Fraudster’s home to be sold off

Monday 14 January 2019

The former home of a disgraced financial adviser, who was jailed after conning clients out of £2.7million, is to be sold off.

The Viscount's Office announced on Friday that it would be putting ex-Lumiere Wealth CEO Christopher Paul Byrne’s St. Brelade home on the market alongside his company's offices, after gaining the Royal Court's permission to do so.

Together, the properties are likely to fetch in excess of £1.8million.

Byrne was sent behind bars for seven years in November after he was found guilty of fraud during a trial last year. 

Video: Byrne attends court on the day of his sentencing.

In total, he was convicted of 16 counts of financial misconduct, which included misleading vulnerable clients, practising as an adviser when he wasn’t authorised to do so and providing false information to the regulator. 

Ahead of the court case, however, the Royal Court granted a freeze on his assets.

Since then, they have been in possession of the Viscount, who last week made moves to dispose of his marital home in St. Brelade and two properties connected with his former company.

Court documents seen by Express showed that Byrne’s St. Brelade-based marital home ‘Bienvenue’ was originally purchased for £825,000 in 2007. 

Pictured: The Royal Court granted the Viscount's application to sell Byrne's marital home.

In recent years, the property has been rented to repay loans secured against it, but the Royal Court heard that there are currently no tenants.

With no other way to meet the monthly repayments, the Viscount therefore applied to the court to market and sell the property on 12 December. Once sold, half of the profits will be returned to Mr Byrne’s wife. 

The application also included a request to sell Units 11 and 12 at Millais House, Castle Quay – properties owned by Lumiere, of which Byrne was a 35% shareholder – in order to pay off another outstanding loan.

According to the court documents, “Lumiere Holdings is in default of payments due under the loan and interest is continuing to accrue.”

Pictured: The Lumiere Wealth offices at Castle Quay.

Having been purchased for £380,000 and £600,000 in 2015 and 2014 respectively, the pair is now likely to reach over £1million once sold.

Under the ‘saisie judiciaire’ granted prior to Byrne’s trial in November 2016, the Viscount also has control of two other properties belonging to Byrne, although there appear to be no immediate plans to sell these.

One is a property in Windsor Court, St. John, which was purchased for £340,000 in 2004. 

The other is a house on La Route de la Hougue Bie, St. Saviour, bought for £568,000 in 2007.