NO DEAL... Noel Edmonds ‘ fled UK for New Zealand to avoid paying Arron Banks £ 1m’
NOEL Edmonds has been accused of leaving Britain for New Zealand to avoid paying a £ 1million debt to the man who helped bankroll Brexit.
The host of Deal Or No Deal is alleged to owe Arron Banks the money over the TV presenter’s legal battle to recover millions of pounds from Lloyds Banking Group, lost in a fraud.
Banks, who co- founded Nigel Farage’s Leave. EU campaign, says he used private investigators and satellite technology to track down Noel to a “hideout” in New Zealand, it was reported yesterday.
He says he plans to serve papers to recover £ 1,344,000.
Edmonds, 71, was said to have covered his costs against Lloyds by taking out an insurance policy from the Legal Protection Group – owned by Banks.
Fuming
legal
The businessman alleges a fee for the policy was due when a settlement was reached with the bank. But the self- confessed “Bad Boy of Brexit” says he is still owed the money.
He said: “I’m fuming. Mr Edmonds has run off to a lush part of New Zealand with my money, dishonestly trying to hide from his debtors.
“We backed him when no one else would in his fight with the banks. He won and then headed for New Zealand without even acknowledging his debt to me and my company. No deal is not an option – cough up, or I will drag you back to the UK to face the music.”
But a source close to the broadcaster denied he fled the country or was in hiding – and disputed that he was liable for the sum. Investigators working for the tycoon, reputed to have earned £ 100million from his insurance businesses, are said to have tracked Noel by comparing images from a New Zealand TV interview with those from a satellite.
Their dossier describes “focusing on the positioning of the swimming pool in relation to the main dwelling house, the spacing of the box hedging visible in the background of the pool shot”.
Edmonds, who lives near Auckland with his wife Liz and her 16- year- old son, was said to have come to a financial agreement worth a reported £ 5million with Lloyds. It came after corrupt financiers from the bank’s Reading branch were imprisoned in 2017 for a £ 245million loans scam.
It destroyed a number of Noel’s businesses, including his Unique Group. Lloyds later apologised.
A source close to Banks said: “The £ 1million premium became due in
July 2019 when Mr Edmonds reached an out of court settlement with the bank. We wrote to Mr Edmonds in August 2019 pointing out the policy conditions but he ignored the communications.
“We have established that Mr Edmonds emigrated in a hurry shortly after the settlement. His solicitors have deliberately obstructed and delayed, but now that we have tracked down his hiding place we are seeking to serve papers on him in New Zealand to recover the money.”
The source for Noel said: “This issue will become a legal fight. Noel is taking action against the legal representatives who advised him to embark on litigation funding.”
His official spokesman did return requests for a comment. not