Al-Fayed, the £21m lotto winner and a bitter fallout over a Highland hideaway
AN American lottery winner is locked in a legal battle with former Harrods boss Mohamed Al-Fayed – over claims of unpaid rent at a cottage on his Highland estate.
Lynell Zelenka, who scooped more than £21 million in 2005, has been living in a three-bedroom holiday home on the Balnagown Estate for the past two years.
Egyptian billionaire Mr Al-Fayed bought the land, near Tain, Rossshire, in the 1970s after he became fascinated by a legend that ancient Egyptians ‘discovered’ Scotland.
Miss Zelenka, 63, claims she is friendly with the 91-year-old property tycoon and his wife – and even cooked them a beef wellington the last time they visited.
But the company which runs the estate on behalf of Mr Al-Fayed is trying to have her evicted – and demanding she hand over thousands of pounds they claim is owed in missed rent payments.
The case is being heard at Tain Sheriff Court.
Miss Zelenka has been in a highprofile rent dispute before.
In a case that made headlines around the world, her former landlord in the US impounded her pet dog and cat in 1989, as security against alleged unpaid debts.
She is disputing the payments being claimed by Mr Al-Fayed’s firm – and is outraged at finding herself in court.
She told The Scottish Mail on Sunday: ‘I like Mr and Mrs AlFayed very much. They are very nice people. But what has happened is kind of like a soap opera. I’ve been paying rent. It’s like somebody from outer space is just making up the numbers.
‘If I allow them to push me out, people will think I was over here and not paying my way. I don’t want to have a reputation as somebody who is not paying my way.’
Mr Al-Fayed, who is married to Finnish former model Heini Wathen, 64, bought Balnagown Estate nearly 50 years ago.
His global property portfolio has included London department store Harrods – which he sold in 2010 – and the Ritz Hotel in Paris.
Balnagown’s website states: ‘Mohamed’s connection with Balnagown began as a boyhood fascination after a tutor taught him that the Egyptians discovered Scotland.
‘As outlandish as it might sound, there is good documentary evidence to suggest this might be the case. From that moment forward he was entranced by the myths and legends of Scotland.’ He discovered Balnagown during a business trip north of the Border in the early 1970s and became ‘besotted’ by the estate, snapping it up when it went on the market.
As well as Balnagown Castle, the land includes smaller properties available as holiday lets.
Miss Zelenka, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, fell in love with the
Highlands in the mid-1980s while researching her Scottish ancestry.
The businesswoman – who runs her own company in the US oil and gas sector, and won $27,788,541 (around £21.4 million) on Lotto Texas in 2005 – decided to settle near Tain and, in February 2018, booked into a cottage on the Balnagown estate. She even arranged for her dog, a five-yearold saluki called Belinda, to travel by private jet from Switzerland to join her – at a cost of £20,000.
Miss Zelenka now lives in Grieves Cottage, which is owned by Balnagown Castle Properties, a London-based firm which lists Mr Al-Fayed as a person with ‘significant influence or control’. His son Omar Fayed is a director.
She said: ‘I wanted my own little castle. Mr and Mrs Al-Fayed and I had a wonderful meeting back in March. Because I had been on the estate for so long, they sent me a lovely little gift for Easter.
‘I love to cook, so I made a beef wellington, a lamb wellington, and a venison wellington and sent them up to the castle so the cook might have some relief one night. And they came over for drinks. They’re great people.’ Miss Zelenka insisted she had paid rent for the property.
Showing paperwork that appeared to indicate that tens of thousands of pounds had been paid in wire transfers from a Swiss bank to the estate’s account, she said she was reluctant to pay out any more.
A Balnagown Castle Properties spokesman said: ‘Lynell Zelenka remained in occupation after the end of her contracted stay.
‘The estate has used all reasonable endeavours to find a satisfactory outcome for all parties.
‘As a matter of last resort, the estate has applied to the courts to secure possession of the property.’
Miss Zelenka was ordered to pay the company’s costs after failing to appear at a hearing in December.
Sheriff Ian Cruickshank also told her to lodge a deposit of £3,000 at the court, after a lawyer for Mr AlFayed argued there was a ‘real concern’ she could return to Texas, leaving them to pay the expenses of bringing the case. A full hearing was set for later this year.
‘Someone from space making up numbers’
‘I sent him a beef wellington’