Regal is an AIM-listed company with strong Australian connections, including many Australian foundation investors.

Its shares lifted 10% to 74.5p with news of his departure – another twist in company’s tale after its shares plunged from more than £5 to sub-70p this year.

Timis' removal from the board is understood to have been organised by the 30-year veteran of the Australian resources sector, and London’s secondary AIM market, Bill Humphries.

The departure of Timis was seen by other board members as the only option if Regal was to have a future, London’s Evening Standard reported.

“You go, or we go,” the newspaper reported him being told.

Humphries is understood be taking over Regal’s chairmanship.

The board room showdown followed allegations of Timis’ Romanian crime connections.

Romanian-born Timis, 41, has been convicted twice in Australia of hard drug offences.

The allegations may have been initiated by local opposition to a plan by a minerals company linked to Timis.

Toronto’s Gabriel Resources, established by Timis, plans to develop Europe’s largest opencut gold mine at the nation’s oldest settlement Rosia Montana.

The site is defined as ‘unique’ by the United Nation’s Education, Science and Culture Organisation (UNESCO).

It is reported a Romanian ecological group ‘Alburnus Major’ contacted the nation’s Supreme Court and was told there were three investigations into Timis.

Regal denies the claims, saying Timis is no longer connected to Gabriel and therefore should not be linked to Rosia Montana.

The initial allegations were muddied later this week when Romania’s anti-corruption watchdog, the Prosecutor’s Office, told the Reuters newsagency that Timis was not being investigated.

The company lost £220m in May when its much-promoted plans to produce oil in Greece suffered a major setback.

Regals’ shares plummeted when the hyped Kallirachi-2 well failed to produce commercial oil quantities.

West Australian-based foundation shareholders were among those affected by the slide when it took about three weeks for the shares to reach 90p from £5.

Timis’ departure came as the company also said it was still not using a million-dollar gas pipeline built for Russia’s Gazprom in the Ukraine, more than 18 months after the line’s construction. Production from Regal's Ukrainian gas assets has not lived up to expectations.

Shares in Regal dropped to 67.5p when the unused Ukrainian pipeline was announced, Britain’s Guardian newspaper said.

Regal’s spokesman said recruiting directors would be difficult after Timis’ departure.

“The attacks on the company have been on one uneconomic well. Its interests in the Ukraine are profitable, and it has just struck gas in Romania.”