When it comes to mixing with the low life brigade, even pretenders to the Marcos dynasty do not stint themselves.
Unfortunately for one of them, the press were on hand in a small British county court for what should have been a non-descript case held in private of an examination by court officials as to why some debts had not been repaid. Under normal circumstances, such a case would never figure on the Richter scale for any attention. Much less to attract the interest of the media. This was far from a normal case.
A rather grainy photo from a video of Philip Englefield outside Ilford County Court; unfortunately, the camera shy former lawyer needed to get back to his Knightsbridge office extremely quickly and was reluctant to pose for photos
Helena Skeggs (below) had been ordered to appear in Ilford County Court for an examination after she had refused to comply with orders to repay some of her many creditors. These creditors had obtained judgements for debt, and Skeggs was in default. After she had refused to pay, or even acknowledge the existence of such debts, some of the creditors obtained a court summons order for her to appear on pain of arrest.
She decided not to appear, but instead sent a representative who most normal people would run a mile from, a former lawyer who took £4.5 million from his clients accounts, and was struck off as a solicitor and jailed for six years in the early nineties. Although being struck off by the British Law Society and banned from practising as a lawyer, he has re-invented himself as a "consultant legal advisor". As such, he is reputed to be fronting business deals for another ex-convict, Michael Hunt, who was jailed at the same time for eight years over a massive tax fraud case.
Helena Skeggs, aka Helena Pedroche, who is believed to hail from Urdaneta in Pangasinan, has made a business of preying on fellow Filipinos in the UK over the past few years. In some cases borrowing on a vast scale, in others getting "investment" money as well as promising to arrange visas and work permits, she has made a business living on the proceeds of others.
Living in a £2 million house in the leafy suburbs of Chigwell just to the north of London, Skeggs is close enough to appear in person at the court just off Ilford High Road. Certainly, she is closer than where her representative, Philip Englefield of Grace Associates, has offices at the prestigious Central London address of 65 Knightsbridge, just up the road from Harrods, and very convenient for Harvey Nicholls where Skeggs occasionally shops.
Possibly Skeggs did not wish to demean herself by driving her silver Mercedes to the distinctly drab surroundings of Ilford. Certainly parking is a problem around the vicinity of the court. That may be the reason. We shall probably not know for some time what excuse Mr Englefield made for her non-appearance as it was a closed hearing, and Mr Englefield did not wish to speak to the press as he exited the court building. In fact, as can be seen from the video, for a man of his advanced years who is almost certainly holding, or should be able to hold, a senior citizens free bus pass, he is remarkably fleet of foot.
Maybe his years as a guest of Her Majesty in one of her prisons gave him time to use the gymnasium and retain a keep-fit mentality. Probably this keep-fit mentality is continued with rounds of golf, played with former fellow criminal Michael Hunt at the East Sussex National Golf Club. If so, that would explain his turn of speed leaving the court building in Ilford.
It does not however explain why a "consultant legal advisor" would turn up in a suburban London court, representing a woman who claims to be the daughter of former dictator Marcos in a rather mundane case of non-repayment of debt. Especially when the "consultant legal advisor" in question has been linked to multi-million pound deals with his erstwhile golf buddy Michael Hunt, Queens Park Rangers (QPR) and Derby County football clubs, and dodgy Panamanian finance companies.
Englefield's time in prison probably did give him time to develop a keep-fit persona. That may be the reason he became a director of QPR a few years ago, at the same time a rather funny finance deal was arranged between the ABC corporation of Panama. So funny in fact that when QPR's supporters discovered the truth of the deal and the people behind it, they demanded that Englefield be ousted as a director. The west London club's fans thought having a convicted fraudster on the board was a bridge too far. He was ousted but remained as main contact person between QPR and the company behind the finance deal.
There was a similar finance deal in place at Derby. This went disastrously wrong for several of the directors of Derby, some of whom also happened to be lawyers as well. Because they went to jail.
Who were behind these finance deals? Well Englefield's involvement is there, and that of Michael Hunt was heavily suspected and never denied.
Michael Hunt was jailed in 1993 as a top man in the then notorious case of tax evasion by Nissan UK. The fraud had been perpetuated for nearly two decades led by a man named Octav Botnar. Nissan UK, owned by Botnar, were involved in importing Nissan cars to the UK and had been falsifying tax records and receipts. This involved hundreds of millions of pounds and was the largest tax fraud in British history.
Octav Botnar fled to Switzerland from where he could not be extradited leaving his underlings to take the rap, one of them being Hunt. Hunt got eight years after a very high profile trial.
Since leaving jail, Hunt has bulit up an impressive property empire, conservatively estimated to be valued at over £100-M. Besides being a "consultant legal advisor" at his company Grace Associates, Englefield represents and is involved with several property companies. He also represents Helena Skeggs.
In this capacity, he would have explained to the court in Ilford why his client did not attend, and more crucially, why she has made no attempt to repay some of her many creditors, not least the three people who had court orders against her.
Possibly Englefield told the court hearing that his client was short of money. Especially after she hosted a party for over forty people at the prestigious five star Marriott County Hall Hotel on the River Thames opposite the Houses of Parliament on March 28. A function room and suite were hired for the event, do not imagine the buffet was just buckets of southern fried chicken and a couple of colas.
Skeggs is no stranger to the Marriott County Hall, she has entertained others many times here, as well as at other five star London hotels. It makes the guests more comfortable and easier to open their check books and credit cards.
Maybe Englefield told the court the reason his client did not attend personally was that she was tired after the event. or maybe his client is campaigning in Ilocos Norte for Imelda's bid for a new political seat. Or possibly that the volcano in Iceland caused her to be delayed somewhere in the world, Panama maybe?
Balita Pinoy does not know what excuses were made. Comrade Englefield did not stop outside the court to share his comments with us or the other media reps; nor did we catch up with him as he was gone in a flash. Ford Open Prison's gymnasium is really effective helping people to keep fit.
A press spokeswoman for the Justice Department would only confirm that the hearing had taken place but would not go into specific details other than to state that Skeggs still has the opportunity to repay the money owed.
When extracting money from her victims, one of the ways to get the money is via Western Union. This is however not routed through her house in Chigwell's millionaires row, but through another address, Mortimer Road, in the rather drab surroundings of Kensal Green in north west London, just off the Harrow Road. Skeggs spends quite some time at this address which is considerably further to drive than Ilford from Chigwell.
The Mercedes is seen here quite frequently.
The luxury house in Chigwell's millionaires row
Posted at: 06:58 | Add Comment
| 
| 
del.icio.us
