A friend of the Foxtons founder’s son is feared dead after he disappeared in a lake when he fell off an inflatable banana boat.
Police have been searching for the body of Richard Chapelow, 29, since the boat flipped at high speed at the Santa Clara Dam in the country’s south around 5pm on Monday.
It is understood he was staying with Foxtons founder Jon Hunt’s son Harry at the billionaire’s luxury mansion when the accident happened.
Mr Chapelow worked in marketing and advertising after attending London’s £19,000-a-year Latymer Upper School and Leeds University.
Tragic: Police have been searching for the body of Richard Chapelow (pictured), 29
Mr Chapelow (pictured) worked as a Senior Account Manager at Columns. He went to £19,000-a-year Latymer Upper School in London and Leeds University
Mr Chapelow (right) was a friend of Harry Hunt (centre). It is understood the pair were staying at a luxury villa belonging to Mr Hunt’s father, John Hunt when the tragedy occurred
Specialist divers are looking for the 29-year-old Briton after he disappeared at Santa Clara Dam (pictured) near the city of Ourique
A statement from Jon Hunt sent to MailOnline read: ‘My family and I are devastated by the loss of Richard, following a tragic accident at Santa Clara Dam.
‘Our thoughts and prayers are wholly with Richard’s family, and we ask that both families are given space to grieve such a painful loss.
‘We will be working closely with the Portuguese authorities to understand what has happened, and are grateful to the local police and fire services for their efforts. It is a time of great sorrow.’
It comes after fire chief coordinating the search for the missing Briton said on Tuesday crews were probably looking for a body.
Commander Mario Batista said: ‘The search teams know they are probably looking for a body at this stage but it may be time before there is any news.
‘Visibility is very poor and the water has a depth of up to 104 feet in the deepest places.
‘In a worst case scenario it could take days to find the missing man’s body.’
A friend of the Foxtons founder’s son Harry Hunt (pictured) is feared dead after an inflatable banana boat accident
A Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘We are assisting the family of a British man reported missing in Portugal and are in contact with the local authorities.’ Pictured: Richard Chapelow
Police are searching for the body of Richard Chapelow, 29, after the boat overturned on the Santa Clara Dam in the country’s south on Monday (stock image of banana boat)
A spokesman for the GNR police force in the city of Beja where the force HQ is, said: ‘A 29-year-old British man who disappeared just before 5pm yesterday is still missing. Pictured: Richard Chapelow
A spokesman for the GNR police force in the city of Beja where the force HQ, said: ‘A 29-year-old British man who disappeared just before 5pm yesterday is still missing.
‘The operation to find him resumed early this morning and is continuing.’
More than 30 people are taking part in the search.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘We are assisting the family of a British man reported missing in Portugal and are in contact with the local authorities.’
Mr Chapelow’s family has been informed.
Jon Hunt, 65, from Colchester, founded estate agent Foxtons in 1981 and is now worth just over £1billion.
It is understood the man feared dead was staying with Foxtons founder Jon Hunt’s (pictured) son Harry at the billionaire’s luxury mansion when the accident happened
The Foxtons tycoon who grew his two-man estate agent into a £340m behemoth before selling it at the peak of the market in ‘the sale of the century’
By Debbie White
He’s been described as a ‘silent type’ with a passion for fast cars and a love of the natural environment – aside from being a property guru.
But where did it all start for Jon Hunt, the billionaire founder of Foxtons estate agents, and father-of-four who owns a luxury Grade II-listed mansion in London?
Although he lives in Kensington Palace Gardens – a road dubbed Billionaires’ Row – it’s a far cry from Hunt’s early days in the property industry, when he founded Foxtons as a two-person agency in Notting Hill Gate in 1981, in a former pasta bar.
Jon Hunt, the billionaire founder of Foxtons estate agents, started out in an estate agency in Guildford
At the age of 28, about nine years after starting out in an estate agency in Guildford, Hunt threw himself into his business, working 12-hour days for eight years.
According to the Independent, he would not close the office until 9pm – four hours after his competitors had shut for the night.
In 1982, Foxtons launched its ‘revolutionary 0% commission offer’.
The next year, the agents opened a second office, in Fulham Broadway, before expanding into South Kensington (1986), Chiswick (1992), and elsewhere throughout the capital.
In 2002, its first café-style offices were launched in Ealing, Richmond, Balham and Wimbledon.
Five years later, Foxtons opened offices in Dulwich and Pinner, bringing the total number of branches in the capital to 23.
Foxtons estate agents expanded across London, to include cafe-style offices
However, the one-time Army officer sold the company shortly before the property crash in 2007 for a reported £360million – a deal the Financial Times later described as the ‘sale of the century’.
There was another celebrated deal in 2012, as the car enthusiast sold Britain’s most expensive car, a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO, for a reputed £20.2million.
But it wasn’t just four wheels and bricks and mortar that piqued Hunt’s interest.
By about 2013, he had made dozens of property deals over the space of about two decades which resulted in him amassing a 4,500-acre property close to the coast in Suffolk, known as Wilderness Reserve, which has restored natural lakes, woods and parkland.
The site includes Heveningham Hall, near Halesworth.
Jon Hunt spent years overhauling his Grade II listed mansion in Kensington Palace Gardens, a road dubbed ‘Billionaires’ Row’ in London
He told the FT that he was drawn to the area as, ‘I was looking for a lake; the kids were interested in watersports.’
The Independent has described Hunt as obsessively neat, rarely photographed and as a man who goes to great lengths to keep his name – and those of his wife and four children – out of the press.
Despite his efforts, though, the family’s name continues to crop up in various reports.
For example, last year his son Max, known as ‘Mad Max’ for his daredevil exploits, was banned from driving for six months after being caught crossing the road on a hoverboard, near London’s Green Park.
Max Hunt told Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court that he was going from his office in Kensington High Street, west London, to meet a friend in Knightsbridge when he was stopped by officers.
He claimed he had been trying to overtake a pedestrian at a junction and didn’t realise it was illegal to ride them on roads or pavements in the UK, according to the Evening Standard.
Max Hunt (pictured), whose father Jon founded the Foxtons empire, is a former British Supersport motorcyclist who completed a 5,000-mile off-road rally in South America
And two years ago, the East Anglian Times reported that Jon Hunt was banned from driving for nine months. He was ordered to pay £3,000 after being caught speeding four times in eight months.
Magistrates were told that he travelled frequently, and that ‘he is involved in property, and has various sites in London and the south-east, and other areas of the country.
‘He’s very much involved in the running of his own successful business.’
The court was also told that as two of his adult sons were involved in motor sports, he was driving a support vehicle to assist them and that ‘he’s a person who enjoys motoring’.
Kensington Palace Gardens is an expensive and exclusive street in the capital
The property magnate hit the headlines again last year, when he received the green light to build a mega basement in his eight-bedroom mansion in London after a 10-year planning battle.
He was given the go-ahead to expand into the ground after he appealed to the Planning Inspectorate, when Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea turned down the ambitious scheme.
His initial plans had sparked a diplomatic row when his neighbours, including the French ambassador, who cited the Vienna Convention in an attempt to kill off the proposals.
He and his wife Lois bought the mansion, around the corner from Wills and Kate’s Kensington Palace, in 2005 for £15.75million.
The extension – designed to hold his growing collection of classic cars – was expected to increase the value of the property to somewhere in the region of £100million as of October 2017.