The court of Emperor Noel
I’M A CELEB... STAR’S DRAMA IN OZ & UK
Camp ‘emperor’ Edmonds sues his bankers for £60m
NOEL Edmonds’ debut on I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! has coincided almost exactly with the launch of his £60million claim against Lloyds bank.
As he began his role as emperor on the ITV reality show filmed in Australia, his lawyers were delivering legal letters on his behalf more than 10,000 miles away back in Britain.
In video recordings made before he flew to Oz, Noel declared Lloyds would “have to pay up”. He added: “I am totally convinced at trial we will win.”
Noel, 69, is seeking compensation from the banking giant after falling victim to fraud by former staff at a branch of HBOS, which Lloyds rescued at the height of the financial crisis.
Six people have been jailed for their part in the £245million loans scam.
Noel says it destroyed his broadcasting company Unique Group. His lawyer Jonathan Coad started proceed- ings yesterday with a hand-delivered letter after months of information gathering by private investigators and the police.
Explaining his reasons for agreeing to go on the reality show, Noel slammed Lloyds chief executive Antonio Horta Osorio and insisted: “He won’t win.”
Noel added: “It’s not going to do any harm to be in the jungle on ITV at peak time every single day for a few weeks.
“Hopefully I will stay in long enough that every time I eat a cockroach millions of people will be thinking of Antonio Horta Osorio.
“And do you know what? I may even enjoy eating that cockroach.”
Lloyds has set aside £100million for victims of the fraud between 2003 and 2007 at the HBOS impaired assets office based in Reading, Berks.
Corrupt financiers were jailed last year for the scam. Some of the illgotten gains were spent on prostitutes and luxury holidays.
Lloyds said it has reached agreements with most of the affected customers. Bosses added: “We have received Mr Edmonds’ legal letter and we will review the contents before responding.
“We understand the anguish he feels at the failure of his businesses, but on the information we have seen so far we can’t agree this is the result of actions taken by the former HBOS business.
“We have engaged with Mr Edmonds and we made determined efforts to reach a... solution through mediation in 2017, though this was not possible.
“We note that Mr Edmonds is now planning to formally file his legal claim next month. We are content for the matter to be considered by a court if he pursues his legal action.
“We cannot allow ourselves to be pressed into paying out money without cause just because an individual uses their celebrity status to attack us.
“We continue to make good progress compensating the 72 customers impacted by the fraud at the HBOS impaired assets office in Reading.
“We have now provided outcomes to 71 customers in the review and 64 of these offers have been accepted.”
Over in Oz, former Deal or No Deal host Noel selected Harry Redknapp as his campmate adviser and Fleur East and Sair Khan as his inner circle.
All four are now exempt from trials and chores. An ITV source said: “This is to create tension and break up the happy camp... Noel is at the centre of it whether he likes it or not.”
Tony Blackburn, the I’m A Celeb... winner in 2002, has said Noel vowed at the time he would not go on the show.
Tony said: “He said ‘I’d never do a programme like that... I think it’s cruel with the animals’. And I take his point.”