This property developer tried to sell Britain’s ugliest crib, Updown Court at Windlesham in Surrey, for £70 million in 2008. It languished on the market for years and looked like a cross between a Tesco store and Center Parcs. The mansion included five swimming pools, a heated marble driveway and 103 rooms. Nobody loved it but after it was repossessed in 2011, it was finally sold on for £35 million. Meanwhile, Allen-Vercoe appeared in the dock at Southwark Crown Court in 2012 in relation to a case involving the £10 million mortgage fraudster Joanne Sarah Pier (also known as Zoe May Fletcher and Maria Micheala). He was cleared.
Two stories to keep beside you
Leslie Wexner (AKA “Les” Wexner)
Worth some £5 billion, Leslie Wexner has been described as “very shy” and “certainly not the showing off type of American”.
Lord & Lady Black (Conrad Black & Barbara Amiel)
She’s a British-Canadian journalist most famous for having an “extravagance that knows no bounds.” He was a media baron who denounced his Canadian citizenship to become a British peer. Life began to unravel in 2005 when he was charged and subsequently convicted on various charges of defrauding Hollinger, the company he led. “Citizen Black” got […]
Readers have their say
2 comments
Any idea what the trial was about as I cannot find any record of it? Was vercoe a defendant?
Please note, the case was dismissed against me and thrown out of Court as the Crown Prosecution Service was unable to offer any evidence of any wrongdoing and the Judge concluded I had been the subject of a fraud in the same way the other parties who were duped. I had made two innocent secured loans, both entirely through my lawyer who conducted all the paperwork, and it appears the loans were made to people who had stolen the identity of others. At all times I used my own name and was entirely open to scrutiny.