Family’s £2.5m fight over spoils of the Sherlock Holmes Museum
THE boss of The Sherlock Holmes Museum is locked in a “poisonous” High Court feud with his siblings that has run up £2.5million in costs.
Businessman John Aidiniantz and his family have made more than 100 court appearances during 10 years of warring focused on the attraction at 221B Baker Street, supposed home of the fictional 19th century sleuth.
The museum, set up in 1989, was the brainchild of John and has made millions, introducing tourists to the “gas-lit world of the iconic detective and hisVictorian surroundings”.
John worked there with siblings Linda and Stephen Riley plus Jenny Decoteau – but the relationship fell into “bitterness and contempt”.
Vulnerable
Now John, sole director of Rollerteam Ltd which owns the museum, is fighting a new battle with Stephen, 59, claiming he has no right to stay in their late mother Grace’s house at Battersea, south London, where he has been for 25 years.
Yet vulnerable Stephen and his sister Linda, 60, insist he should not be forced out of the £1million property as he was promised a “home for life”.
The London court heard the museum, close to Marylebone station in central London, is a “goldmine”.
But the family, according to Linda’s barrister Cheryl Jones, “collapsed in a welter of bad feelings and cross-allegations” in 2012.
The initial dispute centred on £1.8million of takings from the museum, ownership and occupancy of properties and the care of Grace.
The court heard last week that, in 2013, the family attempted to settle their differences with a consent order and declaration of trust.
John was accepted as the sole owner of the museum company with Linda and Jenny, 62, promised they would each get £1million while the Battersea house was put into a trust for the benefit of his company, with Grace and Stephen still living there.
The current row involves John claiming the Battersea property should be handed to his company “vacant”.
He and Rollerteam allege Stephen agreed in 2013 that he would have to move out eventually – but Stephen claimed: “It would be ridiculous for me to say ‘Yes’ to that. Jenny and Linda had got £1million.
“I didn’t get £1million because I was told I would be ‘all right for life’.”
The court heard the parties will have one more attempt to transfer the house with Stephen still in it before Deputy Master Bowles decides whether he has a right to stay there.