There may be a reason for this…
Lord Brocket served a term in Jail for insurance fraud. He claimed his Ferrari’s were stolen when in fact they were buried in one of those bunkers. Is it possible he couldn’t face the thought of seeing them from the stately home?
From the blurb to his autobiography
“Born into the aristocracy and imbued with the ethos of the privileged; public service, the young Lord Brocket served in Her Majesty’s Armed Forces and in the House of Lords on the cross-benches. But the Old Etonian’s hedonistic lifestyle came to a sudden halt when he was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud an insurance company.
Sentenced to seven years, Brocket served at Her Majesty’s Pleasure for two and a half years. He departed prison, a different man; humbled by the experience; no longer a toff but a man able to look anyone in the eye. Or so he claims. But Brocket was always an exhibitionist; he chose to speed away from the prison on a gleaming Harley Davidson motorbike, clad in a black leather biker's jacket and jeans. It was typical Brocket style.
Jailed in 1996 after breaking up and hiding three Ferraris and a Maserati from his £20m collection, Brocket claimed they had been stolen in a bid to clear his debts. His troubles began when he converted his family estate, Brocket Hall, into a premier hotel and conference venue. As the money rolled in, he bought Ferrari cars as an investment. At the time, the cars were tripling in value in just two years. But when the market collapsed over-night, the bank called in its £5 million loan and laid claim to Brocket Hall. He was horrified. He stayed up all night to read the small print – only to find that he foolishly and unknowingly had secured the loan on his ancestral home. “I could have sued my lawyers – but I just didn’t think to do so. I panicked. The insurance fraud seemed the answer. Though as matter of fact, I did withdraw the claim as soon as I received an offer of a 15 year loan from a bank”.
Charlie, as he styles himself now, almost got away without being found out. “A year passed and then I received a knock on the door from the police”. His wife had grassed him. It was a devastating blow. “In most other countries what I did, would never have led to prison, but in good old Britain conspiracy to defraud is treated more serverly than actual fraud”, he says with scorn.
“My wife and I should never have married. We were quite unsuited” he says. But they were a glamourous couple, when they wed. At the time, Charlie - or to give his full title, Sir Charles Ronald George Nall-Cain, Third Baron Brocket, was a big catch; Young, rich and titled. His bride, Isa, was at the time a top international model. But the marriage soured as Isa developed an addiction to painkillers. This led to her arrest for faking drug prescriptions and the revelations of Brocket’s fraud.”