FORMER Weymouth Football Club chairman Ian Ridley hired a private investigator to delve into current Terras chairman and hotelier Martyn Harrison's financial affairs.

Resort leisure tycoon Harrison bought more than 950,000 of the club's 1.2 million shares earlier this year after investing more than £1 million in the Terras through his Hollybush Hotels firm.

But Mr Ridley last night told how he commissioned an independent financial investigator to look into the finances of Hollybush Hotels, which owns a string of Weymouth hotels including the Prince Regent, Riviera and the Russell.

The bombshell came when the pair clashed face-to-face at the club's annual meeting at the Riviera Hotel.

Mr Ridley produced a 23-page dossier disputing claims contained in the club's accounts that the football club made a trading loss of more than £250,000 under his stewardship.

He argued the club made a cash-flow loss of £48,000 - and revealed how Hollybush Hotels made a pre-tax loss of £173,000 during its last filed accounts in 2002.

The pair eventually shook hands at the annual meeting and bid to put their row behind them.

Mr Ridley said: "Weymouth Football Club, contrary to popular belief, is not owned by Martyn Harrison.

"It is owned by Hollybush Hotels, which is listed as holding 959,505 of the 1.2 million shares available. The club is now in the same position that has faced Telford United and Hornchurch recently. Both were owned by one man's company and if that went wrong, so could the club.

"When I discovered that the club was owned by Hollybush I commissioned an independent investigator to look into the company, since we should know who is in control and what could happen to the club."

Mr Ridley, a football writer and journalist, told the meeting the findings revealed Hollybush were a firm with heavy debts.

"Could it be that Mr Harrison is seeking to prop up his company by using the football club and its assets?" Mr Ridley said.

"It also means that the controlling shareholding in Weymouth FC could be seized and sold off to meet debts if Hollybush were to go into receivership or administration."

Mr Harrison, a director of 17 firms, said he pumped over £1 million into Weymouth in Hollybush's name for tax reasons.

He said £68,000 of that investment was a loan and revealed he signed an agreement not to profit from the club's stadium redevelopment deal with Asda.

"There is a signed agreement saying the assets of Weymouth Football Club belong to the football club and no one else," he said.

"I've invested more than £1 million in the club - if we can't succeed after that, the club does not deserve the support of the fans."

Two of Hollybush's hotels, the Prince Regent and Russell, were recently put up for sale. Mr Harrison disputed Ridley's claims that Hollybush were struggling financially.

"The football club is an asset of Hollybush and it's true that if anything happens to Hollybush, something untoward would happen to the football club," he said.

"But Hollybush is doing no better or worse than any other company. This deal gives more security to the football club, not less."

Finance director Chris Pugsley said the club was in a dire financial state before Harrison's investment.

"The money Martyn has put in is colossal," he said.

"I fear that had that not been the case there would be no Weymouth Football Club to talk about."