Finance chief says Christian Candy told Holyoake to “F-off and die”

The finance director of property investor Christian Candy’s CPC Group says he heard Christian Candy tell business associate Mark Holyoake to “F-off and die” in a meeting. Entrepreneur Holyoake is suing brothers Nick and Christian Candy for more than £100m, claiming they “coerced” him out of millions of pounds after Christian Candy’s company CPC lent him £12m to buy Belgravia mansion Grosvenor Gardens House in late 2011. The Candy brothers strongly refute the allegations and say that Holyoake was an unreliable creditor who lied to them from the start. They say that Holyoake’s allegations of coercion are fabricated. Speaking on the witness stand under cross examination from Holyoake’s barrister Roger Stewart QC, he denied that he heard Candy being “abusive” to Holyoake at a 2012 meeting over the loan. Instead, he said Candy left the meeting early in frustration. “Christian lost patience and left the room,” he said, leaving him to finish the meeting. Stewart asked if he heard Candy say he would put Holyoake “in a deep, dark, hole, legally”. Dean said he didn’t. However he agreed he heard Candy tell Holyoake to “F-off and die” as he left the room. It was out of “immense frustration”, Dean said. “It was all very silly.” Dean said he was in charge of getting the loan returned. He said CPC paid him a £750,000 bonus for doing so. He said that, throughout the period he was “consistently trying to resolve the situation”. On Monday, Dean told the court that he dissuaded Christian Candy from attempting to seize Holyoake’s Land Rover as part of the loan repayment. Dean said that would “put me in with the pawnbrokers”. “It seemed to me to be a non commercial approach.” In addition, the Land Rover was “probably on contract hire”, so didn’t really belong to Holyoake. Giving evidence earlier in the case, Holyoake said that he approached Nick Candy, a university friend, for an unsecured loan to help him with a property transaction. He alleges that soon after the loan was provided by Christian Candy’s company, he subjected him to a campaign of threats and intimidation with the intention of “stealing the asset” and getting as much money out of him as possible. He alleges that Christian Candy told him he would deliberately engineer a situation that would put Holyoake’s then pregnant wife Emma, who had previously suffered a miscarriage, under extreme stress. Earlier in the trial, both Nick and Christian Candy vociferously denied this allegation, with Nick Candy saying it made him feel “absolutely sick”. The case is now in its sixth week. Dean, who is the last witness to the events, finishes giving evidence today. Expert accountant witnesses are scheduled to give evidence starting on Friday, followed by expert property witnesses. Then lawyers from both sides will give closing speeches, before the hearing ends and the judge considers his ruling. A written judgment is expected some weeks after the end of the hearing.