I Owe £100million. Will I Lose my House?

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FORMER TV golden girl Anthea Turner last night sobbed as she revealed she’s lost an astonishing £100 MILLION in the credit crunch.


The Perfect Housewife presenter told how her husband Grant Bovey’s buy-to-let empire had collapsed, and wept: “Our backs are against the wall—we may even lose our mansion.”

But today we can also reveal how she POCKETED a staggering £1.2 MILLION from one of their firms as it went bust owing creditors £200,000.


Worry


In an exclusive interview with the News of the World Anthea—who owns a £5 million estate in Surrey and a £5 million chateau in France—said: “We are in it like lots of other people in this country who have been bitten by economic circumstances. I can’t remember the last time I slept properly because of the worry.”


And husband Grant, 47—whose three companies have gone bust—said: “Our net worth was over £100 million—now it’s an awful lot less, just a small fraction of what it was.”

But our investigations today show how Anthea, 48, took large amounts of money out of Imagine Furnishings, her part of Bovey’s empire, as it lurched towards disaster.

In 2006, Anthea paid herself £900,000 from the firm that furnished Bovey’s buy-to-let homes at £11,000 a time. In 2007, as the credit crunch loomed, she took £389,410 in ‘consultancy services’, £240,792 in advances and a £573,738 loan which was waived by the company.

So she was paid a total of £1,203,940 in the same year the firm posted a LOSS of £685,259. Grant has agreed in the past that Anthea’s only involvement was “choosing the sofas.”

Meanwhile Anthea told us of her fears for the future. “I’ll be 50 in 18 months’ time and now I don’t even know whether we can keep our home,” she said. “The property industry has been caught with its knickers around its ankles.”
She and Grant revealed they are “very seriously considering downsizing” from their £5 million Surrey mansion in a 57-acre estate complete with £100,000 polo field, stables full of horses and a £500,000 tennis court with pavilion and floodlights.

“We have had to re-evaluate our lives. I don’t think a £5 million mansion makes you happy,” said Anthea.

The TV presenter—who now fronts BBC3’s Perfect Housewife which showcases her as a domestic goddess—insisted she was more worried about the knock-on effects of the couple’s empire crash on other people than on herself.

“Those people who moan about you driving around in your nice big car are forgetting the guy who washes the car now hasn’t got a job or who did the maintenance on it,” she said.

“There is no way Anthea Turner can complain about anything in her life.”
The couple’s lavish world lost its glitter this summer when property prices plummetted and banks cut loans. Yet rather than accept the crisis engulfing his businesses Bovey threatened to sue anyone who dared suggest he could be in trouble, insisting: “We have huge profits yet to materialise.” They didn’t.

“We are in the same boat as millions of other people,” said Bovey last night.

“Next year is going to be very tough.”

Of Anthea’s earnings, he confessed: “We can’t deny she had all this money out. But Imagine Furnishings was making an awful lot of money at that time.” The firm went into administration last Monday.

A source close to the couple said: “A lot of people are out of pocket and very unhappy. They’ll look at the money Anthea took from Imagine Furnishings and wonder what the hell was going on.”

And a source at one of the firms that supplied Anthea’s furniture range and is now chasing her for cash added: “It’s not her who’ll be struggling to make ends meet.”

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news...r-mansion.html