Debt or No Debt?
‘Bad boy of Brexit’ Banks accuses Noel Edmonds of fleeing to New Zealand to avoid paying back £1.3m
THE so-called ‘bad boy of Brexit’ Arron Banks is chasing Noel Edmonds for a £1.3million debt – and claims the TV host fled to New Zealand to avoid paying it.
Arron Banks, who bankrolled the Leave.EU campaign which helped win the 2016 referendum, used private investigators and satellite technology to track down the star to his alleged ‘hideout’.
He plans to serve legal papers on Edmonds there to try to recover £1,344,000. Mr Banks claims the ex-Deal or No Deal presenter owes him the money after his battle to recover millions from Lloyds Banking Group which were lost as part of a fraud.
Edmonds covered his legal costs by taking out an insurance policy with the Legal Protection Group – wholly owned by Mr Banks. A fee for the policy was due when a settlement was reached with the bank.
A source close to Edmonds said he denied fleeing the UK, or being liable for the sum.
But Mr Banks 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 he 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.’
It is thought investigators found Edmonds by comparing images from an interview he gave with a local TV station with those from a satellite. Edmonds, 71, was paid an estimated £5million by Lloyds after he claimed fraudulent bankers destroyed his media business, the Unique Group.
A source close to Mr Banks, 54, told the Mail on Sunday: ‘The premium became due in July 2019 when Mr Edmonds reached an out-of-court settlement. We wrote to Mr Edmonds in August 2019 but he ignored the communications.
‘We have established that Mr Edmonds emigrated in a hurry shortly after the settlement. Now we have tracked down his hiding place we are seeking to serve papers on him in New Zealand to recover the money.’
Edmonds – a former DJ who became a Saturday night staple with Noel’s House Party, featuring Mr Blobby – now lives near Auckland with wife Liz and her 16-year-old son.
A source close to the star said: ‘This 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.’