FORMER tycoon Mr George Walker was charged yesterday with stealing
#12.5m from the Brent Walker empire.
The ex-boxer and former chairman of the group appeared in Bow Street
Magistrates Court, London, accused of two counts of theft -- one of #5m
from Brent Walker on or about August 24, 1989, and one of #7.5m on or
about May 26, 1989.
Mr Walker, 63, of Pell House, Fobbing, Essex, was also jointly charged
with the group's former finance director, Mr Wilfred Aquilina, on two
counts of false accounting -- one for #5m in May 1990 and the second for
#7.5m in May 1990.
Prosecutor Mrs Patricia Howse told stipendiary magistrate Jeremy Conor
that the charges arose from a complex investigation by the Serious Fraud
Office, instigated at the company's request in 1991.
Mr Walker gave up control of the property and leisure group, which he
built from scratch, in December 1991 as it struggled for survival with
debts of #1800m. The company owned some of London's principal
entertainment venues.
The businessman, who started his working life as a Billingsgate
porter, was remanded on #500,000 bail. His brother-in-law, Mr George
Hatton, of Barking Road, Plaistow, east London, and his sister-in-law
Jacqueline Walker, of Teckles Park, Camberley, Surrey, stood surety.
Mr Aquilina was granted bail on condition that he lived at his home in
Barnes, south-west London, surrendered his passport, and provided surety
of #100,000.
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