News

Who owns Slebech Park?

Published

9 years ago

September 22, 2015

IT RECEIVED over £1m in public funding, but the ownership of the upmarket Slebech Park Hotel is shrouded in mystery , The Herald can reveal.

In 2003/2004 the local authority approved European Regeneration and Development Funding of £1,026,410 for the creation of a 38- bed residential conference centre, specifically designed to provide a premium level of accommodation and state of the art conferencing facilities. Further funding for the project was obtained from both the Welsh Tourist Board and the Welsh Government.

It was claimed the whole project would cost £6m, but later assessments of the investment placed the figure at nearer £4m, meaning that one quarter of the cost was borne by the public purse.

The prestigious hotel sank into administration in November 2011 and was placed on the market the following spring for £1.95m.

At the time, the hotel’s owner, Mr Geoffrey Phillipps, said that he hoped to buy the hotel back from the administrators.

In August 2013, it was announced that the hotel had been bought out of administration.

The investment was claimed to have protected the jobs of 20 full time staff employed at the venue while it was hoped the investment would create another 45 extra jobs over the next three years.

However, The Herald has discovered that the hotel and a portion of neighbouring land is owned by a company registered outside the UK for tax purposes.

Traverse Developments Ltd is shown as completing its purchase of Slebech Park in September 2013 for the sum of £1,826,615. The company is registered in the British Virgin Islands.

The data has come to light following a series of articles in Private Eye magazine. Having linked thousands of land title registries to specific addresses and used the Freedom of Information Act, researchers managed to track all leasehold and freehold interests acquired by offshore companies between 2005 and 2014 and have placed that information online.

Property investment and development companies routinely use offshore corporate vehicles to own major buildings to achieve capital gains tax and stamp duty advantages.

And Slebech Park is by no means the only slice of land in the county to have a Caribbean connection.

In Milford Haven, a significant tranche of waterfront land on the opposite bank from the Blackbridge development site is owned by another BVI registered company.

Duncliffe Finances Ltd are shown as having purchased the land in 2008 for a stated price of £1.2m.

BVI companies are heralded on one incorporation site as ‘exempt from tax, suitable for virtually any international business activity, has a flexible organizational structure, is not burdened by excessive reporting and record-keeping requirements, and maintains strict confidentiality provisions’.

Confidentiality is one of the key features of the BVI Business Company as details of the company beneficial owners, directors and shareholders are NOT part of public record. Register of Members, Register of Directors and all Minutes and Resolutions by the Company are kept only at the offices of the Registered Agent in complete confidentiality.

It seems, therefore, that the benefit of over £1m of public money is being felt most keenly by shadowy shareholders of a secretive corporation based thousands of miles away whose main purpose is to avoid tax. For the avoidance of doubt, no assertion is made as to the involvement of the previous owners of Slebech Park in such a corporation.

News

Welsh teenager jailed for creating 3D-printed gun at home

Published

42 mins ago

November 14, 2024

Tom Sinclair

A TEENAGER who assembled parts for a viable semi-automatic firearm using a 3D printer has been sentenced to nearly five years in prison.

Owain Roberts, 19, purchased nuts, bolts, steel barrels, and metal rods online, constructing components of an FGC-9 gun with the aid of a 3D printer.

Detectives said that this case marks the first of its kind in Gwent, where Roberts admitted to manufacturing a firearm component. He appeared at Cardiff Crown Court on Thursday (Nov 14).

In April, firearms officers executed warrants at two Newport addresses connected to Roberts. Seized items included a 3D printer, two laptops, six plastic reels, and parts for an FGC-9 firearm.

PC Tom Meazey, from Gwent Police’s East Serious Organised Crime team, stated: “Illegally-held firearms can lead to tragic consequences and devastate innocent people’s lives. To own a firearm, including a printable one, is illegal in the UK without a valid firearms certificate. Roberts’s reckless actions in buying items capable of manufacturing a firearm placed people at direct risk.”

This rare and complex investigation involved support from the National Crime Agency (NCA).

Roberts received a prison sentence of four years and nine months.

News

Milford Haven man caught with indecent images of children spared jail

Published

1 hour ago

November 14, 2024

Tom Sinclair

A MILFORD HAVEN man, Gareth MacDonald, 23, has been sentenced after pleading guilty to downloading over 1,000 indecent images of children.

MacDonald, of Meyler Crescent, was arrested in March 2023 following a police search of his home. Acting on intelligence, officers seized multiple electronic devices, and MacDonald admitted to downloading the illegal images.

Swansea Crown Court heard that MacDonald accessed material spanning all severity categories, including images depicting the rape of pre-teen children.

He reportedly told police he had “become bored with legal pornography” roughly a year prior to his arrest.

Judge Geraint Walters sentenced MacDonald to eight months in prison, suspended for two years. As part of the sentence, MacDonald must:

Complete 20 rehabilitation activity days
Participate in the Horizon programme
Register as a sex offender for 10 years
Comply with a 10-year sexual harm prevention order

Judge Walters remarked that MacDonald had been accessing illegal content “for some considerable period of time” despite knowing it was wrong.

However, MacDonald, who has health problems, dodged being sent to jail and was able to leave the court a free man.

Crime

Ceredigion man sentenced for selling £150,000 in illegal DVDs

Published

1 hour ago

November 14, 2024

Tom Sinclair

A CEREDIGION man has been sentenced for selling counterfeit DVDs worth £150,000 under major brand names without authorization.

David Robert Thomas, 47, from Sarnau, ran a sophisticated online operation, producing and selling fake DVDs labeled with brands like Netflix, Amazon, Disney, Sony, and Universal City Studios LLC. Thomas used seven different websites and managed multiple bank and PayPal accounts, including those of family members, to carry out his business.

Councillor Matthew Vaux, Ceredigion County Council’s Cabinet Member for Public Protection, said: “Counterfeiting is often thought of as a victimless crime, but it harms the local economy by undermining legitimate businesses that pay taxes and create real jobs. This result sends a clear message that counterfeit sales will not be tolerated, and we will act against offenders.”

Thomas pleaded guilty at Swansea Crown Court on Monday (Nov 11) and was sentenced to 20 months in prison, suspended for 18 months. His sentence includes a four-month curfew and fifteen Rehabilitation Activity Requirement days.

Under the Crime Act 2002, forfeiture proceedings will follow to reclaim the financial benefits from Thomas’s criminal activities. Judge Richards took into account the market value of equivalent genuine goods, the sophisticated setup of Thomas’s business, and his previously clean record in reaching the sentencing decision.

The case was brought forward successfully by Ceredigion County Council’s Trading Standards Service.