Drugs baron fails to get £1.3m from Bexhill woman

Graham Piper, of Russell Farm, Wendover, Bucks, claimed he lent Lesley Anne Kirk, of Bexhill, and her lover Ken Bachmann more than 500,000 in the 1980s so they could purchase an Essex mansion.

With interest, the sum Mr Piper wanted back was more than 1.3m.

But Judge Andrew Sutcliffe QC dismissed 61-year-old Mr Piper's case and said there was no evidence of any agreement between him and local mother-of-two Mrs Kirk, 59.

He added that, even if there had been, he would have declined to enforce the contract because Mr Piper brought the monies into the country to avoid tax.

The court heard that Mrs Kirk and Mr Bachmann, who died in February 2007, bought Little Peverels, West Hanningfield Road, West Hanningfield, Chelmsford, Essex, for 400,000 in October 1987. Mrs Kirk was registered as the sole proprietor, and sold it after Mr Bachmann's death for 1,635,000.

Mr Piper claimed that he had "lent" Mr Bachmann the money - including 360,000 in cash - because he was short of funds, and both Mr Bachmann and Mrs Kirk orally agreed to the deal.

The court heard that Mr Piper served as a policeman for six years in the 1970s, but quit the force when his father died and invested his inheritance in various businesses, including a haulage firm.

He became one of the country's top racehorse owners, but was disgraced in 2001 when he was convicted at the Old Bailey of trying to smuggle millions of pounds worth of cocaine into the UK. He received a 14-year jail term.

Following his release from prison, said Judge Sutcliffe, he got in contact with Mrs Kirk and asked for his money back, and on August 10, 2008, one of his associates visited Mrs Kirk at her home in Albany Road, Bexhill.

That associate left a note saying "LESLEY UR NEXT VISIT WON'T BE AS NICE", and a subsequent visit on August 12 led Mrs Kirk to say that she would go to the police and lodge a complaint of harassment.

Describing Mrs Kirk as a witness who told "the truth", Judge Sutcliffe said that he did not consider Mr Piper an "honest or truthful witness", adding that he had tried to invent a case against Mrs Kirk "when none existed".

The judge added that if Mr Piper had lent Mr Bachmann the money, he had done so as a tax evasion scam on substantial deposits he held in Dubai.