Geoff Hurst conned out of £600,000
Thursday, February 18, 2010 @ 6:17 PM
Sir Geoff, England’s hat-trick hero of the 1966 World Cup final, and six other investors claim they are owed more than £2million.
They are suing businessman Mark Cordner, claiming he pocketed a large slice of the cash.
In his defence, Mr Cordner claims he is also a victim after his former partner Michael Hone disappeared. He says he has invested and lost his money and his reputation.
Sir Geoff, 68, was the biggest loser after investing in three off-plan properties in a complex near Puerto Banus on the Costa del Sol.
Yesterday at the High Court in London, Peter Knox QC, representing the claimants, said all of them except Sir Geoff were friends of Mr Cordner who had also acted as their financial adviser.
The former West Ham and England centre-forward, who is due to give evidence on Monday, was persuaded to present a 10-minute promotional video which will be played in court next week.
Yesterday it was claimed investors were told they could more than double their money if they bought the properties before they were built.
One allegedly agreed to plough his savings into the scheme after being told Sir Geoff’s World Cup team mate Martin Peters was buying a property there, which was not true.
Mr Knox said Martin Roberts was told Mr Cordner had bought apartments at the site “in bulk”, putting them at a substantial discount.
It was also alleged that the defendant falsely told Mr Roberts that Tottenham Hotspur boss Harry Redknapp had bought a place there.
Mr Knox said the group had been deceived into handing over the cash to Mr Cordner and Mr Hone.
Sir Geoff’s claim includes a £350,000 loan he made to Mr Hone in May 2004, of which £110,000 was not repaid. The court was told Mr Cordner was liable for the missing money as he was a partner in the “wrongful conspiracy”.
The investors believed they were ploughing their money into a Spanish property company called the Royal Marbella Group. But it never owned the land and the apartments were eventually built by another company.
The group say their rights over the apartments have either been destroyed or rendered worthless.
It was alleged that Sir Geoff, who did not have his own lawyer working on the deal, and the other claimants were told that Mr Cordner would sort out legal matters for them.
But all that happened was that they were sent sales contracts which stated the site was owned by two American companies.
In fact, Mr Knox said, the site was owned by a Spanish company called Azul Properties.
It was alleged that without the investors’ knowledge Azul sold the site in 2004 to another Spanish company, Duja, which completed the building of the apartments three years later. Duja has a 24million euro bank debt.
Mr Knox said: “It appears that the bank debt will swallow up all the equity in the property, and thus defeat any claims the claimants may have for the transfer of their apartments.”
It is claimed Mr Cordner, of Knebworth, Hertfordshire, persuaded the seven investors to buy the apartments by “deceitful or negligent misrepresentation”.
They handed over £1.3million but taking into account interest and other loans the claim is now estimated at about £2million.
Mr Cordner admits he made some of the alleged representations but denies this was done deceitfully or negligently.
The hearing, expected to last five days, continues.
Source: Express.co.uk