cinema.

Mr Gunn's current business interests include hotels in Norfolk and Suffolk and a 213-acre Californian vineyard in Napa Valley that produces 100,000 cases of wine a year.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.