Thatcher-era tycoon guilty of
stealing millions

Nadir, of Mayfair, London, who fled Britain in 1993 and returned in 2010, plundered the millions from his Polly Peck International business empire between 1987 and 1990.

He denied 13 counts of theft of £34m and was cleared on three counts.

Nadir, 71, spent 17 years on the run in Northern Cyprus after Polly Peck International (PPI) collapsed.

He was convicted after a seven-month trial.

Polly Peck was a success story of the Thatcher era and was a top-performing company on the Stock Exchange.

It crashed in 1990 with debts of £550m. Creditors got a fraction of what they were owed and shareholders received nothing.

Nadir was arrested but was secretly flown out of Britain in May 1993 before he could face trial.

Nadir, once 36th on the Sunday Times Rich List, was originally accused of 66 counts, alleging theft of £380m.

He plundered the conglomerate, spiriting away the money into a “black hole” through a complex series of transactions.

These included transferring cash to a bank he owned in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

The money went on jewels, furniture, luxury properties and making his friends and family rich, jurors were told.

Nadir had been a favourite of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and held up PPI, once a lowly clothing company in the East End of London, as a modern-day success story.

He lived the life of a free man in Cyprus, where he was born, but was restricted to exile on the Turkish northern sector of the Mediterranean island.

A second marriage to Nur, a graduate 43 years younger than him, did not quell his desire to return to England.

He flew back in August 2010 after a judge allowed him bail for the two years of court proceedings.

Nadir denied the 13 charges, maintaining his elderly mother Safiye had offset the transfers to Cypriot subsidiaries with Turkish lira.

Philip Shears QC, prosecuting, said this was laughable as it would have taken a mountain of cash 300 times higher than Nelson’s Column to match the sterling.

Nadir abused his position as chairman and chief executive of PPI to steal from the company, said Mr Shears.

He said: “Asil Nadir was the dominant force in PPI. He maintained a direct control over its operations, directing its affairs in an autocratic manner, and refusing to tolerate rival sources of power – or constraints upon his freedom of action.

“He abused that power and helped himself to tens of millions of pounds of PPI’s money.

“He caused the transfer from the three PPI accounts which he dishonestly routed away to benefit himself, his family or associates.”

In December 1989, accounts showed £202.6m – 81 per cent of PPI’s cash balances – in the subsidiaries in Turkey and Northern Cyprus.

Most of the funds ended up “within a fairly complex structure of offshore companies” based in Switzerland, the Bahamas and elsewhere, said Mr Shears.

Some £26.2m was used to secretly buy shares in PPI by companies owned by Nadir to bolster its share value.

Stolen money was also paid into Nadir family trusts and companies and to pay off his personal debts.

Nadir was remanded in custody until today’s hearing.