Gulzar Pleads Old Age as Defence to £1.3m Debt Claim
HUGH SULLIVAN
On 12 August, Sheikh Abid Gulzar, owner of Hastings Pier, attended a High Court hearing in London to defend his company, Golden (Lions) Eastbourne Limited (‘Golden Lions’), against a winding-up petition brought by British Gas Trading Limited (‘British Gas’). The petitioner claims that Golden Lions, of which Mr Gulzar is sole director and shareholder, owes it an unpaid debt of £1.3m.
Golden Lions is the freehold owner of Eastbourne Pier. It is the second time in four years that British Gas has petitioned to wind up the company for unpaid debts.
The company was legally unrepresented in court, but Mr Gulzar appeared, accompanied by Brett McLean, described on the Eastbourne Pier Facebook page as an “executive of the new management team” of both Eastbourne and Hastings Piers.
Mr Gulzar told the presiding judge, Lord Michael Briggs, that he was 82 years old (his self-recorded entry at Companies House puts his age as 80) – “the oldest man in this room” – and that he had been “treated very badly” despite being the “biggest donator to charities in Eastbourne, especially children”.
Asked how the company intended to defend the petition, Mr McLean requested an adjournment so as to dispute the claimed bill. He described it as being far too much for a pier, claiming: “Most UK piers would spend no more than £200,000 on their bills”. The company could pay this latter sum in instalments.
Mr Gulzar, however, chipped in to say: “Not £200,000. More like £25,000 – and I have offered them £10,000.” He repeated that he was an old man and had no electricity at his home since being cut off 17 months ago; it is understood that this is at the former Boship Lions Farm Hotel, now closed.
Judge Briggs, dealing with the case as one of a long list of company disputes, cut him off from expressing further personal grievances and directed that Golden Lions should present their evidence bundle to the court by 9 September, to be followed by a pre-trial review in October.
Mr Gulzar is due back in court – this time Brighton Magistrates – next Wednesday 2 September on an unrelated criminal charge, which he denies: possession of a knife blade or sharp pointed article in a public place.
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