I Owe £100million. Will I Lose my House? (Turner/Bovey Extravaganza)

PasturesNew

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/100562/Anthea-Turner-We-may-lose-our-mansion.html

FORMER TV golden girl Anthea Turner last night sobbed as she revealed she’s lost an astonishing £100 MILLION in the credit crunch.


The Perfect Housewife presenter told how her husband Grant Bovey’s buy-to-let empire had collapsed, and wept: “Our backs are against the wall—we may even lose our mansion.”

But today we can also reveal how she POCKETED a staggering £1.2 MILLION from one of their firms as it went bust owing creditors £200,000.


Worry


In an exclusive interview with the News of the World Anthea—who owns a £5 million estate in Surrey and a £5 million chateau in France—said: “We are in it like lots of other people in this country who have been bitten by economic circumstances. I can’t remember the last time I slept properly because of the worry.”


And husband Grant, 47—whose three companies have gone bust—said: “Our net worth was over £100 million—now it’s an awful lot less, just a small fraction of what it was.”

But our investigations today show how Anthea, 48, took large amounts of money out of Imagine Furnishings, her part of Bovey’s empire, as it lurched towards disaster.

In 2006, Anthea paid herself £900,000 from the firm that furnished Bovey’s buy-to-let homes at £11,000 a time. In 2007, as the credit crunch loomed, she took £389,410 in ‘consultancy services’, £240,792 in advances and a £573,738 loan which was waived by the company.

So she was paid a total of £1,203,940 in the same year the firm posted a LOSS of £685,259. Grant has agreed in the past that Anthea’s only involvement was “choosing the sofas.”

Meanwhile Anthea told us of her fears for the future. “I’ll be 50 in 18 months’ time and now I don’t even know whether we can keep our home,” she said. “The property industry has been caught with its knickers around its ankles.”
She and Grant revealed they are “very seriously considering downsizing” from their £5 million Surrey mansion in a 57-acre estate complete with £100,000 polo field, stables full of horses and a £500,000 tennis court with pavilion and floodlights.

“We have had to re-evaluate our lives. I don’t think a £5 million mansion makes you happy,” said Anthea.

The TV presenter—who now fronts BBC3’s Perfect Housewife which showcases her as a domestic goddess—insisted she was more worried about the knock-on effects of the couple’s empire crash on other people than on herself.

“Those people who moan about you driving around in your nice big car are forgetting the guy who washes the car now hasn’t got a job or who did the maintenance on it,” she said.

“There is no way Anthea Turner can complain about anything in her life.”
The couple’s lavish world lost its glitter this summer when property prices plummetted and banks cut loans. Yet rather than accept the crisis engulfing his businesses Bovey threatened to sue anyone who dared suggest he could be in trouble, insisting: “We have huge profits yet to materialise.” They didn’t.

“We are in the same boat as millions of other people,” said Bovey last night.

“Next year is going to be very tough.”

Of Anthea’s earnings, he confessed: “We can’t deny she had all this money out. But Imagine Furnishings was making an awful lot of money at that time.” The firm went into administration last Monday.

A source close to the couple said: “A lot of people are out of pocket and very unhappy. They’ll look at the money Anthea took from Imagine Furnishings and wonder what the hell was going on.”

And a source at one of the firms that supplied Anthea’s furniture range and is now chasing her for cash added: “It’s not her who’ll be struggling to make ends meet.”

zappahey

PasturesNew wrote: »

she took £389,410 in ‘consultancy services’

Wow, that's a lot of cleaning.

phil_b_2

Thats a pretty mind blowing loss right there.

Conrad

So a bunch of amateurs on sites like this and housepricecrash DID see this comming (2004 thread on HPC was entioteld "the comming credit crunch - post your signs here"), yet people like Bovey, Alan Sugar and other supposed business guru's DID NOT.

I'm just a muppet mortgage adviser yet even I had the sense to sell my B2Ls in 06/07 not because I had some great insight, just an interest in the world around me.

As a society I've long held the view we idolise idiots. Much of the time these genius's are little more than chancers who's luck went well for a while.

michaels

:mad: I do not know the specifics of this case but have heard desciptions of how poeple are hiding earnings as loans that never have to be repaid in order to avoid paying any taxes. :mad:

Such people should be charged with tax evasion and be fined enough to cover not only the tax they should have paid but also all the costs. It is despicable that the wealthy hide their earnings in this way whilst ordinary people have no choice but to pay their taxes but do so in the knowledge that at least some of what they pay goes to pay for schools and hospitals.

moggylover

PasturesNew wrote: »

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/100562/Anthea-Turner-We-may-lose-our-mansion.html

You will have to excuse me if I am having a little difficult shedding any tears for them - but I do feel sorry for the house cleaners (:D - like F she did it all herself:rolleyes: ) and all the people who worked for them that they have let down royally in not at least putting SOME of their vast incomes away for a rainy day:rolleyes:

WTF?_2

phil_b wrote: »

Thats a pretty mind blowing loss right there.

It's a loss for someone alright - probably the creditors and banks (by extension, the taxpaying public) but not Grant 'n' Anthea I'll bet.

I suspect they will be at least comfortably well off (by the standards of normal people) after all this plays out, if not leading the 'flithy rich' lifestyle that they've been able to enjoy on borrowed cash to this point.

PasturesNew

I wish I was a complete idiot, there certainly seems to be more money potential in it!

Laughing_man

Conrad wrote: »

So a bunch of amateurs on sites like this and housepricecrash DID see this comming (2004 thread on HPC was entioteld "the comming credit crunch - post your signs here"), yet people like Bovey, Alan Sugar and other supposed business guru's DID NOT.

I'm just a muppet mortgage adviser yet even I had the sense to sell my B2Ls in 06/07 not because I had some great insight, just an interest in the world around me.

As a society I've long held the view we idolise idiots. Much of the time these genius's are little more than chancers who's luck went well for a while.

I think on MSE its considered polite to refer to HPC as 'those loonies', point out that even stopped clocks are right twice a day, and explain that if you had bought in 1998- against thier advice- you will still have loads of equity.

Fire_Fox

They invested everything in high risk investments (property, businesses) and they lost the gamble? Unlucky. To have three businesses go t*its up rather suggests he is not particularly savvy.

SunnySusie

PasturesNew wrote: »

I wish I was a complete idiot, there certainly seems to be more money potential in it!

I guess the logic is that they are more like to take crazy gambles. 99.9% of them fail but the lucky ones are the ones that eventually hit the headlines. As a totally sensible person Im never going to do anything that will pay off in amassive way. But neither will I ever commite financial suicide.

For every story about a "Dragon" that won and lost and won again etc I bet there are another 999 that end up in an office job to make ends meet. The lucky ones will always believe it is their talent that brought them through. Yet the reality is that it all depended on a few events going their way.

Blimey I'm cynical today! I also believe you make your own luck so whaddaIknow? :rolleyes:


Im not sure why AT needs to worry. Surely once the dust settles she can just make a new book, TV series and keep the cash coming in. Who really needs 100million anyway?