logo
Mill Ride golf club in Ascot forfeited in wealth order sold

Mill Ride golf club in Ascot forfeited in wealth order sold

BBC News04-07-2025
A Berkshire golf club forfeited by a jailed banker's wife has been sold, while a Knightsbridge townhouse she used to own has had its asking price cut by £1.25m.Zamira Hajiyeva agreed to give up Mill Ride Golf Club in Ascot and the home, which has had its price reduced from £14.75m to £13.5m, following a six-year National Crime Agency (NCA) fraud investigation.Savills, which has been managing their sales, confirmed the golf club has been sold but could not confirm who has bought it.Mrs Hajiyeva, who spent £16m at Harrods in a decade, is in line to keep 30% of the sales' proceeds, and the government will take 70%.
Mrs Hajiyeva's husband, Jahangir, was the chairman of the state-controlled International Bank of Azerbaijan from 2001 to 2015 and was later given a 16-year jail sentence for fraud and embezzlement.The NCA said last year it believed the golf club and house were obtained as a "direct result of large-scale fraud and embezzlement, false accounting and money laundering".
It said it had found "no reasonable explanation" for the source of funds used to buy both of them.The golf course was developed in the 1990s. The club's website shows that it is not accepting any new members and that it has a waiting list in place.The Walton Street home is a five-minute walk from Harrods, where Mrs Hajiyeva's lavish spending included shelling out £4.9m on jewellery.A law firm working for Mrs Hajiyeva last year said she and her family were "happy to now be able to move on with their lives" and she had taken the decision "to settle the proceedings because it proved impossible to defend them".
Gherson LLP said: "Throughout the course of the UK proceedings, Mrs Hajiyeva's husband, who is detained in Azerbaijan, held information potentially crucial to the case."However, for the duration of the UK case, the Azerbaijani authorities deliberately denied Mrs Hajiyeva and her UK lawyers access to Mr Hajiyev in prison in Azerbaijan."
You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Man 'panicked' and dragged woman's naked body to his shed but says he 'didn't murder her', court hears
Man 'panicked' and dragged woman's naked body to his shed but says he 'didn't murder her', court hears

Daily Mail​

time6 minutes ago

  • Daily Mail​

Man 'panicked' and dragged woman's naked body to his shed but says he 'didn't murder her', court hears

A man has admitted 'panicking' and dragging a woman's naked body into his shed but denies murdering her. Christopher Barlow told a jury he found Mariann Borocz dead in his kitchen after the pair returned to his home in Bolton when they met at a shop nearby. The 62-year-old admitted he moved her body into a shed in his back garden and decided not to report her death to the police. He told jurors he 'made a bad mistake, a silly mistake'. 'I regret it,' Mr Barlow added. Ms Borocz's body was discovered almost 10 days later, Manchester Crown Court heard. Giving evidence in his defence, Mr Barlow denied having any involvement in the death of 55-year-old Ms Borocz. He denies murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter. Jurors have been told the pair, who had never met before, were in Marko's convenience store on Chorley Old Road at about 9.30am on Saturday, December 14 last year. Ms Borocz bought a can of cider, while Mr Barlow was seen buying pint cans of Stella lager. Ms Borocz walked back with Mr Barlow to his home on nearby Pedder Street. 'No general reason, just for company,' Mr Barlow said, after his barrister Siobhan Grey KC asked why he had allowed her to enter his home. Mr Barlow had previously said he planned on spending the day drinking up to 16 pint cans of Stella. The defendant said he sat down in the living room, and Ms Borocz stood in the kitchen. He offered her a seat but she didn't respond, the jury heard. Mr Barlow said he couldn't see her from his seat, where he was drinking and listening to music. The defendant said he didn't see Ms Borocz for another 40 minutes. 'She could have gone to the toilet for all I know,' Mr Barlow added. The defendant said he next saw her on the kitchen floor, sitting in an upright position with her 'head slumped forward'. Mr Barlow said that Ms Borocz was naked and that her clothes were at the bottom of the stairs. He said that he was 'shocked' and 'panicking' and went over to her. 'She must have been dead,' Mr Barlow said. 'Did you make any attempt to call 999?,' Ms Grey asked. 'No, I just panicked,' he replied. Asked why he panicked, the defendant replied: 'One, I didn't know what had happened, and two, I thought I would get in trouble. I was scared. 'I just automatically thought I would be a suspect or something like that.' Mr Barlow said that he went for a drive later on, because his head was 'in bits'. He said: 'I was trying to focus and concentrate and I couldn't. I should have reported and I didn't, I'm sorry I didn't.' The court heard he went back to the shop and bought eight more cans of beer. Mr Barlow said that later in the evening, he moved Ms Borocz's body from the kitchen to the shed. 'I had to drag her,' he said. Asked why he put her in the shed, Mr Barlow said: 'I told you, because I panicked. 'I realised I should have reported but I didn't. 'I made a bad mistake, a silly mistake, and I regret it. 'My intention was to report it as soon as I got round to it, as soon as possible. 'I didn't intend to leave her there. My intention was to report it but I was just panicking.' Mr Barlow said he didn't know how Ms Borocz 'became separated from her clothes'. He admitted that he put her clothes in a bin in his garden. 'I just panicked,' Mr Barlow said. 'I placed them in a bag and put them in the bin.' Mr Barlow said that the next morning, he went for a drive to 'clear [his] head'. 'I tried and tried and tried, but the longer I put it off [reporting to the police] it was getting harder,' he said. The defendant said he returned to work on Monday, December 16. He said the thought of Ms Borocz's body being in his shed in the intervening days 'was on my mind constantly.' Police attended his home on December 21 and said they were investigating a woman who had gone missing. Two days later, officers returned and arrested Mr Barlow on suspicion of assault. Ms Borocz's body was discovered in the shed. Jurors have heard that a pathologist determined there were three possible causes of Ms Borocz's death. Asphyxia, due to unexplained marks on her neck, hypothermia, as she was found naked in an outside shed, or deprivation of food and water. Mr Barlow, of Pedder Street, Bolton, denies murder and an alternative charge of manslaughter.

Women who stole thousands of pounds worth of Jellycat toys fail to show for sentencing
Women who stole thousands of pounds worth of Jellycat toys fail to show for sentencing

The Independent

time8 minutes ago

  • The Independent

Women who stole thousands of pounds worth of Jellycat toys fail to show for sentencing

Arrest warrants have been issued for two women who did not show up at court for sentencing after stealing thousands of pounds worth of Jellycat toys. Warrants without bail were issued for Sarah Jordan, 35, of no fixed abode, and Amber Clarke, 24, of Nine Elms, south-west London, after they failed to turn up for their sentencing at Wimbledon Magistrates' Court on Tuesday. Jordan was due to be sentenced for eight counts of theft from shops in Kingston upon Thames and Wimbledon between December 2024 to May 2025 and for failing to surrender for a previous hearing at the same court. The theft charges include six counts of theft where she was said to have stolen numerous Jellycats valued at a total of £1,716.57. Food and clothing were taken in the other thefts, according to the charges. Clarke had previously pleaded guilty to 16 counts of theft in shops in south and south-west London between February 2024 to January 2025. They included thefts on two days where she stole 16 Jellycat soft toys worth £4,454.84 and another day when she 'stole a number of soft toys' to the value of £100 belonging to Waterstones in Lambeth, the charges state. Various grocery and laundry items were stolen in the other thefts. Clarke has also pleaded guilty to a charge of obstructing or resisting a constable in the execution of their duty, assault by beating, failure to surrender for a previous hearing at the same court and assaulting an emergency worker.

Swinney has ‘no intention' of reshuffling Scottish cabinet before May election
Swinney has ‘no intention' of reshuffling Scottish cabinet before May election

The Independent

time8 minutes ago

  • The Independent

Swinney has ‘no intention' of reshuffling Scottish cabinet before May election

John Swinney has made clear he has 'no intention' of reshuffling his cabinet team at Holyrood, despite a number of key figures in his government stepping down at next May's Scottish elections. More than 20 SNP MSPs are set to leave Holyrood when voters north of the border go to the poll next year. Mr Swinney's deputy First Minister Kate Forbes is among them, along with Finance Secretary Shona Robison, Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop and Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon. However, Mr Swinney made clear he has no plans to reshape his top team in the light of the planned departures. Speaking at an event in Edinburgh organised by the think tank Enlighten, Mr Swinney said: 'I have no intention of reshuffling my team before the election.' While he spoke about his 'regret' about fellow MSPs leaving Holyrood, including 'close colleagues, friends and confidantes', he said he had reshuffled his cabinet team after government minister Mairi McAllan returned to work earlier this year following her maternity leave. She was given the newly created post of housing secretary, with Mr Swinney tasking her with tackling the housing 'emergency' in Scotland. Asked if the impending departure of senior members of his government would bring about a reshuffle ahead of May's Scottish elections, the SNP leader said he had 'decided, actively and purposefully' that he had people in his cabinet with 'experience and expertise in a number of roles that would help me to deliver to government's programme before the election'. And he argued that if he was to 'put in a whole host of new faces' then 'it would take a while to get things back up to the level of delivery' So he insisted: 'I have no plans to reshuffle the government.' His comments came as he spoke of his 'regret' over SNP MSPs leaving Holyrood, with the First Minister saying he 'very much' regretted Ms Forbes' decision to quit the Scottish Parliament. She announced earlier this month she would not be running for election next year, saying she did not want to 'miss any more of the precious early years of family life'. Meanwhile, former first ministers Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf are also stepping down. Mr Swinney said: 'Some of my colleagues are stepping down because they have done a very long shift.' While he said he was the 'longest serving' parliamentarian at Holyrood, having been first voted in as an MP 28 years ago before being elected as an MSP in the first devolved elections, he noted a number of those quitting had also been first elected in 1999. However, he added some MSPs were leaving because of the 'tough' nature of politics. 'We have to acknowledge that for many, I think particularly younger women, the climate is horrendous,' Mr Swinney said. He continued: 'The social media endurance is hard to bear for some people, and it makes public service look frankly unattractive at times.' In these circumstances, he said, he tries to 'support my colleagues, understand and be an ally'. But the SNP leader added: 'Ultimately, I can not protect people from what is thrown at them, and some of the behaviours are appalling, so that affects a number of people as well.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store