Drowning in Debt
Behind all the legal shenanigans that make up a typical week at the Grand (pictured below), there is one inescapable fact. Debt……. “Creditors to right of them, [...]
Michael Stainer
A Grand Crime Solved!
The unsolved mystery of who brutally assaulted Michael Stainer at the Grand in late January 2018 was solved in Canterbury Crown Court on Monday December 2nd. 36-year-old, Roy [...]
It’s a Gas at the Grand
How would you feel if you suddenly got a red emblazoned final notice for over £2,700 for gas from an energy company you’ve never heard of? That’s what happened to one [...]
The Grand Escape — or Stainer’s Surrender?
What links the two pictures below? In a word “debt” On the left is a picture of the Marshalsea, immortalised in Dickens’s “Little Dorrit”. It housed a variety of [...]
Would You Stand By This Man?
Updated April 23 2021 @10:15am A year ago, we called Michael Stainer A Grand Fantasist and a Grand Failure. Now, as yet another legal defeat batters the sinking Michael [...]
The Grand’s owners last appeal thrown out of the High Court “Totally without merit”!
Updated April 30 2021 @09:45am In what had to be the last throw of the dice, the Grand’s freeholder, Hallam Estates lost its last battle in the High Court. Seeking to [...]
The curious case of the flat that never was
Prepare for some nasty surprises over the coming months as the Insolvency Service take control of the assets of the bankrupt Michael and Doris Stainer. One of these is the [...]
Grand residents win costs award against their Landlord
Hallam Estates ‘unreasonable conduct … was of such seriousness and gravity…..” In yet another defeat, Hallam Estates Ltd, the freeholder of the Grand, were ordered by [...]
Michael Stainer bailed to appear in Canterbury Crown Court
Michael Stainer has been sent for trial to Canterbury Crown Court on a charge of a breach of the Malicious Communications Act 1988, following an email he is alleged to have [...]
Local Tories Meet Rt Hon Dominic Raab MP at Rocksalt
This morning the Rt Hon Dominic Raab MP (pictured) and Former Brexit Secretary came to Folkestone. He had been invited by the local Conservative Party as part of the Back [...]
The Long Read: Vigilantes or Crime Stoppers? The Two Faces of FAPAC. (Part 1 & 2)
Fair Play and FAPAC: Crime Prevention or Vigilantism? Lucky Dover residents now enjoy the protection of one of the first Business Crime Reduction Partnerships (BCRP) in the [...]
The case of the Barrister who was never Instructed.
As the Grand continues to veer between tragedy and farce, we can now report on the case of the barrister who never was. For this we must thank a series of emails between [...]
High Court Judge Slams Stainer for “Purporting” to be a Director
In the latest twist in the tale of Michael Stainer’s legal attempts to roll back the inexorable tide of litigation, he fell foul of Mrs Justice May in the High Court. She [...]
It’s High Noon at the Grand – Folkestone
A major confrontation between the Insolvency Service and the ‘new’ management of the Grand is brewing and could result in both civil and criminal proceedings. On one side [...]
It’s Business as “Normal” at the Grand ….
Depends of course on what you call normal! And one can only feel sorry for those public officials, the Insolvency Practitioners, charged with making sense of the complex web [...]
The Grand: A victory for the residents.
The Upper Tier Property Tribunal yesterday (14th Jan 2019) threw out Hallam Estates appeal (you can download a pdf of decision at the end of this blog post) against the [...]
The Grand: “The Merry Go round stops”
With those words, Michael Stainer knew that his final appeal against personal bankruptcy was doomed. Appearing before Chief Bankruptcy Registrar Briggs in the High Court on [...]
A Grand History
Between April 1981 and September 1981 the residents of the Grand made six written requests for a summary of costs for service charges to Michael Stainer (pictured circa [...]
Black Days for the Unreasonable Stainers
Like an out-of-control juggernaut hurtling towards the precipice with no-one at the wheel, the Grand slides towards disaster. To be fair, there was someone at the wheel, [...]
Breaking News: Who is in charge at the Grand?
Following the shock new of the bankruptcies of Michael and Doris Stainer and the liquidation of more of their companies, just who is running the day-to-day activities at the [...]
The Grand Farewell: High Court Bankrupts the Stainers
Thirty two years after residents of the Grand first confronted Michael Stainer in Court, and three and a half years after HMRC arrested Stainer, his wife Doris and Robert [...]
High Court refuse Michael Stainer right to appeal Income Tax & Paye decision.
In March 2018 Mr Michael Stainer; who lost the ownership of The Grand in 1995, lost his appeal to the Upper Tier Tribunal of the Tax & Chancery Chamber, regarding unpaid [...]
The Long Read: Part 2: Is the Absence of Evidence, Evidence of its Absence? A Grand Question About Red Herrings.
How many times can a story be embellished, elaborated and even altered before it ceases to be true, or as we now say, “fake news”? We ask this in regard to this headline [...]
The Long Read: Allegations of breaches of human rights at the Grand?
Allegations of breaches of human rights at the Grand? Sounds absurd but that is exactly what Michael Stainer’s solicitor Andrew Duncan(pictured left), and his latest [...]
The Stainers’ Last Stand?
Has the music finally come to an end for the Stainers (pictured)? Has the 33 years of incessant battling through numerous court cases, insolvency proceedings, an individual [...]