‘THEY TOOK OUR HOTEL , OUR HOME, AND LEFT US WITH ONLY A PENSION’
HOTELIER Nigel Henderson, who ran hotels in Montrose and Skye, is one of those who claim his business was destroyed by RBS.
Mr Henderson says he was asked to pay £240,000 in charges after he tried to settle a business loan he had with RBS in the late 1990s.
He refused and his case was passed to the Global Restructuring Group who eventually filed for bankruptcy.
The deal led to him losing the Skye hotel and his family home which is worth more than £900,000.
The opinion of a QC, who has reviewed Mr Henderson’s case, is that RBS structured loans in such a way that ‘early repayments could never be made’ and ensured customers had to pay the full interest owed.
In 1997 Mr Henderson’s business bought Portree Hotel in Skye, and he decided to transfer his financial arrangement to RBS.
Mr Henderson said: ‘RBS assured us that we could obtain 100 per cent funding for the purchase of Portree Hotel on a residential mortgage-type loan with a maximum penalty of three months’ interest in the event of early redemption.’
The Hendersons sold their hotel in Montrose, Angus, and told RBS they would settle the other loans with the proceeds from the sale.
But Mr Henderson claims RBS demanded payment of the £240,000 as a penalty for exiting the loan early. After they refused, the business was forced into bankruptcy.
Mr Henderson said: ‘We had retirement enforced on us at the age of 54 and are now living on a state pension and a meagre private pension which are the only things the bank couldn’t take from us.’