Billionaires Nick and Christian Candy have beaten a £132million High Court claim by an old friend who accused them of trying to ruin him and threaten his family including his pregnant wife.
The property tycoons were accused of an extraordinary campaign of bullying, blackmail and intimidation when the court case was launched against them in the spring.
The billionaires – dubbed the Bling Brothers for their lavish lifestyles – were alleged to have coerced a businessman into a disastrous series of deals which saw him repay more than £37million on a £12million loan.
Mark Holyoake claimed Christian Candy made aggressive threats against him and his family, saying he would ‘ruin his life’ and adding: ‘You need to think about your pregnant wife’, who had previously suffered a miscarriage.
Mr Holyoake also claimed Christian had threatened to call in Russian debt collectors and that his brother Nick had told him: ‘You don’t want to have your legs broken’.
His wife Emma Holyoake also claimed there was a major rift between the brothers especially over Nick’s choice of wife, former Neighbours star Holly Valance.
But they said that Mr Holyoake was a ‘pathological liar’ making ‘disgusting allegations’ and a judge sided with them in a ruling published today.
Property tycoons Nick and Christian Candy (left to right) were accused of an extraordinary campaign of bullying, blackmail and intimidation during an incendiary £132million court case
Property developer Mark Holyoake and his wife Emma said that the brothers wanted to ruin them so they could ‘steal’ a multi-million pound development deal and the site it was due to be built on
The High Court battle heard claims that Christian (right with his wife Emily) ‘bullied’ his brother and disliked his wife Holly Valance (together left). The siblings said Mr Holyoake was ‘a fraudster and pathological liar’
After the ruling today the brothers said in a statement: ‘We have won the case. The judgment shows that Mr Holyoake and his accomplices are well practised liars and forgers of documents, and Mr Holyoake even lied to the Court repeatedly as part of the High Court proceedings.
‘The Judge saw through his lies and dismissed every one of Mr Holyoake’s claims. The claim should never have been brought. We look forward to time more positively spent with our families and in our respective businesses’.
The brothers said the case had ’caused unwarranted damage to our personal and business lives’.
Nick Candy told the court he paid US popstar Katy Perry £1.2million to perform at his wedding to Australian actress Holly Valance – but insisted he didn’t live a lavish lifestyle
Mr Holyoake made incendiary claims about the brothers’ relationship and alleged they threatened to attack him and his family.
He said Nick Candy, who is married to former Neighbours star Holly Valance, told him Russians debt collectors ‘would not think twice’ about physical violence him and his family, the court heard.
Mr Holyoake’s wife would later claim the brothers would also row and alleged that Christian ‘bullied’ his brother Nick to the point that he once wound up ‘crying in the foetal position’ on a hotel room floor.
The brothers were alleged to be involved in a conspiracy to drive the businessman into bankruptcy so they could ‘steal’ a multi-million pound development deal and the site.
Giving evidence in February and March this year Mr Holyoake told the High Court he was coerced into signing a series of agreements which meant he was effectively charged interest of more than 74 per cent on a £12million loan from the Candys.
The brothers denied his allegations and claim he has lied about the threats and menaces in a deliberate attempt to extort money from them.
Both insist the loan was made by Christian Candy’s property firm, CPC, and that he was entitled to demand the loan was repaid after Mr Holyoake allegedly defaulted on repayments.
The long-running legal dispute forced the brothers to reveal details about their businesses and lifestyles.
Best-known for their luxury One Hyde Park development in Knightsbridge, West London, where one flat sold for £136million, the brothers were in court to hear many of the allegations against them, and were accompanied by bodyguards.
Christian Candy, 42, has assets valued at around £1.2billion and his development company owns properties worth some £900million.
His older brother Nick, 44, owns a £1.1million collection of watches and his wedding to former pop singer Miss Valance was reported to have cost up to £3million including £1.2million for Katy Perry to perform.
The High Court case centred on a £12million loan provided to Old Harrovian Mr Holyoake in 2011 to help him finance a property deal.
Christian Candy and Nick Candy with their father Tony, who has been an inspiration to them both
He agreed to pay 20 per cent interest on the two-year loan and to hand over a 30 per cent share of the net profits from the scheme.
In legal papers submitted to the court, Mr Holyoake said the terms of the deal were ‘onerous and unattractive’ but he went ahead with it because Nick Candy was an old university friend and he thought the brothers’ business expertise would be useful.
HOW CANDY BROTHERS’ BILLIONAIRE FAIRYTALE STARTED WITH A £6,000 LOAN FROM GRAN
The Candys have been on a fast track to fortune since the mid 1990s when they made their first modest start.
They made a £50,000 gain on a flat they bought for £122,000 in Earls Court London that they purchased and did up with the help of a £6,000 loan from their grandmother.
At that time Nick, above left, and younger brother Christian, 41, right, were working full time, the former in advertising and the latter for Merrill Lynch investment bank.
They eventually gave it up the day jobs to concentrate on money-spinning developments targeted initially at mere high net worth clients but now at the international super-rich jet and yachting set.
Although the brothers are inseparable, temperamentally they are said to be very different.
Former employees describe Christian as the money man, while Nick’s talents lie in networking. He won’t just provide you with an apartment; he’ll get you a table at The Ivy or invite you down to the Candy yacht.
The Candys don’t just sell property and design, they sell a lifestyle – one they themselves now lead,
Documents filed on behalf of the Candys said Mr Holyoake, 44, had set out to fund his project using other people’s money but had hoped to keep the lion’s share of the projected profit for himself.
He was considered a high risk borrower because his previous business, British Seafood, had collapsed a year earlier with unpaid debts of more than £250million.
The brothers said the loan was arranged through Christian’s business CPC, and that Nick was not involved in that business or the loan.
Mr Holyoake went ahead with the deal to buy Grosvenor Gardens House in Belgravia, Central London, but said he then faced a ‘highly unpleasant and malicious campaign of threats, abuse, intimidation and coercion’.
Outlining his case, his lawyer Roger Stewart QC said the campaign included threats against Mr Holyoake’s wife Emma, who was pregnant at the time and had previously suffered a miscarriage.
Christian Candy was said to have told Mr Holyoake he would ‘feel terrible if anything were to go wrong during the pregnancy for her or the baby’.
Mr Stewart claimed the threats were a deliberate attempt to force Mr Holyoake into accepting a series of loan agreements which would cripple him financially and mean the Candys could then acquire the Belgravia redevelopment site.
The court heard Christian Candy sent an email to his brother and others, saying: ‘Once we buy this loan, we may want to call default under this loan agreement also… I think CPC can steal this site off MH [Mark Holyoake] if we are clever.’
Mr Holyoake claims he eventually had to pull out of the property redevelopment, at a loss of £100million in potential profits.
He then demanded £132million from the Candys for lost profits, over-payments, legal costs and aggravated damages.
Barrister Tim Lord QC, for the Candys, said the threats of physical violence were ‘wholly improbable’ and questioned why Mr Holyoake had not reported them to the police.
Nick and Christian Candy are London’s most famous property developers, pictured on the site of their fabulously expensive One Hyde Park site in Knightsbridge, completed in 2009
The brothers’ conduct never went beyond the ‘rough and tumble of the pressure of normal commercial bargaining’, he told the court, adding: ‘The allegations are scandalous and it is a disgrace that they have ever been made.’
Mark Holyoake’s wife Emma claimed there was a rift between Christian and his brother’s Australian wife Holly Valance.
She claimed Christian referred to the actress at a party in Ibiza in 2012 by saying ‘If she sees me coming she better f***** cross over onto the other side of the road.’
Mrs Holyoake told the court: ‘To say there was no love lost between Christian and Holly would be an understatement.
Candy brothers ‘acted like Bond villains’ and Christian turned into a ‘screaming lunatic’ over £12m loan, business partner claimed
Billionaire Christian Candy became a ‘screaming lunatic’ over a £12million loan and threatened to put a businessman ‘in a deep dark hole’, it was claimed.
Entrepreneur Mark Holyoake said a campaign of blackmail and intimidation left him fearing for his own life, and claimed the property mogul made threats against his pregnant wife, who had previously suffered a miscarriage.
He took the threats so seriously that he turned his home into ‘Fort Knox’, with cameras and armed bodyguards to protect him and his family, he told the High Court in London.
Mr Holyoake claimed Christian had threatened to call in Russian debt collectors and that his brother Nick had told him: ‘You don’t want to have your legs broken.’
The entrepreneur said the highly secretive brothers acted like Bond villains after lending him £12million to finance a property deal.
He added that they considered themselves ‘above the law’ over their tax arrangements.
He told the court: ‘I remember thinking that it was like I had gone into the business with the devil.’
In one bizarre business meeting, at the luxury Bulgari Hotel in London’s Mayfair, he said Christian behaved like a James Bond villain.
Mr Holyoake said: ‘Chris sat with his body angled away from me, eating a big bag of sweets, rather like a stereotypical Mafia boss or James Bond villain.’
‘Holly told me that Christian did not approve of her relationship with Nick. She confided in me that Nick had been distraught recently about Christian’s behaviour and that Nick had ‘lain down in a foetal position on the floor of a hotel room and wept inconsolably’.
‘Holly used some pretty strong and fruity language to describe Christian, the gist was that he was rude, aggressive, dishonest and a cruel man.’
Christian’s wife Emily also suggested the actress had a ‘dubious’ background and tried to dissuade Nick from going ahead with the marriage, it is claimed.
The allegations are the latest to emerge during the explosive £132m lawsuit brought by Mark Holyoake over claims the brothers coerced him into a disastrous series of property deals which saw him repay more than £37million on a £12million loan.
Ms Holyoake said she worried her husband Mark would be killed after Christian Candy threatened to ‘nuclear bomb his entire world’ when their luxury property business deal turned sour.
In new documents presented at court yesterday, Mrs Holyoake said Christian – who she described as ‘charmless’ and ‘pathologically competitive’ – had threatened to take a ‘wrecking ball’ to their lives and promised to hold her husband’s ‘feet to the flames’ if he did not do as he said.
She added that she feared Christian – who was demanding millions of pounds from her husband – might want to ‘get rid of Mark’ because of the fate of other men who knew the Candys.
‘I used to worry constantly that Christian might take steps to hurt or even kill Mark when Mark travelled on business,’ she said.
‘I thought that the simplest way for Christian to resolve his issue with Mark would just be to get rid of Mark.’
She added that the claims were ‘not as outlandish as it seems’. ‘There are men in the Candys’ extended circle who have died mysteriously,’ she said.
Mrs Holyoake went on to name millionaire property tycoon Paul Castle, super-rich Scot Young and Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky.
She added: ‘Christian was on the verge of selling the debt to people who would think nothing of physically hurting Mark, myself and or the children.
‘Nick told Mark to take this very seriously indeed and do whatever Christian asked of him or else this would happen and the people they would sell the debt to would harm him and us physically and would not think twice about doing so.’
Nick Candy’s spending power was revealed when he told the court he paid US popstar Katy Perry £1.2million to perform at his wedding to Australian actress Holly Valance – but insisted he didn’t live a lavish lifestyle.
‘That’s not my lifestyle, it was a one-off event,’ he said, adding: ‘I came from nothing. I take money seriously.’
Nick Candy told a judge the ‘very, very charismatic’ Mr Holyoake was ‘a fraudster and pathological liar’.
Nick Candy said that his old friend Mr Holyoake was a ‘charismatic’ ‘liar’ and said their friendship was ‘the worst decision of my life by a long, long way’
He told the High Court today that becoming friends with Holyoake was ‘the worst decision of my life by a long, long way’.
Nick Candy is also suing former friend Holyoake whose wife filmed him being ‘drunk and embarrassing’ on Ibiza holiday
Nick Candy (right) is suing a former friend whose wife filmed him being ‘drunk and embarrassing’ on a holiday and did not delete all the video when asked.
Mr Candy ‘engaged in some embarrassing behaviour when heavily intoxicated’ on the party island of Ibiza on a summer’s evening in 2010, said judge Mr Justice Warby.
One of his holiday companions, Emma Hollyoake – wife of Mr Candy’s former business associate, Mark Hollyoake – captured his humiliation on her smartphone.
The next day, Mr Candy asked her to erase the footage from her phone’s memory – and some of the recordings were deleted but others ‘survived’, a court heard.
Seven years later Mr Candy, who is married to Holly Valance, is now suing the couple and three other businessmen, alleging breach of privacy and data protection laws.
He claims all five ‘shared an intention and participated in a scheme to intimidate him in the context of a business dispute by deploying the recording against him’.
He wants an injunction, forcing erasure of the footage, a ban on its dissemination to others and full disclosure of the identities of those who have or may have seen it.
Mr Holyoake was Nick’s long-time friend from university days until things turned sour over a £12 million loan from the brothers.
Mr Candy said they had become ‘close friends’ but Mr Holyoake was not his best friend.
He said: ‘I regret the day I ever met the man. It was the worst decision of my life by a long, long way.’
Mr Candy would also tell the court his former business partner and friend threatened to release an ’embarrassing, drunken’ video of him in Ibiza.
The 44-year-old billionaire and his brother Christian are currently involved in a nine-figure claim by his former friend and business partner property developer Mark Holyoake.
Mr Candy demanded the video is destroyed because he claims its use would be in breach of the Data Protection Act.
The property tycoon also denied he threatened to ‘cut the t**s off’ his PA for making a mistake.
The claims were made that he and his brother Christian, 42, bullied staff and sacked an executive who had just been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
Mr Candy, 44, said the seriously ill executive was a ‘a fantastic human being’ who had recently asked him to for help by passing on some songs to pop mogul Simon Cowell.
Nick Candy claimed that he believed Mark Holyoake was running a ‘Ponzi scheme’ fraud in relation to the property deal at the centre of the court case.
Giving evidence todaty he said he felt ‘responsible’ for the £12million loan to Mark Holyoake even though he was not involved with CPC.
‘I put my brother into this deal so I felt an element of responsibility. I still feel today the reason we are in this court is my responsibility.’
He added: ‘My brother provided a £12m loan within 24 hours. I don’t know how many people could do that. I think everyone in this court room regrets it.’
Roger Stewart QC, for Holyoake, claimed that the distinction between Nick Candy’s company Candy & Candy and Christian Candy’s company CPC was ‘entirely a charade.’
Nick Candy replied: ‘It’s absolutely not.’
Mr Stewart also suggested the Candy brothers bullied staff, made threats to a PA to ‘cut off her t**s’ and fired an executive who had just been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
Nick Candy said the allegations – which were made by his former colleague Clive Hyman – were ‘disgusting’.
Candy said the marketing executive with MS was ‘a fantastic human being’ and added: ‘He had already agreed to leave, I didn’t fire him.
‘I find these allegations absolutely disgusting, they are made up to embarrass me and my family.’