Hendry told loan friend: Vultures are circling

FORMER Scotland footballer Colin Hendry told a friend that "the vultures are circling", when he asked for a loan of tens of thousands of pounds, it has emerged.

In an e-mail to Hector MacFarlane, a close family friend, Hendry said his "cash flow was zero" because he was not working.

The correspondence shows he asked Mr MacFarlane, who was a pallbearer at the funeral of Hendry's wife, Denise, to lend him 50,000 which would be paid back over six months.

However, the 61-year-old and his wife Williamina have yet to be paid back the sum, and warned that they may have to sell their retirement home in Thailand to cope with their own money problems as a result.

The couple have taken out an order on the 44-year-old at Blackburn County Court to try to reclaim 85,000 they say they loaned him, plus 5,000 legal fees.

They are at the head of a line of creditors pursuing the former defender for money, which includes online gambling firm, Spreadex, who are owed 35,000. It is understood Hendry's total debts are in the region of 800,000.

He already accepted an undisclosed sum for his large family home in Lytham, Lancashire, ahead of a bankruptcy hearing on 6 April.

In his e-mail to Mr MacFarlane, sent last February, five months before the death of Denise, 43, Hendry wrote: "Big Man. I'm in a bit o bother, Hec. Cash flow is zero and the vultures are circling. Only because I am not working, no income as such.

"So if you're serious about helping me for a bit I sure could be doing with it, pal."

Mrs MacFarlane, 58, said yesterday that while she and her husband knew Hendry enjoyed gambling, they were unaware of the extent of the father-of-four's debts. She added: "Denise told me about Colin's late-night sessions in his office which he had moved to the basement of their home. She said he was spending all his time down there. Later, we were told by friends about Colin's basement; that he had a computer linked to internet gambling sites.

"We were aware he was gambling but had no idea it was so much. Later, after we'd lent him the money, we were told he was totally hooked and bet on almost anything – for example, which football team would get the next corner."

Mr MacFarlane, originally from Glasgow, added: "We are not going to send the bailiffs around. But Colin should not round on his friends when, deep down, he knows who is the source of his own problems.

"There's been no contact since October. We thought we were helping him pay the mortgage and bring up the kids when Denise was ill, so he could spend time with her. But he gambled it all. To be honest, if he'd lost the money on anything else – like a treatment for Denise in America or something – we would not have batted an eyelid."