ABC Learning's Groves wants to move to Canada amid legal woes and debts

ABC Learning's Eddy Groves is seeking to move to Canada, despite still having several large legal cases still hanging over his head in Australia.

FORMER childcare czar Eddy Groves has applied to the Federal Court to leave Australia and move permanently to Canada, despite still having several large legal cases still hanging over his head in Australia.

The former head of ABC Childcare, who still has personal debts of $23 million, was due to front the court yesterday to personally argue his case but he is still overseas in Nevada in the US, and he is now due to front a Brisbane court tomorrow.

Groves, who drove a Ferrari and had a string of plush mansions around the world, was head of ABC Learning childcare centres when it went spectacularly bankrupt in 2008, and earlier this year, he was declared personally bankrupt.

Mr Groves was allowed to travel overseas last year for a holiday and to dispose of some of his real estate assets, but the application before the Federal Court involves a permanent move to Canada.

Mr Groves was born in South Africa in 1966, although his family lived in Canada. They emigrated to Australia when he was four, but he still has a Canadian passport.

Mr Groves's trustees in bankruptcy, Mark Robinson and Andrew Scott of PPB Advisory, are yet to give permission for him to move to Canada.

The court yesterday heard that Mr Groves' wife, Viryan Collins-Rubie, is setting up a business in Canada and is trying to secure a lease for a premises in Vancouver.

Carolyn Conway, lawyer for the trustees, told the court yesterday that Mr Groves had $23m in net debt and the application was unusual.

"Mr Groves' application involves not a visit but a relocation to Canada. He's leaving Australia permanently to reside in Canada," she said.

The Groves are due to arrive in Brisbane at 7am on Thursday and appear in court only hours later.

Other legal matters Mr Groves has outstanding in Australia include a dispute with his former wife Le Neve over ABC shares, and his bankruptcy, with trustees recently finding that he offloaded two luxury homes worth $9m to his wife in a web of complex property deals before he was declared bankrupt.

Additional reporting: AAP