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EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Did King Charles's former right-hand man Michael Fawcett sell £1.3million home to pay off son's £700,000 debts? By Richard Eden for The Daily Mail Published: 00:19, 20 September 2024 | Updated: 00:20, 20 September 2024 e-mail View comments Decades before becoming chief executive of The Prince's Foundation – and one of the future King Charles 's most trusted confidants – Michael Fawcett supplemented his modest income as a Buckingham Palace footman by taking a Saturday job in a menswear shop. Presumably eager that his children, Oliver and Emily, should be spared similar indignity, the acutely focused Fawcett appointed them as directors of his events company when they were just 22 and 24 respectively.
But things have not, alas, gone quite according to plan. Indeed, I can reveal that Oliver, now 28, has suffered a brutal reversal of fortune. Just two years after becoming the key shareholder in – and sole director of – 303 London Ltd, a company specialising in 'television programme production activities', he's been obliged to call in the liquidators after it amassed debts of nearly £700,000.
It's an unhappy situation. The company owes £550,000 to HM Revenue & Customs – and a further £13,000 in unpaid corporation tax. Banks and other institutions are owed a total of £110,000, and 303's landlord another £12,000.
Oliver had appeared to be racing along in his father's slipstream. While he couldn't immediately hope to tuck away the £95,000-a-year Fawcett senior received as chief executive of The Prince's Foundation, Oliver's company pocketed £16,000 from the foundation in 2016, £1,770 in 2017 and £400 in 2018, for producing short films covering events at Dumfries House, the magnificent Palladian pile in Ayrshire which the King 'saved for the nation'. King Charles wears a kilt as he stands with one of his most trusted confidantes Michael Fawcett A younger Charles - then Prince - hunts at Sandringham with Michael Fawcett Those glory years may now seem a distant memory.
In 2021 Michael – who reputedly squeezed toothpaste onto the royal toothbrush after Charles suffered a severe fall playing polo – resigned from the foundation following allegations that he'd discussed securing British citizenship and a knighthood for a Saudi tycoon. Recently, as I disclosed, Michael, 61, and his wife Debbie, a former Buckingham Palace housemaid, sold their five-bedroom house, just a mile from Hampton Court, for £1.3million.
They bought it for £490,000 in 2003 – the same year in which Fawcett resigned from the Royal Household following an inquiry conducted by Michael (later Sir Michael) Peat, who'd become Charles's Private Secretary the previous year. The inquiry cleared Fawcett of any impropriety but found that he'd accepted numerous gifts in the course of his royal service. The redoubtable Fawcett wasn't impeded for long, returning to work for Charles on a freelance basis.
I trust that Oliver will display the same resilience. He declines to comment on his current difficulties, but can perhaps take comfort from the fact that, after selling their house, his parents paid £530,000 for a bungalow eight miles away – yielding an £800,000 profit on their property transactions. More than enough to cover what 303 owes HMRC.
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' Lizzy wore a Barbour coat to a dinner hosted by Alexa Chung to celebrate the launch of her range for the classic English brand. Elizabeth Jagger wears a Barbour coat to a dinner hosted by Alexa Chung to celebrate the launch of her range for the classic English brand on September 18, 2024 'The fashion world has become slightly more corporate,' adds Lizzy. 'It's all very money-based.
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The transformation is evidently to Sir Keir's liking. Lord Alli, 59, splashed out on renovating his Covent Garden penthouse Not only did he spend election night there, he's also hosted fundraising events at the penthouse which may, in part, explain the £20,400 for as yet unspecified 'accommodation' that he's declared in the Register of Members' Interests. Piano Competition 'rigged' against men The Leeds International Piano Competition, for which Sir Keir Starmer wrote introductory notes to the programme, has been accused of 'rigging' the event against men.
Leaked instructions to the jury state: 'If there are two candidates with equal scores competing for one place and one is a woman candidate, we ask the juror to consider advancing her first.' A spokesman says these are 'not mandatory' but 'part of our broader effort to address the long-standing issue of gender inequality.' An orchestra and conductor on stage at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2021 Dame Judi Dench fights to save the trees As James Bond's boss M in eight James Bond films, Dame Judi Dench was used to fighting evil forces.
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They are irreplaceable habitat. 'I hope a solution can be found to protect this conservation area.' The cathedral's chapter says new trees would be planted to mitigate against the loss.
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The club's general committee allowed Dames Judi Dench and Sian Phillips to join as 'distinguished' members, but now its official magazine complains some ladies believe 'all female candidates would get the same fast-track treatment'. Women 'will be subject to the same process as men', it states, adding: 'Candidates do not "apply" to join the club, let alone use the media to announce a desire to join.' Buckingham Palace Share or comment on this article: EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Did King Charles's former right-hand man Michael Fawcett sell £1.
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