A British businessman who told a court he was lying in an induced coma has instead found himself the subject of an arrest warrant after prosecutors said there was no evidence he was in hospital and that he had been seen shopping at Tesco.
Peter Etherington, 68, was due to appear before Bradford Magistrates Court on Friday to answer a charge brought by the Insolvency Service but failed to attend. An email, said to be from his daughter, claimed he was in hospital in an induced coma.
The explanation quickly unravelled in court.
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Prosecutor Mrs Clegg, representing the Insolvency Service, told magistrates that Etherington’s absence was “not unexpected” and that repeated requests for medical proof had gone unanswered.
“On December 15 we emailed him to remind him of today’s hearing,” she said. “We received a response purporting to be from his daughter claiming he was in hospital in an induced coma. We asked for medical evidence, but no evidence has been provided.”
According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the prosecution said Etherington had continued to engage online during the same period he was supposedly unconscious.
“He signed papers the day we got the email,” Clegg told the court. “There were also updates on his Facebook page on December 21 and 22. There is also information to suggest he has been seen in Tesco.”
The hearing marked the second time the case had been listed. Etherington had failed to attend an earlier hearing scheduled for October 24, claiming at the time that he was due to undergo surgery.
“Although there were some concerns about this letter and the form it took, we were prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt,” Clegg said.
That benefit evaporated after checks with several hospitals, including St James’s Hospital and Leeds General Infirmary, found no record of Etherington being admitted as a patient.
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Etherington, of Belle Vue, Ilkley, is charged with being involved in the running of PP Global Media Ltd while disqualified from acting as a company director under an existing court order. The alleged offences relate to a period between April 2019 and October 2022 and could carry a prison sentence.
With no medical evidence to support the coma claim, magistrates said there was nothing before the court to justify his absence and issued a warrant for his arrest.
The case has since attracted attention for its unlikely twist, with a supermarket sighting proving more persuasive than claims of a hospital bed.
