Westway Development Trust: (2/6) "London property developer in nightclub swindle"

This research document will make little sense if you haven't read Brian Deer's Notting Hell from The Sunday Times of June 17 2001. In July 2002 the trust renamed itself Westway Development Trust. A Westway Development Trust index of materials is also available

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(C) THE TRUST RECEIVED NO DECLARED INCOME FOR CHARITABLE USE FROM THE PREMISES BEYOND ITS COSTS

The transfer of the premises was to Mr Power, an Irish citizen, personally - rather than to any company - for what Roger Matland describes in a letter to The Sunday Times as "a neutral financial effect on the Trust" [S9]. He says:

"The fee payable was structured to cover loan repayments for moneys previously borrowed from the local authority".

Mr Power agreed in the interview with Brian Deer that the trust had, in effect, given him the premises for "nothing".

There is no clause in the 1988 lease, entry in trust accounts, or any evidence in correspondence with the local authority, The Sunday Times, or verbally, that there was any other financial gain to the charity from the night-club's operations. There was no profit-sharing arrangement, declared donations, or any other income of any kind whatsoever being raised for the trust or other charities from Subterania's commercial activities.

(D) MEANWHILE, CHARITY MONEY IS FUNNELLED INTO MR POWER'S BUSINESS

In fact, the balance of the financial flow between Mr Power and the trust was in the direction of charity funds augmenting the night-club's apparently considerable profits. For reasons which have not been adequately explained, the trust established an arrangement under which it incited and then paid subsidies to other charities in the area to use Subterania during times when Mr Power's premises might otherwise be empty and thus not making him any money. No such subsidy is paid to charities who may wish to use other - possibly more appropriate - local venues, creating a perverse incentive for local charitable funds to be funnelled into the night-club when, say, a pub across the street may be cheaper and more satisfactory. In a recorded interview with Brian Deer on 18th October 2000, the trust's chair, Judge Gerald Gordon, confirmed that he knew of this arrangement, but offered no justification for it.

In a letter from the trust to the local authority's director of environmental health dated 4th March 1999 [S10], Matland says:

"We do have in place the arrangement with the Mean Fiddler to have use of Subterania for community use. When the venue is hired out to third parties the charge is in the order of £500-650 plus VAT. The Trust's arrangement is that we pay them a flat fee of £150 (to cover sound technicians and doormen) and sometimes we ask the community group to pay up to 50% of that sum or nothing depending on the resources of the group. So, at worst, a local group would pay £75 whereas without the Trust's arrangement the costs to such groups would be prohibitive.

"It is the Trust which makes all the arrangements with the Mean Fiddler and the community groups refer to us. We promote the opportunity to all local groups in leaflet form."

A specimen invoice [S11] from Mean Fiddler to the trust for the month of August 1998, shows a payment due for £1,351,25 relating to 7 unspecified bookings believed to be the film festival referred to above.