Edmonds denies fleeing to NZ to avoid £1m debt
No Deal not an option, says mogul
NOEL EDMONDS has been accused of fleeing England to avoid paying back a £1m debt to the man who helped to bankroll Nigel Farage’s Brexit campaign.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal that Arron Banks, who co-founded Mr Farage’s Leave EU campaign in 2015, has used private investigators and satellite technology to track down Mr Edmonds to a ‘hideout’ in New Zealand – where he plans to serve legal papers to recover a total of £1,344,000 (€1,504,000) from the TV presenter.
Mr Banks says that he is ‘fuming’, claiming Mr Edmonds still owes him the money as a result of the Deal Or No Deal presenter’s battle to recover millions of pounds from Lloyds Banking Group lost as part of a fraud.
Mr Edmonds covered his legal costs by taking out an insurance policy from the Legal Protection Group – wholly owned by Mr Banks. A fee for the policy was due when he reached a settlement with the bank.
Last night a source close to Mr Edmonds denied he had fled the country or was in hiding, and disputed being liable for the sum.
Mr Banks – the self-confessed ‘Bad Boy of Brexit’ – told the MoS: ‘I’m fuming. We backed him when no one else would in his fight with the banks. He won and then he headed for New Zealand without even acknowledging his debt to me and my company. No deal is not an option.’
Investigators working for Mr Banks tracked down Mr Edmonds by comparing images in the backdrop of a local TV interview given by Mr Edmonds with those from a satellite.
Mr Edmonds was reported to have come to a financial agreement worth a reported £5m with Lloyds after corrupt financiers from the bank’s Reading branch were imprisoned in 2017 for a £245m loans scam. The scam destroyed a number of businesses – including Mr Edmonds’ Unique Group – while the criminals squandered the profits on high-class prostitutes and luxury holidays. He received an apology from the group for the distress he suffered, but sources close to him said last night that a final legal settlement had not been reached with the bank.
A source close to Mr Edmonds said: ‘This issue will become a legal fight. Noel is taking action against the legal representatives who advised him to embark on litigation funding. Their conduct has been reported to the Solicitors Regulation Authority.’