Former travel tycoon kicked out of luxury Knightsbridge home
A former travel tycoon whose failed payment clearance company was said to have triggered the collapse of Scottish airline Flyglobespan, leaving more than 3,000 people stranded abroad and 90,000 customers out of pocket, has been ordered to hand over his £7.5 million Knightsbridge home.
Elias Elia, who ran the credit card processing firm E-Clear, has been battling ever since his bankruptcy five years ago to be allowed to remain in the luxury residence by claiming that he’d sold the property to his mother for £25,000.
However, judges ruled that the transaction was a sham and ordered the Cypriot entrepreneur to vacate it, according to a report in the Evening Standard.
E-Clear had provided a credit card clearing service to Flyglobespan, which collapsed shortly before Christmas in 2009. At the time, E-Clear was said to have been holding on to £30 million of Flyglobespan credit card payments.
Shortly after Flyglobespan’s failure, E-Clear collapsed.
Elia had personally guaranteed his company’s borrowings and after he was made bankrupt in 2011 a legal battle began over the house in Rutland Gardens, which he’d bought in 2009 for £4 million.
Elia claimed evicting him would breach his human rights, insisting that he was living in the property as his mother’s tenant, but the Court of Appeal ruled against him.
Lord Justice Hamlben told Elia his mother, who has a large portfolio of property in Cyprus, could find him a new home.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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