London mansion once home to Charles Dickens at centre of £17m court battle between multimillionaire divorcee and her high society bank

Daily Mail​

16-05-2025

A £19million mansion which was once home to Charles Dickens is at the centre of a bitter court battle between a multimillionaire divorcee and her bank.
Deborah Fiorentino, 63, the former wife of both Italian aristocrat Giovanni Fiorentino and celebrity British divorce lawyer Raymond 'Jaws' Tooth, could lose her Regent's Park mansion after being sued for not paying her mortgage.
The high-flying estate agent took out a £17.85million loan against the Grade I listed mansion, a separate mews house and a third property in Hampstead before running up massive arrears, a court heard.
She has now been dragged to court by her lender, Luxembourg-based private bank Banque Havilland, who accuse her of owing them more than £10million.
Lawyers for the bank are suing for possession of the house and a judgment for the £10.2million sum, claiming that she has shown that, despite 'supposedly a high net worth individual,' she is simply unable to cover the cost of the mortgage.
However, she is fighting the claim on the basis that she has been treated 'unreasonably' by the lender, which she says prevented her from re-financing, costing her millions.
The seven-bed house in Hanover Terrace, overlooking Regent's Park boating lake, is where Dickens spent the summer of 1861, around the time he wrote 'Great Expectations.'
Designed by Buckingham Palace and Marble Arch neo-classical architect John Nash, it has been recently renovated to feature its own gym and sauna, and is now home to wealthy divorcee Ms Fiorentino.
Ms Fiorentino is a former local estate agent, who after setting up her own office built a portfolio of luxury houses in some of London's richest districts.
In the early 90s, she married Italian aristocrat Giovanni Fiorentino, father of her two children, living with him between his two large family homes in Naples, while continuing to buy up more expensive houses.
One in Hampstead belonged to pioneer plastic surgeon Sir Harold Gillies, while her former home in Frognal, also in Hampstead, was where stars including Peter Sellers and Elizabeth Taylor enjoyed garden parties in the sixties.
In 2008 she separated from her second husband, top divorce lawyer Mr Tooth, whose celebrity clients include Irina Abramovich (divorcing Roman Abramovich), Sadie Frost (divorcing Jude Law), Cheryl Barrymore (divorcing Michael Barrymore), and Eimear Montgomerie (divorcing Colin Montgomerie).
But representing Banque Havilland at Mayor's and City County Court this week, Michael Walsh KC said Ms Fiorentino had now shown herself unable to pay her debts.
She took out the £17.85million five-year loan with the bank in March 2019, secured against the Hanover Terrace house and mews, and the third property in Frognal.
But from early 2023, she went on to fail to meet interest payments, he said, telling Judge Nicholas Parfitt that she 'patently cannot afford to repay.'
'The irresistible conclusion here is that she is persistently unable to meet her obligations,' he said.
'She has made no interest payment whatsoever since December 2022 on this loan.
'The reality is that she has had ample time to repay the amounts owed by her and cannot do so.'
He said the bank had done what it could to help Ms Fiorentino, delaying interest payments and also its court case after she first defaulted.
Ms Fiorentino had claimed several times to be close to selling the house, including once to an unnamed Premier League footballer, but a sale had not got to contract exchange, he said, suggesting it is overpriced.
Accusing her of being 'incapable of properly marketing this property,' he said she had initially marketed the Frognal house for a 'wildly over-optimistic' £19.95million, before selling for just over £11million.
The proceeds of that were used to pay down the £17.85m loan, but she still owes over £10.2m, said the barrister.
'Ms Fiorentino has also made no meaningful progress in either selling Hanover or refinancing the outstanding loan,' he continued.
'The history of this matter is littered with promises that she is close to securing finance, but it is obvious that she cannot do so.
'This is not through any fault of Banque Havilland. The truth is that Ms Fiorentino cannot sell Hanover because it is overpriced, just as Frognal was overpriced but sold when it was marketed properly.'
For Ms Fiorentino, barrister Thomas Rothwell said the house, which 'has always been occupied as her home,' should not be taken away by the bank.
He said she should be granted a 'time order' giving her a few extra months to secure finance or sell the house and pay what she owes.
However, he also claimed that she had been 'treated unreasonably' by the bank, which had prevented her refinancing and cost her millions in extra outgoings and interest.
He said the amount she owes should be reduced by at least £2.45million, meaning at the most she only now owes around £7.81million, not the £10m-plus the bank is claiming.
Accusing the bank of taking an 'unnecessarily belligerent attitude,' he said: 'As a result of demonstrably unfair treatment at Banque Havilland's hands, Ms Fiorentino was prohibited from refinancing at the earliest possible opportunity - i.e. mid-2022 - and was therefore forced progressively further into default.
'She thereby incurred additional interest and legal costs which would not have been incurred if she had been fairly treated.'
After a day in court, Judge Parfitt reserved his decision on the bank's possession claim until a later date.