A Gaping Gap at the Grand
Almost five year after the infamous dawn raid that saw Michael and Doris Stainer and their general manager arrested, Robert Richardson has finally abandoned the beleaguered [...]
Robert Richardson
Land Banking Leads to a Grand Cayman Lifestyle
“Buy land,” said Mark Twain. “They’re not making it any more.” “Then once you’ve bought it, sit on it for a while, apply for planning permission, and sell it on [...]
The Dog (HMRC) Ate My Homework
How many times when a schoolboy at Bedford School did Michael Stainer use the excuse “the dog ate my homework”? We will never know, but we do know that he has been using [...]
Revealed: Michael Stainer Owes The Taxman £1.1 million
When Michael Stainer, Doris Stainer and Robert Richardson were arrested in July 2015, they were held in custody for approximately nine hours. Stainer described the dawn raid [...]
The Puppet Master Exposed…
When Michael Stainer “illegally” removed Henry Bolton in November 2018, as the new director of his various companies, and replaced him with “Robert Moss’, little did [...]
The Great Escape: the Remake
As Michael Stainer (again) and Hallam Estates, the company he set up in 1995 to keep control of the Grand, both slide towards insolvency under the burden of £500,000 of [...]
Free Handouts or a Genuine Lifeline? How Councils are ‘Managing’ the COVID-19 Financial Support Programme
Deserted streets, closed or shuttered shops, hotels and restaurants. It’s like a scene from any one of a dozen end of the world movies. The one though, that leaps to mind [...]
The Stainer Scandal — Drowning in Debt part 2
Documents evidencing the extent of the financial mismanagement which led to the liquidation of eight companies under the directorship of Mr Stainer (pictured left) and [...]
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, [...]
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?
A year ago, we called Michael Stainer A Grand Fantasist and a Grand Failure. Now, as yet another legal defeat batters the sinking Michael Stainer empire, is it time to call [...]
The Grand’s owners last appeal thrown out of the High Court “Totally without merit”!
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 overthrow the July 2018 decision to [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Stuck in a moment you can’t get out of Mr. Stainer?
It must be hard being Michael Stainer (pictured below) as the multiple investigations continue into his complex web of companies, and now his personal finances. HMRC, Crown [...]
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 [...]