Matt Haycox: Yorkshire entrepreneur and YouTuber ordered to pay £3m over luxury hotel loan 'lies'
A well-known Yorkshire entrepreneur and social media personality has been ordered to pay more than £3m after a judge ruled he had deceived investors about a non-existent loan for a luxury hotel project.
Matt Haycox, who is originally from Yorkshire and has almost 50,000 subscribers to a YouTube channel where he interviews celebrities like Ant Middleton and Katie Price, has been facing a commercial fraud claim from businessman Scott Fletcher and Lowry Trading Limited over a £4.5m loan.
The claimants alleged Mr Haycox had misled them into providing millions on the basis the money would be lent onwards to the owners of Homestall Manor in East Sussex to fund a luxury hotel renovation.
In October, Judge Richard Pearce issued a judgement about the case, with Mr Haycox saying at the time he intended to appeal.
The court heard Mr Haycox provided what appeared to be signed documents confirming the agreement and then gave regular email updates about the supposed progress of the investment, with more than £2.6m of payments purporting to be interest and capital repayments also made. However, no agreement was actually in place.
A costs hearing had been due to take place on December 15 but was called off after a consent order was signed agreeing terms.
A court order seen by The Yorkshire Post states Mr Haycox will be required to pay £2.64m to the claimants, and a further £450,000 towards their legal costs. Annual interest of eight per cent will apply to the £2.64m until it is paid.
Mr Haycox said he did not wish to comment when contacted by The Yorkshire Post.
The Individual Insolvency Register shows Mr Haycox, who now lives in Dubai, was declared bankrupt in February this year.
Lowry Trading is owned by a family trust of which Mr Fletcher is a beneficiary. Mr Haycox had acted as a broker for two special purpose vehicles (SPVs) connected to a lending company called Huddle Capital, which is now in administration.
During the October hearing, Judge Pearce said that Mr Fletcher had provided £4.5m to the SPV 20 scheme, with a subsequent refinancing seeing Lowry involved with a sum “in excess of £2m” as it took over Mr Fletcher’s commitment.
Money was first provided after Mr Haycox sent an email about the Homestall scheme on November 17, 2022, where he said they were now “there” with the matter following legal delays. Transaction documents were attached which appeared to show the borrowers had signed agreements.
But Judge Pearce said on December 6, Mr Haycox had emailed a representative of the Homestall Manor owners “talking about the fact the deal has not closed”.
A further email from Mr Haycox later in December said “the deal is now dead anyway…”.
Judge Pearce said it was not feasible Mr Haycox could have believed what was said in the November email to be true given the content of the December emails.
The court was told Mr Haycox said he discovered in around January 2023 the £4.5m from Mr Fletcher had not gone onwards to the property owners but had been “deployed elsewhere”.
The judge said: “Mr Haycox elected not to tell Mr Fletcher and covered up by providing positive updates about the loan which had not been implemented.”
The court was told Mr Haycox said he considered Mr Fletcher to be a “volatile” character and wanted to “pick the right moment to disclose the problem”.
Judge Pearce said this was not a relevant defence. "A lie is no less a lie just because one fears that the person to whom one is telling the lie would be angry if they were told the truth,” the judge said.
Judge Pearce said Mr Haycox had previously conceded he had made “strategic misstatements” and told “white lies”.
"Whichever phrase one uses, it involves Mr Haycox accepting that some of what he said to the claimants was, to his knowledge, untrue,” he said.