Latest news with #BigMotoringWorld
Daily Mail
07-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Car salesman, 24, who killed his colleague when he lost control of BMW and smashed into 26-tonne lorry at nearly 100mph walks free from court
A car sales executive who killed his colleague when he lost control of his BMW at nearly 100mph walked free with a supervision order as the victim's mother wept in court. Ivan Zailac, 24, ploughed into a 26-tonne truck at well over double the speed limit killing passenger Stephanie Nye-Diroyan, 21, in Enfield, north London, on October 23, 2022. The pair were colleagues at the second hand car dealership Big Motoring World. A colleague was FaceTiming them at the moment of impact and heard Stephanie scream before connection was lost. Zailac suffers from amnesia and doesn't remember the details of what happened after suffering a brain injury in the collision and subsequent psychiatric issues. He sat at the back of court between his parents laying on his mother or father's shoulder and had to be lifted up by them to stand when the judge came into court. Zailac had been been ruled unfit to stand trial so the jury had to formally decide whether he did the act alleged, namely causing Ms Nye-Diroyan's death by dangerous driving. The jury then found he did carry out the act. Judge Sarah Munro, KC, said Zailac will be supervised by a nominated social worker and the Hillingdon mental health team for two years. 'This is the only way your mental health can be restored in order for a decision to be made as to whether there are further legal consequences for you to face,' the judge said. Prosecutor Frederick Hookway told the court that the Crown intends to put Zailac on trial if he recovers. 'The objective of this order is for the improvement of the defendant's mental health not only for his own sake but for the future of these proceedings. 'The crown do intend to reinstitute these proceedings when and if appropriate.' Stephanie's mother Nicholle Diroyan sobbed as she read her victim impact statement in court. She said: 'Stephanie was my only child. The pain of losing her is immeasurable and every day without her feels incomplete. 'From a young age she was an incredibly happy chid always. Her inquisitive mind and thirst for learning shaped her joyful spirt. 'Her laughter was contagious, she was well mannered, respectful and deeply empathetic. She had a natural ability to sense others feelings and comfort them with her kind and thoughtful nature and she is remembered fondly by everyone who knew her. 'Stephanie and I shared a special unbreakable bond, she was my best friend and our connection was based on mutual care and support. 'Our weekends were filled with quality time together after working long hours. 'In her professional life Stephanie worked at Big Motoring World for over two years, she started as a reception manager and the week before she was killed was promoted to the finance team. 'Her dedication, work ethic and commitment to her team was apparent to everyone around her. 'Stephanie was the best of us and the love she gave will never be forgotten.. Her legacy lives on in the hearts of all who knew her. 'Over two years after losing her I am still fighting in court and I am still struggling to understand how the person responsible for her death has shown no remorse or taken any responsibility for his actions. 'The lack of accountability from those who caused the death and the pain from the injustice makes the loss even more unbearable. 'I have tried to do everything I can to pursue justice. No amount of time or legal proceedings will ever bring Stephanie back but I will keep fighting in the hope no other parent will ever have to face this dreadful loss without the accountability that is so desperately needed.' Stephanie's aunt Michelle Diroyan said they were 'closer than any family could be' and remembered making fancy dress outfits for Stephanie to wear to school including an Amy Winehouse outfit where she won first prize. Her grandmother Sheila Ballis said Stephanie and her mother had lived with her until Stephanie was 14. 'We did so much together. She loved and enjoyed all life had to offer her and I was so proud to call her my granddaughter. 'We used to call her the class clown as she was always the one to make us laugh. 'All of this is because she was a passenger in a vehicle whose driver had no regard for the speed limit, taking our Stephanie's life and destroying our lives too.' Judge Munro said: 'This court deals with many, many cases where lives have been taken at the hands of others but rarely do we deal with cases as tragic as this one. 'Stephanie's joyful life was snuffed out in an instant. Her mother will never recover from her grief and as a result of losing her beloved daughter her life will never be the same again. 'What's clear to me is that Stephanie lived life to the full. She had her whole life ahead of her and would undoubtedly have shone in her working and personal life. 'She was a wonderful young woman who was taken away from everyone far too soon. 'Perhaps the only comfort is from Stephanie making the most of every moment for her life, that she lived life to the full and had so many best nights of her life- but far too few.' Addressing Zailac she said: 'On October, 23, 2022 you were driving a powerful three litre BMW lent to you by your father. 'This court has noted the severe distress upon your father, no doubt living with the guilt that he lent you that car on that night. 'You suffered physical injuries including a traumatic brain injury and psychological consequences and at this stage you were found unfit to be tried. 'Therefore my powers are extremely limited and that is obviously extremely frustrating and distressing for Stephanie's mother and family.' The judge told Stephanie's family that Zailac and his family had expressed 'very considerable remorse and guilt' in the reports she had read. Referring to Zailac and his family's distress, she said: 'This isn't put on, you might think it is, but it's not.' Earlier Dr Jaleel Mohammed told the court Zailac had suffered a brain injury. He said: 'The evidence from the medical records showed that he had suffered a brain injury. 'He subsequently had amnesia after the accident itself. 'My opinion on the matter is that the amnesia was caused by the traumatic brain injury, and not a psychiatric condition. 'The amnesia is not a psychiatric condition but it's a neurological condition.' Mr Hookway said Zailac drove a BMW, an M340D, at approximately 98mph on Mollison Avenue, an A-road in north London that has a speed limit of 40mph. 'And it is alleged that due to the speed and manner of his driving he lost control of that vehicle, causing it to crash into an oncoming lorry that was driving in the opposite direction. 'Stephanie Nye-Diyoran at the time was in the front passenger seat. 'She was caused death by serious injury due to the collision between the vehicle and the lorry, and despite the attention and efforts of emergency services, she was tragically pronounced dead the scene.' Mr Hookway said lorry driver Andre Allen had one passenger with him. 'Their route started at a depot in Enfield, the destination was Covent Garden. 'The route took them southbound along Mollison Avenue. The road has a single carriageway in each direction and a speed limit of 40mph. 'The incident itself happened on a corner of that road. 'The lorry driver, he described it as a blind corner where you are unable to see what is coming in the other direction due to an incline in the road and change in direction. 'He also remembered that the conditions that night were dark and wet. 'As he came around the corner in the lorry, he saw a grey car coming in the other direction - it was coming at some speed and initially it was in the correct lane for oncoming traffic, but as it came around the corner Mr Allen watched it slide, as he described it, into his lane. 'It continued to slide until it collided with the front of his lorry, the point of collision being towards the driver's side of the HGV. 'Mr Allen thought he was driving at around 20-25mph, so well within the speed limit, and he had braked his lorry when he first saw this car. 'Based on data from the airbag module in the defendant's BMW, the collision happened at 19.54pm, so six minutes to eight in the evening.' The prosecutor said using a combination of dash-cam footage, data recorded by the airbag module and witness evidence, a collision investigator had put together a reconstruction. The BMW 'had partly and then wholly crossed the white lines in the middle of the road,' said Mr Hookway. Jurors heard Zailac was driving at '98mph before the collision, representing something well over double the applicable speed limit for that road.' Following the crash Ms Nye-Diroyan was initially able to respond to the lorry driver by 'nodding her head', Mr Hookway said. But her condition deteriorated and despite the best efforts of doctors at the scene, resuscitation efforts failed she was pronounced dead at 21.46pm. Zailac was taken to the emergency department at Royal London Hospital. Dr Gourinath Tokachichu earlier said Zailac 'hasn't got the emotional strength at this stage to engage in any kind of discussion about the court case. 'Because of this, his mental disorder is ongoing and his symptoms are ongoing, and sometimes getting worse.' Dr Tokachichu suggested Zailac is suffering from a treatable post-traumatic stress disorder condition. Zailac, of Greycote Place, Ruislip, was charged with causing death by dangerous driving and the jury found he carried out the act.
The Sun
07-07-2025
- The Sun
Sales exec killed colleague when he ploughed BMW into 26-tonne truck in 100mph horror crash – but walks free from court
A SALES executive killed his colleague in a 100mph horror crash after ploughing his BMW into a 26-tonne truck. Ivan Zailac, 24, was driving Stephanie Nye-Diroyan, 21, through Enfield, North London, when he lost control of the car. 3 A fellow colleague at second hand car dealership Big Motoring World was Facetiming the pair when she heard Stephanie scream. Zailac has now walked free after the court heard he suffers from amnesia after suffering a brain injury in the crash. He had been ruled unfit to stand trial but a jury found he did cause Stephanie's death by dangerous driving. Judge Sarah Munro KC passed a supervision order that means Zailac will be supervised by a nominated social worker and the Hillingdon mental health team for two years. She said: "This is the only way your mental health can be restored in order for a decision to be made as to whether there are further legal consequences for you to face." Prosecutor Frederick Hookway told the court that the Crown intends to put Zailac on trial if he recovers. In a harrowing victim impact statement, Stephanie's mum Nicholle Diroyan sobbed as she paid tribute to her only child. She told how her daughter was an "incredibly happy child" with an "inquisitive mind and thirst for learning". Nicholle said: "Stephanie and I shared a special unbreakable bond, she was my best friend and our connection was based on mutual care and support. "Stephanie was the best of us and the love she gave will never be forgotten. Her legacy lives on in the hearts of all who knew her. "Over two years after losing her I am still fighting in court and I am still struggling to understand how the person responsible for her death has shown no remorse or taken any responsibility for his actions. "The lack of accountability from those who caused the death and the pain from the injustice makes the loss even more unbearable. "I have tried to do everything I can to pursue justice. "No amount of time or legal proceedings will ever bring Stephanie back but I will keep fighting in the hope no other parent will ever have to face this dreadful loss without the accountability that is so desperately needed." The court heard on October 23, 2022, Zailac was driving Stephanie in his dad's powerful BMW when the horror unfolded. He had been speeding at around 98mph on a 40mph road when he lost control and drove into the path of an oncoming lorry. Stephanie, who was sitting in the front of the car, tragically couldn't be saved and was declared dead at the scene. Dr Jaleel Mohammed told the court Zailac had suffered a brain injury and amnesia that stopped him from remembering the crash. He confirmed the amnesia was a neurological condition and not a psychiatric one. Sentencing, Judge Munro said: "This court deals with many, many cases where lives have been taken at the hands of others but rarely do we deal with cases as tragic as this one. "Stephanie's joyful life was snuffed out in an instant. Her mother will never recover from her grief and as a result of losing her beloved daughter her life will never be the same again. "What's clear to me is that Stephanie lived life to the full. She had her whole life ahead of her and would undoubtedly have shone in her working and personal life. "Perhaps the only comfort is from Stephanie making the most of every moment for her life, that she lived life to the full and had so many best nights of her life - but far too few." 3
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Who's the boss? The ousted car sales tycoon versus his private equity investor
In many ways, Peter Waddell is lucky to be alive, let alone a multimillionaire. His backstory involves him wandering the streets of Glasgow after parental abuse left him in a children's home during the 1970s. And yet Waddell went on to build a used car empire called Big Motoring World, accumulating an estimated £500m fortune, a historic home on the outskirts of London and a string of performance cars. But now the 59-year-old faces another challenging chapter, which is threatening chunks of his fortune. The used car salesman has brought an employment tribunal claim as well as a high court case against private equity investors in his company after he was ousted from Big last year. His exit, in April 2024, was triggered after an investigation found he had made sexist, racist and abusive comments towards colleagues – allegations that he contests. However, Waddell goes further than simply denying the claims, raising questions about how private equity firms interact with founders once the financiers have invested in their companies. His court filings allege he was prevented from responding to the accusations, and that they were used by his 'capricious' investors who 'prejudged and in fact determined the outcome of [an] independent investigation as a means of securing Peter Waddell's exclusion from Big'. Now it looks likely that a court will have to assess whether Waddell's alleged behaviour demanded he be sidelined from the business he created. A surprising second question will also be in play: does Waddell's ousting make him a victim? When entrepreneurs give interviews about their big career break, they often tell tales about dropping out of university to launch a startup or hustling for jobs they were barely qualified for. Waddell's tale is very different. The businessman, who is autistic, has dyslexia and is partially deaf, for which he now wears two hearing aids, has a story that involves being physically abused by his mother. 'She scarred my whole body, attempted to cut my hands off and smashed my head,' he said in a recent interview. From toddler age onwards he spent most of his childhood in a children's home. From there he graduated to living on the streets, describing himself as a 'tramp'. Homeless and desperate for warmth during one particularly biting winter day, Waddell wound up at Glasgow's Buchanan bus station where he shielded himself from the cold behind a pile of suitcases in the boot of a parked coach. The door was slammed behind him and the teenager finally emerged in London. In the capital he recalls landing a job at a minicab office and eventually ploughing his earnings into buying cars at auction, which he lined up in parking spaces along the road near a flat he had managed to rent. This was the genesis of Big Motoring World, which grew to a company with 525 employees, revenues of £371m and profits of £6.6m, according to the company's 2021 annual accounts. Those figures attracted investors and in April 2022 Freshstream, a private equity group, acquired about a third of the business, with the option of eventually buying out Waddell's remaining shares. The businessman planned to retire to Spain and enjoy his string of homes, luxury cars and helicopter. But it didn't work out like that. Within two years the used car market had stalled and the two parties were at war. With the business beginning to struggle, Freshstream started to doubt whether it wanted Waddell running Big and so began to explore potential avenues. Freshstream's contract gave it 'step in rights', where it could take action against Waddell if the business underperformed. It also possessed a nuclear option: removing Waddell from his company if he had committed a grave offence that might affect Big's value – a 'material default event', in the jargon. At the start of last year, Freshstream and the company's management opened an investigation into accusations concerning how the founder spoke to staff, customers and business partners. The allegations that emerged were shocking. The claims, some of which were historical and were not formally dealt with by the company at the time, included 'extremely serious racist abuse and sexual harassment of female employees', according to defence filings submitted to the high court by a Freshstream holding company. 'Serious instances of racism including allegedly referring to Hindu people as [the car marque] 'Hyundais',' the Freshstream papers add. 'Serious allegations of sexual harassment including allegedly … telling a female cleaner: 'I bet you'd like to suck my dick?'' The papers also allege that Waddell called 'senior members of the management team the 'C word'' and suggested 'he would 'give it to them up the arse''. In total, Freshstream investigated 27 allegations, some of which Waddell denies and some of which he claims were taken out of context. 'The allegations are fake,' Waddell told the Guardian. 'We will prove it in the court case.' Waddell's high court filings deal mostly with process, with the tycoon stating that he was not allowed to defend himself during the group's internal investigation, which he alleges was set up to oust him. Waddell's claim says it is difficult for him to 'easily read and digest information'. He had been signed off work by a doctor for four weeks with a heart condition on 28 March 2024, the court papers say, and was invited five days later – on 2 April – to an 'investigation interview' that would take place on 9 April. At the interview, 764 pages of evidence were to be considered. Waddell's lawyers requested more time but the company pressed on without him, on the basis that there would be an 'intolerable risk' to the business in delaying. The investigation's final report, which was written by the employment lawyer Nicholas Siddall KC, runs to 138 pages. In it, Siddall suggests he was instructed to come to a conclusion in the absence of any response by the accused; he also seems to raise questions about why the company had concluded there would be an 'intolerable risk' in granting Waddell extra time in which to respond. 'Plainly I had hoped to interview PW [Peter Waddell] in order to receive his version of events,' the KC's report states. 'However, my instructions … were clear. I was not informed of the intolerable risk which [Big Motoring World] would face, and in any event I do not consider it is a matter for me to interrogate the reasons of those who instruct me.' Siddall found, having interviewed 22 sources, that a 'material default event' had occurred in 15 out of the 27 allegations. Waddell was out. All of which means this row – along with a separate claim about how Waddell came to invest some of his fortune in a Freshstream fund – looks likely to be fought out in the high court, probably next year. But whichever way the judge leans, other entrepreneurs have made comparable allegations. The Guardian has spoken to four other British founders of startup businesses who wished to remain anonymous but make similar claims that various investors had attempted to oust them from their companies. None of these allegations were ever tested in court. In Waddell's case, that seems about to change.
The Guardian
21-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Who's the boss? The ousted car sales tycoon versus his private equity investor
In many ways, Peter Waddell is lucky to be alive, let alone a multimillionaire. His backstory involves him wandering the streets of Glasgow after parental abuse left him in a children's home during the 1970s. And yet Waddell went on to build a used car empire called Big Motoring World, accumulating an estimated £500m fortune, a historic home on the outskirts of London and a string of performance cars. But now the 59-year-old faces another challenging chapter, which is threatening chunks of his fortune. The used car salesman has brought an employment tribunal claim as well as a high court case against private equity investors in his company after he was ousted from Big last year. His exit, in April 2024, was triggered after an investigation found he had made sexist, racist and abusive comments towards colleagues – allegations that he contests. However, Waddell goes further than simply denying the claims, raising questions about how private equity firms interact with founders once the financiers have invested in their companies. His court filings allege he was prevented from responding to the accusations, and that they were used by his 'capricious' investors who 'prejudged and in fact determined the outcome of [an] independent investigation as a means of securing Peter Waddell's exclusion from Big'. Now it looks likely that a court will have to assess whether Waddell's alleged behaviour demanded he be sidelined from the business he created. A surprising second question will also be in play: does Waddell's ousting make him a victim? When entrepreneurs give interviews about their big career break, they often tell tales about dropping out of university to launch a startup or hustling for jobs they were barely qualified for. Waddell's tale is very different. The businessman, who is autistic, has dyslexia and is partially deaf, for which he now wears two hearing aids, has a story that involves being physically abused by his mother. 'She scarred my whole body, attempted to cut my hands off and smashed my head,' he said in a recent interview. From toddler age onwards he spent most of his childhood in a children's home. From there he graduated to living on the streets, describing himself as a 'tramp'. Homeless and desperate for warmth during one particularly biting winter day, Waddell wound up at Glasgow's Buchanan bus station where he shielded himself from the cold behind a pile of suitcases in the boot of a parked coach. The door was slammed behind him and the teenager finally emerged in London. In the capital he recalls landing a job at a minicab office and eventually ploughing his earnings into buying cars at auction, which he lined up in parking spaces along the road near a flat he had managed to rent. This was the genesis of Big Motoring World, which grew to a company with 525 employees, revenues of £371m and profits of £6.6m, according to the company's 2021 annual accounts. Those figures attracted investors and in April 2022 Freshstream, a private equity group, acquired about a third of the business, with the option of eventually buying out Waddell's remaining shares. The businessman planned to retire to Spain and enjoy his string of homes, luxury cars and helicopter. But it didn't work out like that. Within two years the used car market had stalled and the two parties were at war. With the business beginning to struggle, Freshstream started to doubt whether it wanted Waddell running Big and so began to explore potential avenues. Freshstream's contract gave it 'step in rights', where it could take action against Waddell if the business underperformed. It also possessed a nuclear option: removing Waddell from his company if he had committed a grave offence that might affect Big's value – a 'material default event', in the jargon. At the start of last year, Freshstream and the company's management opened an investigation into accusations concerning how the founder spoke to staff, customers and business partners. The allegations that emerged were shocking. The claims, some of which were historical and were not formally dealt with by the company at the time, included 'extremely serious racist abuse and sexual harassment of female employees', according to defence filings submitted to the high court by a Freshstream holding company. 'Serious instances of racism including allegedly referring to Hindu people as [the car marque] 'Hyundais',' the Freshstream papers add. 'Serious allegations of sexual harassment including allegedly … telling a female cleaner: 'I bet you'd like to suck my dick?'' The papers also allege that Waddell called 'senior members of the management team the 'C word'' and suggested 'he would 'give it to them up the arse''. In total, Freshstream investigated 27 allegations, some of which Waddell denies and some of which he claims were taken out of context. 'The allegations are fake,' Waddell told the Guardian. 'We will prove it in the court case.' Waddell's high court filings deal mostly with process, with the tycoon stating that he was not allowed to defend himself during the group's internal investigation, which he alleges was set up to oust him. Waddell's claim says it is difficult for him to 'easily read and digest information'. He had been signed off work by a doctor for four weeks with a heart condition on 28 March 2024, the court papers say, and was invited five days later – on 2 April – to an 'investigation interview' that would take place on 9 April. At the interview, 764 pages of evidence were to be considered. Waddell's lawyers requested more time but the company pressed on without him, on the basis that there would be an 'intolerable risk' to the business in delaying. The investigation's final report, which was written by the employment lawyer Nicholas Siddall KC, runs to 138 pages. In it, Siddall suggests he was instructed to come to a conclusion in the absence of any response by the accused; he also seems to raise questions about why the company had concluded there would be an 'intolerable risk' in granting Waddell extra time in which to respond. 'Plainly I had hoped to interview PW [Peter Waddell] in order to receive his version of events,' the KC's report states. 'However, my instructions … were clear. I was not informed of the intolerable risk which [Big Motoring World] would face, and in any event I do not consider it is a matter for me to interrogate the reasons of those who instruct me.' Siddall found, having interviewed 22 sources, that a 'material default event' had occurred in 15 out of the 27 allegations. Waddell was out. All of which means this row – along with a separate claim about how Waddell came to invest some of his fortune in a Freshstream fund – looks likely to be fought out in the high court, probably next year. But whichever way the judge leans, other entrepreneurs have made comparable allegations. The Guardian has spoken to four other British founders of startup businesses who wished to remain anonymous but make similar claims that various investors had attempted to oust them from their companies. None of these allegations were ever tested in court. In Waddell's case, that seems about to change.
Time of India
25-04-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Inside a London mansion that's been home to history
Big Motoring World founder Peter Waddell is putting his historic, Greater London country estate on the market. Holwood House, which has been the residence of a prime minister and hosted scientists and statesman, is listed with Knight Frank for £23.5 million ($31.1 million). #Pahalgam Terrorist Attack Pakistan suspends Simla pact: What it means & who's affected What is India's defence muscle if it ever has to attack? Can Pakistan afford a full-scale war with India? The 59-year-old-Waddell, who says he's retiring and going to live full time in Spain—where he has a replica of Holwood House—has a story to tell about when he first bought the place in 2018. It coincided with another big event in his life: the birth of his son. Waddell recounts a conversation with his financial adviser, who told him to stop leaving all his money in the bank and suggested that he buy a bigger house. 'I was waiting for the baby to arrive at the Portland Hospital and went on [property website] Rightmove and saw the house and knew that was it,' says Waddell. He went out to see the house the day after his son was born and was impressed by the sheer scale of the home and the privacy it offered. 'I liked the house, but I told the agent I have one problem, and he said, 'What's that?'—sort of sighing like, 'Here we go, another time waster,'' Waddell explains, adding that he told the agent: 'My wife just had a baby, so I can't drag her out of bed today to see the house. Can we come back in a week's time?' Waddell and his wife did come back a week later and ended up making the purchase for around £8.5 million, according to Land Registry public records. He says he's spent some £18 million on renovations and improvements. Seven years later, he's put the property on the market. A buyer gets a 25,000-square-foot home with seven bedrooms, five bathrooms and 40 acres of grounds with additional staff accommodation. The list price is less than the total Waddell says he spent on the house including renovations, but London's housing market has been under pressure from taxes, the trade war and high interest rates. Waddell owns one of the finest country houses in South East England now, but he doesn't come from wealth. He grew up in a children's home in Scotland and moved to London when he was just 16. He launched his business in the 1980s with a small car showroom that he expanded into a multimillion-dollar automotive business. Inside the House Holwood House is set on a gated private road that meanders through mature oaks. Waddell says he instructed staff to plant some 68,000 daffodil bulbs along the approach, which were in bloom in early April. The house has two floors and an extensive basement, which includes cardio and weight gyms, a wine cellar and substantial storage space. The entrance opens into a grand entry hall, with one hallway leading into the bespoke Clive Christian kitchen and the other into a wing used primarily for entertainment. In that wing, there's a drawing room, a games room with a snooker table as well as Waddell's favorite part of the home—the cinema room with lounge reclining seating, where he can kick his feet up and relax. 'We spent hundreds of thousand of pounds on the cinema room,' says Waddell. 'We have a moving screen and acoustics all done by a company called Synergy Controls who do all the billionaire houses in London.' There's also an indoor swimming pool, a wet lounge, a changing room and a sauna on the ground floor. The pool area opens onto the porch, where there are sun loungers to relax on on a warm day. Outside, there's a tennis court, a walled garden and a new machinery warehouse for tractors and lawn equipment. Up the grand staircase on the second floor, there are seven bedrooms. The principal suite, which offers views to the parkland, includes his and hers dressing rooms. Peter Jr.'s bedroom is on the second floor, too; Waddell installed special features in the wing for his son, such as a bathtub that lights up and plays music. It's all part of what he characterizes as technological investments to make the home suitable for his family, both for security purposes—like biometric entrances with thumbprints—and touches of fun and personality. 'Just to give you an example, if you are driving up the road with me, and I said, 'What's your favorite color?' And you say to me, 'Pink.' From my phone, I can press a button, and when you arrive at the gates, the gardens, the house, the whole area will light up in pink.' There's also a four-car garage on the property, filled with Ferraris and Bentleys, but Waddell says he recently won a prolonged battle with the local council to get permission to build a £20 million garage to host his fleet of supercars. 'It's taken me five years and a lot of money to get permissions,' says Waddell. The garage has not been built. About the History Waddell's house is in the South East London borough of Bromley, around 14 miles from the financial district of Canary Wharf. On a fast train, it takes 18 minutes from Orpington Station to London Bridge station, but Waddell says he's preferred to travel by helicopter and frequently lands a chopper on the grounds. 'You can park at Chelsea Harbor in the helicopter port. You can be there in four minutes and then shortly at Harrods afterwards,' he says. Holwood House is Grade I listed, meaning the highest level of importance, and there is a impressive list of significant historical figures who've owned or visited the property. The UK's youngest prime minister, William Pitt, first bought the property in 1785 for £8,950—about £1.2 million in today's money, based on the Bank of England's inflation calculator. In May 1787, Pitt met with his close friend the abolitionist campaigner William Wilberforce on the grounds under an oak tree, and Wilberforce told Pitt of his intentions to bring a bill to the House of Commons to abolish the slave trade. In the 1820s, the house was demolished and rebuilt under a new owner, who enlisted the era's fashionable architect Decimus Burton to design it in the Greek Revival style. Charles Darwin was a frequent visitor to the newly built property, and he would conduct experiments and have picnics on the expansive grounds. Later, Winston Churchill dined at the house, which was under threat of bombing during World War II due to its close proximity to Biggin Hill Airport. 'The house is so big and beautiful and has loads of history,' says Waddell. As to who will be the next owner, Waddell thinks it will likely be someone in business, especially given the house's easy commute to the City of London, or another notable person. 'We've had a few offers before, but we weren't ready to sell. We've had a few footballers, a few actors who made offers, but I wasn't selling then.' It was Waddell's family home, and he wasn't ready to part with it. 'But now I'm retired,' he says. 'I don't need two big homes. I only need one.'
