Crown to get £1.7m held by bankrupt companies

Thursday 19 May 2022

The Crown is going to get £1.7m from Jersey after a fruitless search lasting around 20 years to track down the true owners of money held in bankrupt companies.

The Royal Court has granted two applications for the funds be declared 'bona vacantia' - or ownerless - and paid to the Receiver General, who is responsible for the Crown’s estate in the island.

Both applications related to trust and company administration businesses, associated firstly with Raymond Eric Norman Bellows and secondly with Peter Michel. 

Various companies associated with these individuals had been declared en désastre.

At the time of the declarations, the companies had looked after a number of structures, some of which held cash and property or on whose behalf the companies held cash.

The Bellows structures held a total of £918,014, with interest accruing, while the Michel structures held a total of £865,637, together with a small euro balance of €8,253 and interest accruing.

Pictured: The case was heard in the Royal Court in February but the judgment was only recently made public. 

The Viscount’s Department, who took on responsibility for administering them, made efforts to find anyone with a rightful claim to the money but could not identify anyone, nor did anyone come forward. 

The Viscount told the Court that all of these unclaimed funds fall to be treated as bona vacantia, which can now be claimed by the Crown by virtue of the Royal prerogative. 

In a recently published judgment, Commissioner Julian Clyde-Smith, sitting with Jurats Jane Ronge and Andrew Cornish, said: “The Receiver General confirmed that he would be willing to accept all of these funds as bona vacantia, but he would still consider claims if any came forward within a reasonable period. 

“He had agreed with the Viscount that the Viscount could retain £25,000 in respect of each application by way of a fee, to reflect the work of the Viscount’s Department in seeking to locate the beneficial owners of these funds, in safeguarding them over this protracted period and in bringing these applications to the Court, an agreement which in the view of the Court was entirely reasonable.

“The Court was satisfied that the Viscount had taken all reasonable steps to locate those who might have an interest in these unclaimed funds and in view of the period in excess of 10 years during which these funds had been held without any claim being made, the Court agreed that all of these funds had been abandoned and should now be considered bona vacantia, making a declaration to that effect. 

“The Court then authorised the Viscount to pay the same to the Receiver General, less the retention of £25,000 in respect of each application by way of a fee.”