Ameet Kotecha, Panama Papers and Hythe Care Home: Explained

Boutique Care Homes is building a 66-bed care home on Hythe’s former Smiths Medical site, with the scheme regularly showcased as a local regeneration success. Coverage this month celebrated a “topping out” ceremony and promised an opening in 2026.

Behind the brand, however, sits a long-running corporate structure anchored in Churchgate-branded companies controlled by the Kotecha family. Public filings, archived trade documents and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ (ICIJ) Offshore Leaks database collectively show that Ameet Madhusudan Kotecha (pictured)—now the public face of Boutique Care Homes—was for years linked to Churchgate Services and to the Chigwell Road address that appears in the Panama Papers in connection with a UK-linked trust and a British Virgin Islands company.

The Hythe Vehicle And Its Bank Charge

The freehold for the Hythe project is held by Boutique Propco (Hythe) Ltd (company no. 13887499). The company has a single outstanding charge registered on 9 December 2022 in favour of “Roddy New Homes SPV2 Limited,” secured against the former Smiths Medical land in Hythe.

Boutique Propco (Hythe) Ltd’s latest accounts (year ended 31 March 2025) name Churchgate Estates Limited as the immediate parent and state that, in the directors’ opinion, the group is controlled by “RM Trust … which owns 80 per cent of the issued share capital of the parent company.”

Boutique Care Homes” As The Trading Name Of The Churchgate Group

Churchgate Estates Limited is the long-standing holding company for the Kotecha family’s care-home business. Its 2025 group accounts describe the operating brand as “Boutique Care Homes,” confirming that the consumer-facing name sits within the Churchgate structure.

The legal shell “Boutique Care Homes Limited” (company no. 10717308), incorporated in 2017, files as a dormant company; Companies House lists its SIC as “99999 – Dormant Company,” with dormant accounts filed through to 30 April 2025. That is consistent with activity being recorded in other Churchgate-group entities while the brand is used for marketing and operations. (Dormant companies are permitted under UK rules to file minimal “dormant accounts” when there are no significant transactions.)

Churchgate Healthcare’s Renaming – And A Timeline Point

Before the Boutique brand, the operating banner was “Churchgate Healthcare.” In July 2015 the company then known as Churchgate Healthcare Limited formally changed its name to “Churchgate Land Limited” (certificate issued 9 July 2015). That renaming sits squarely within the period covered by the Panama Papers dataset (which ICIJ notes is “current through 2015”) and roughly nine months before the Panama Papers became public in April 2016. There is no evidence of causation, but the timing is a relevant marker in the corporate chronology.

Ameet Kotecha’s Role & The Chigwell Road Link

Professional listings and Companies House records place Ameet Madhusudan Kotecha at the core of both eras. His ContactOut profile lists him as Managing Director at Churchgate Services from October 1999 to November 2018 and Managing Director at Churchgate Healthcare from July 2006 to June 2015; he is now presented as Founder/Head of the family at Boutique Care Homes. Companies House shows Mr Kotecha as a director of multiple Boutique/Propco and group vehicles and records his nationality as British and residence in the UK.

The thread that matters most for provenance is an address: 622 Chigwell Road, Woodford Green, IG8 8AA. Industry “contract leads” published in 2012 list Churchgate Services at that address—both as agent and as contractor—on a Bexley residential care-home scheme (with a listed contact telephone number) and elsewhere, placing Churchgate Services at 622 Chigwell Road during the Churchgate Healthcare era.

Companies House filings also show that Churchgate Estates Limited changed its registered office from 622 Chigwell Road on 28 July 2014, again anchoring the corporate base at the Chigwell Road premises before the mid-2010s transition.

Offshore Leak: What The Paradise Papers Shows

The ICIJ Offshore Leaks database contains an entry for “The Clearwater Trust”. The page lists, as an address, “c/o Ameet Kotecha; Churchgate Services; 622 Chigwell Road Woodford Essex IG8 8AA.” In the same dataset, a British Virgin Islands company—Mulberry Holdings Asset Limited—shows “The Clearwater Trust” as a shareholder, with its records drawn from the Panama Papers (Mossack Fonseca). The ICIJ pages explicitly state that data is current through 2015 and include a prominent disclaimer: there are legitimate uses for offshore structures, and inclusion does not imply illegality or wrongdoing.

Those two entries, taken together, link 622 Chigwell Road and Churchgate Services—by name and address—to “The Clearwater Trust,” and link that trust as a shareholder of a BVI vehicle, Mulberry Holdings Asset Limited. The British Virgin Islands is widely used as an offshore incorporation jurisdiction; the ICIJ’s database covers entities incorporated there within the Panama Papers leak. None of this, by itself, alleges misconduct; it is a matter of public-interest record drawn from a credible source.

RM Trust: The Present Day Controlling Party – What We Can & Cannot Verify

Today’s filings for Boutique Propco (Hythe) Ltd and Churchgate Estates refer to “RM Trust” as the controlling party of the group via an 80% holding in Churchgate Estates Limited. That is a private-law trust description rather than a company name, and there is no legal requirement that such a trust be a registered charity. A search of the Charity Commission register does reveal a historic entry titled “THE R M TRUST” (charity no. 1011593), registered in 1992 and removed from the register in 1996; there is no public evidence connecting that defunct charity to the “RM Trust” referenced in the current corporate filings. The reasonable inference is that the controlling “RM Trust” identified in the accounts is a private trust arrangement, not a UK-registered charity.

Shareholdings & Governance Snapshots

Churchgate Estates Limited’s filings and historic returns show the Kotecha family’s long-term control and, as at 11 November 2015, Ameet Kotecha with a 20% stake alongside trustees of an RM Trust—the snapshot that definitively ties Ameet Kotecha to “Churchgate” ownership at that time. The filing also shows the registered office history aligning with the Chigwell Road move away in July 2014.

How The Pieces Fit In Hythe

The Hythe development’s land company is inside the Churchgate group, the group trades to consumers as “Boutique Care Homes,” and the brand’s own communications present the Hythe build as a flagship. Meanwhile, the brand-name company “Boutique Care Homes Limited” remains dormant, which is consistent with the operational and property economics being run through Churchgate vehicles and project-specific propcos like the Hythe company.

Right To Reply

We put these findings to Boutique Care Homes and to Mr Ameet Kotecha, including the ICIJ entries naming “c/o Ameet Kotecha; Churchgate Services; 622 Chigwell Road” and the reference to “ Clearwater Trust.” and Mulberry Holdings Asset Limited based in the The British Virgin Islands. As of publication, no response had been received. For the avoidance of doubt, we emphasis that inclusion in the Offshore Leaks database does not imply illegality; offshore entities can be and often are used for legitimate purposes.

The Shepway Vox Team

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