WITNESSES “concocted an untrue story” to cover up involvement by the Prince of Wales and the Emir of Qatar in the cancellation of a $140 million modernist housing project, Britain’s High Court has been told.
Emails have come to light since the end last month of the so-called Chelsea Barracks trial suggesting that the views of the Emir and the Prince were “key” to the decision to withdraw the planning application, it was claimed.
All but five of the 70 emails, which are dated between April and June 2009, contain references to the Prince of Wales or to his private secretary, Sir Michael Peat, the court heard.
The new evidence, which surfaced after disclosure of documents by the Prince, prompted a fresh hearing before the judge yesterday in the dispute between the property developer Christian Candy and his Qatari partners.
Mr Candy and his brother Nick had been planning to develop the former Chelsea Barracks site near Sloane Square in west London into a luxury residential complex. However the modernist plan met with criticism from local residents and the Prince of Wales.
The Candy brothers accuse their former Qatari partners of breach of contract, alleging that they pulled out of the project after the intervention of the Prince and the Emir of Qatar.
The trial finished last month and judgment is awaited. But both sides returned before Mr Justice Vos yesterday after the emergence of the disclosures.
Lord Grabiner, QC, representing Mr Candy, said the newly-disclosed emails indicated that a long line of witnesses from Qatari Diar, the partner company, had lied. “They were motivated by their concern to conceal what had actually happened,” he said, which was a “determined attempt to protect Qatari Diar and the Emir” and enable it to avoid paying $103 million for breach of contract as the price for following the orders of the Emir.
Lord Grabiner argued that the reason Qatari Diar would not admit that the Emir had ordered a planning application to be withdrawn after meeting the Prince of Wales was because it would then be in breach of contract with Mr Candy’s company, CPC.
“This is a determined effort … to delete emails that were thought might damage Qatari Diar’s case. It is difficult to see how it was inadvertent. They are putting a spin on the facts and indicating that the emails were deleted in the normal course of events,” Lord Grabiner said.
But the litigation was in prospect in early 2009, the QC said, dismissing the idea that the emails were no longer needed. “What it comes to is simply this. All those witnesses lied to Your Lordship when they gave evidence. They were motivated by concern to conceal what actually happened to protect Qatari Diar and the Emir to enable them to avoid paying the money under the contract.”
Lord Grabiner said that John Ward, of Qatari Diar, who was in charge of the day-to-day running of the project, deliberately deleted emails to stop the information about the Emir’s involvement being disclosed in court. “The deletion of documents did not come to light until CPC received third-party disclosure from the Prince of Wales,” he said. “A number of documents disclosed by him were communications to and from Mr Ward that had not been disclosed by QD.”
Mr Justice Vos said that it would be “disproportionate” to order further hearings so that witnesses could be cross-examined on the new emails. But he asked Joe Smouha, QC, representing the Qatari company, for his comments, saying: “We now have the emails and they are damaging to your case.”
Mr Smouha said the allegations amounted to attempting to pervert the course of justice, adding: “These are entirely unjustified allegations.”
Mr Justice Vos called for new witness statements of those involved and said that he would be delivering his ruling this month or next.
The Times
Be the first to comment