SNOOKER legend Stephen Hendry's company has gone bust after failing to settle unpaid debts with the taxman.

The seven-time world champion’s firm, Stephen Hendry Snooker Ltd, which he has had since he was just 15, is being wound up.

The move comes after Glasgow Sheriff Court heard an application by HM Revenue and Customs for a liquidator to be appointed to shut the company down.

Anybody owed money was given eight days to contact the court to make a claim.

Court papers lodged by HMRC claimed the company owed more than £85,000 in unpaid tax.

Robert Caven, of the accountancy firm Grant Thornton, has been appointed interim liquidator. A meeting of company creditors will be held on August 29 at Grant Thornton’s Glasgow offices and people owed money will discuss the appointment of a permanent liquidator.

Mr Caven said: “I am currently looking into the financial affairs of the company and will be reporting to creditors in due course.”

Edinburgh-born Hendry, 42, who lives in Auchterarder in Perthshire, is the sole director of the company which deals with promotions and sponsorship for the star, who is worth at least £10 million.

Papers lodged at the court show Hendry’s firm only paid £7953 of the £20,096 corporation tax it should have paid in 2008 after making £98,029 in profit.

A year later, the company failed to pay a penny on £252,575 of earnings, which increased the firm’s tax liability by £49,412.

Revenue and Customs documents also reveal the firm owes £23,502 tax on undisclosed sums which were taken from the company over the two years in “loans and advances”.

In total, Hendry’s company was being pursued for £85,015 in unpaid tax plus interest, and penalties of £3600.

A “warning letter” was sent to the company on May 4 but no reply was received.

Latest accounts for Stephen Hendry Snooker Ltd, filed in October last year, show it owed creditors £221,057 and had total assets of £221,157.

Speaking in 2004, Hendry said he had been advised to set up the company as a teenager to manage his winnings so they wouldn’t go to his head.

He said: “I’ve never played for the money. I never saw pound signs at the back of the pockets. Obviously it felt good to get my first big cheque. And I remember it well: £70,000 for the Rothmans Grand Prix when I was 18.

“It was a fortune ... but I never saw any of it. That’s the benefit of having great management right from the start. Since I was 15 I had a company set up, Stephen Hendry Snooker Ltd. I was getting paid a wage every week.

“Let’s face it, if you were getting cheques like that every other week at 18 you would go off the rails in a minute. But that kept my feet firmly on the ground.”

Hendry was previously a director of Snooker Properties Ltd and Blacar Properties Ltd, but both have been dissolved.

Earlier this year, the sports agency that represented Hendry collapsed, owing £709,000.

Stirling-based 110 Sports Group, which was given money by Scottish Enterprise, called in liquidators after a plan to sell pay-to-view snooker to Chinese customers flopped.

Following the collapse of 110, former key staff, including Ricky Cowan and John Carroll, joined the International Sports Management agency to head a new snooker division.

Last night, Hendry’s agent Ricky Cowan said: “Stephen is dealing with the matter directly with his accountant and we have no further comment to make.”

Hendry burst on to the scene in 1986 aged 17, and became the youngest world champion at 21 in 1990. Five successive world titles from 1992 to 1996 were followed by a seventh in 1999, finally eclipsing the modern record held by Steve Davis and Ray Reardon.