The Times - UK (2022-06-11)

the times | Saturday June 11 2022 13

News

An investigation has been launched
into the proliferation of “American
candy” stores and souvenir shops in the
West End amid concerns about tax
evasion and rip-off practices.
Westminster city council said it was
investigating 30 such shops on Oxford
Street for business rates evasion of
nearly £8 million.
The authority said it was taking en-
forcement action against some of the
properties under various civil proceed-
ings, including the breach of planning

The Duke of York is under pressure to

repay a debt of more than a million

pounds before he can collect the pro-

ceeds from the sale of a chalet, a Swiss

newspaper has reported.

Prince Andrew appeared to be free to

sell his £18 million chalet in Verbier

after he reached a settlement with a

creditor last year. A report in Le Temps,

a daily newspaper, claimed another

creditor had come forward, however.

The newspaper reported that an un-

named couple were seeking £1.6 million

from the duke after he agreed to a

settlement with a woman who accused

him of sexual assault.

The duke, who denied the allega-

tions, paid Virginia Giuffre an undis-

closed sum, thought to be about

£10 million, in March. It was reported

Sale of Prince Andrew’s chalet

held up by couple seeking £1.6m

that Andrew borrowed the money from

family members and is seeking to repay

it by selling Chalet Helora.

The Times understands the sale may

go ahead but the couple have obtained

an order that entitles them to some of

the money.

A source close to the duke said:

“Talks are under way to resolve the

matter, which are expected to be con-

cluded satisfactorily for all parties, but

it in no way prevents the sale of the

chalet, which is proceeding and is

expected to complete in due course.”

It was reported that the duke found a

buyer several months ago but the sale

was complicated because the house was

“under sequestration” after Swiss offi-

cials issued an order in 2020.

L’office des poursuites, the debt col-

lection authority, declined to comment.

Andrew had earlier encountered

problems selling the chalet because

Isabelle de Rouvre, who sold it to him,

said he still owed her £6.6 million. The

French socialite said she had recovered

the money after a gruelling process.

She said she pitied the couple seeking

more than a million pounds because of

the stress that she experienced after

selling the chalet to the prince and

Sarah, Duchess of York, in 2014.

“It was a horrible experience,” she

said. “I do not understand how he oper-

ates and I feel very sorry for people who

are involved with him in business. It is

really rather unbelievable. He caused

me such stress and now it is claimed

other people are owed money too.

“They [Andrew and Sarah] are so

crazy. He [Andrew] is an absolute fool

and I just cannot understand how he

goes about his life. Really it is a tragedy

and so bad for the Queen. I don’t know

how she manages with them.

“I am lucky that a deal was made and

it is the end of the matter for me. I am

fed up with the whole thing.”

Andrew settled his debt with de

Rouvre last year. She had sold the

chalet in Verbier with seven bedrooms

to the duke and his former wife for

£18 million. They failed to pay the cash

amount of £5 million, however, and she

agreed it could be deferred until

December 2019, with interest accruing.

The pair did not honour the agree-

ment despite repeated demands.

Professor Nicolas Jeandin, a deputy

judge at the Geneva civil chamber, told

Le Temps: “A sequestration is a provi-

sional measure. In a way, we block

everything and we see what we are

going to do next.

“The objective is to prevent the debt-

or from disposing of the sequestered

asset. The latter is blocked to allow, in a

second step, the sequestrating creditor

to have it realised in his favour.”

Alexandra Williams Geneva

Jack Malvern

Boss linked

to Unite

centre jailed

over drugs

Andrew Norfolk, Matt O’Donoghue

The head of a company that oversaw
health and safety during the building of
a £100 million conference centre for
Britain’s most powerful trade union was
jailed for 14 years yesterday for his role
in a drugs conspiracy.
Martin Grant, 33, of Liverpool, plead-
ed guilty to conspiracy to supply
cocaine, heroin, amphetamine and
cannabis. A judge said he directed the
sale of drugs “on a wholesale scale”.
Grant committed some of the offen-
ces while he was managing director
of Safety Support Consultants (SSC),
a company owned by the son of Joe
Anderson, Liverpool’s former mayor.
SSC won a contract to act as health
and safety consultants on a project to
build a 1,000-capacity conference
centre, hotel and regional offices for the
Unite union in Birmingham.
The lead contractor was another Liv-
erpool company, the Flanagan Group,
run by an associate of Len McCluskey,
the union’s former general secretary.
The Times disclosed last year that
Grant became a director of SSC within
weeks of leaving prison in 2019 after re-
ceiving a ten-year sentence for a Stan-
ley knife attack on a man.
Liverpool crown court was told his
role in the drugs conspiracy was uncov-
ered when police obtained encrypted
phone messages in which he discussed
deals to supply 26kg of cocaine, 21kg of
heroin and 150kg of amphetamine.
Detectives also recovered a photo-
graph of Grant’s son wearing the top of
a football club in Cali, Colombia, the
home of a leading drugs cartel.
Judge Denis Watson QC said Grant’s
aim was “the widespread supply of
drugs to Wolverhampton, Leicester,
Blackburn and Carlisle”.
SSC’s involvement in the Birming-
ham project was first reported when
The Times disclosed concerns about the
spiralling cost of the construction.
When it was proposed in 2012, the
union was given a £7 million estimate.
In January 2021, McCluskey told the
union’s executive council the cost of the
complex, completed in December
2020, was £98 million. He said it was a
“sensible investment of members’
money resulting in a world-class facili-
ty” and maintains he had “no dealings
with the awarding of contracts”.
McCluskey, 71, retired in August last
year. His successor, Sharon Graham,
ordered a QC-led inquiry into the
project after it was revealed that an in-
dependent valuation of the complex
found it was worth £29 million at most.
She said that there was a “potentially
significant loss” for the union.

Crowd funding Britain is at risk of losing the Confirmation, a 17th-century painting by Nicolas Poussin, the government has warned. An export bar gives until January

for a gallery or institution to meet the £19 million price for the work, which forms part of Poussin’s series The Seven Sacraments and has been in Britain for 240 years

NICOLAS POUSSIN

Some stores were accused

of not displaying prices

American-style candy stores leave a bitter taste in the West End

Andrew Ellson
Consumer Affairs Correspondent

rules. The shops did not appear to be

“commercially viable”, the council said

in a statement.

It added: “We believe these proper-

ties are used to avoid business rate bills

and possibly commit other offences.”

There has been an expansion across

the West End in stores selling Amer-

ican sweets, often at inflated prices, and

other products and services such as

vaping oils and foreign exchange.

At least ten US-style sweet shops can

be found between Marble Arch and

Tottenham Court Road Underground

stations. Some of the stores are report-

ed to be charging unwitting customers

up to £45 for packets of sweets. The

council said it had received complaints

about the shops not displaying prices,

with items costing more than

expected at the checkout, as

well as selling out-of-date

food, novelty sex sweets

and counterfeit bars.

The council said it

had seized nearly half

a million pounds worth

of counterfeit and

illegal goods from the

stores. Almost 4,500 disposable vapes

with excessive levels of nicotine or not

conforming to UK standards were

found in one week.

The tax inquiry will exam-

ine a purported tactic

whereby owners use a

single store name but

set up multiple limited

companies to serve as

legal owner before clos-

ing them to avoid being

liable for business rates.

Adam Hug, the council

leader, said: “The problem

is owners of buildings are

turning a blind eye to those who sublet

them as it means they are not liable

for business rates. We will be stepping

up pressure on landlords to make it

clear they are responsible for Oxford

Street being overrun with these kinds

of stores.”

The council said it was difficult to

take action because the stores often

operated under complex chains of

leases, sub-leases and licences.

It said: “We are urging owners to take

advantage of initiatives like our West

End pop-up scheme, which has helped

some landlords secure a reduction of 70

per cent in the business rates liability.”

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