ANXIOUS trustees of a working men's club fear they may lose their homes after being forced to find £33,000 to pay the court costs of a property developer they tried to sue.

Two pensioners, an unemployed steward and a self-employed repairman were told they must stump up the cash to the builder they tried to bring court action against for failing to construct a clubhouse.

The group, who ran the now demolished Promenade Working Men's Club, in St Benedict Road, York, say they have no way of finding the money, and fear developer John Guildford may seize their homes.

Now Maurice Bridge, Alex McMahon, Ted Greenall and John Driffield are appealing to former members of the club to help by making contributions towards their massive bill.

The four have already scraped together £29,000 towards the £60,000 they owe to Mr Guildford for his legal costs.

But yesterday a judge at York County Court turned down their application to repay the final £31,000 in monthly instalments - and they were ordered to pay a further £2,361.93 in costs.

Mr Bridge, 68, said: "We are at a loss as to how we can find this money. We'll receive a notice soon setting out what will happen if we don't pay. But we're worried Mr Guildford will try to seize our assets, and we could lose our homes."

Mr Driffield, 60, the former club steward, and his wife, Gillian, 60, were made homeless when the club was demolished, and have been forced to stay with their families.

Mr Driffield said: "I lost my job, so I'm unemployed and now have to sleep on my brother's sofa while my wife is living with her brother. We have been living six miles apart for 11 months after 40 years of marriage. We have no way of finding the money."

Mr Greenall, 49, who set up his upvc repair business a year ago, said: "We're all liable for the money, so if we don't pay, Mr Guildford could come and claim the whole lot out of any one of us."

The long-running saga began a year ago when the trustees launched a legal

battle against Mr Guildford for refusing to build a new club on the St Benedicts Road site - but ran out of money before the case came to court.

Mr Guildford countersued them for his lawyers' expenses, and the trustees agreed to pay £60,000 in an out of court settlement on November 10.

A judge yesterday ruled the trustees could not pay the remaining money in instalments because they signed an agreement to pay within 28 days.

Mr Guildford helped out the former working men's club in November 2002 by loaning them £100,000 to keep it afloat, while he sought planning permission to demolish the property and build a new, smaller club and 18 flats.

But the partnership broke down because councillors only approved a scaled-down scheme, and Mr Guildford exercised a clause in the contract allowing him to buy the property for a further £80,000.

Mr Bridge said: "We thought he was going to build a new clubhouse, but he sold the land to another developer for a large profit."

Solicitor Matthew Baker, representing Mr Guildford and his wife, Sharon, said at the hearing: "I have a great deal of sympathy for the defendants for their

predicament, but the fact is the defendants have taken independent legal advice from three firms of solicitors.

"Once they refused to vacate the property (the working men's club), my client was left with no alternative but to take action."

He said the trustees' legal battle "set off a whole chain of events" which involved Mr Guildford instructing a barrister and starting work on a case "which all costs money".

Updated: 10:20 Friday, January 06, 2006