“Like a bad movie” – Emma Holyoake gives evidence in Candy brothers trial

Mark Holyoake’s wife, Emma, has told the High Court of the pain and humiliation she has endured because of “betrayal” by their former friend Nicholas Candy and alleged threats made by his brother Christian. She took to the stand as the latest witness in the long-running trial, in which her husband is suing the Candy brothers for more than £100m, claiming they “coerced” him out of millions of pounds after they lent him £12m to buy Belgravia mansion Grosvenor Gardens House. The Candy brothers strongly refute the allegations and say that Holyoake was an unreliable creditor who lied to them from the start. The Candys – who say that Holyoake’s allegations of coercion are fabricated – will have the opportunity to give their side of the story from the stand in the coming weeks. In her witness statement sworn into evidence, Emma Holyoake describes her feelings of “betrayal” as “painful, humiliating and profoundly sad” and repeats her husband’s allegations of threats claimed to have been carried out by Christian Candy. She says that she believed Candy would “use any tactics he deems necessary to bring menace and destruction into our lives” and was “hell bent on destroying Mark and us as a family”. She claims she was made to fear for the lives of herself, her husband and their children and her family, and adds: “It was like a bad movie.” But, as she began cross-examination, it was quickly put to her by Tim Lord QC that she had no direct knowledge or experience of the alleged threats she refers to. She replied: “My husband told me and I believe him.” Lord also pointed out that the Holyoakes had not referred any of the alleged threats to the police. She responded: “We live in Ibiza. There is a very minimal police force in Ibiza. I don’t see what they could do. It just doesn’t exist in the sense that it does here.” “I know you have to make it look like it didn’t happen, but this has overshadowed my life for the last five years. This isn’t a joke. It isn’t funny. It’s something very, very serious that has affected me. When you’re dealing with people on this level, the police can’t help you.” In a statement, a representative of the Candy brothers said: “Emma Holyoake has accepted in evidence that her statement is based on information provided to her by her husband. The statement has the sole purpose of causing reputational damage to the defendants. “The defendants remain committed to having these matters decided at trial by the judge.” The trial continues.Extracts from Emma Holyoake’s witness statementHolyoake describes how her once-close relationship with Nick Candy and his wife Holly turned sour almost immediately after the Grosvenor Gardens House deal was made. She said that she initially was happy for Mark and Nick, believing that they would work well together: “I believed that Nick would benefit from Mark’s financial knowledge and experience and Mark would benefit from Nick’s marketing and property savvy.” But she said that the good feeling was “short lived”, and that it quickly became apparent that Nick was not Mark’s true partner, but instead Christian was. She said that, from her perspective, Christian started to impose himself on the transaction “either through jealousy or greed”, while Mark’s “best buddy”, Nick, “virtually evaporated into thin air”. She went on: “Personally, I feel Christian wants to control everything and will use any tactics he deems necessary to bring menace and destruction into our lives. Even to go so far as threatening to exert so much pressure on our family that I would lose my unborn child.” She added: “To his credit I never saw Mark retaliate or sink to Christian’s level but it seems their tactic was to grind Mark down into submission. Under extreme provocation Mark maintained his decency. “She said that, at a lunch in 2012 at which point she was pregnant, Mark told her that Christian had threatened to put them under “so much pressure as a family that I would have another miscarriage”. She added: “Obviously I was horrified by that and remain horrified to this day that anyone could say such a thing. At the time I remember crying and felt sick to my stomach at the risk that we appeared to be at. “It was all the more abhorrent as Nick (and therefore presumably Christian) knew what I had been through before and how upset I had been. “This was no longer a business deal but something very personal. It seemed as if Christian was hell bent on destroying Mark and us as a family.” She said that, in the spring of 2012, they hired “licensed, armed security professionals” to protect them and their children, and installed cameras in their Ibiza home. She also began, and continues, to often sleep in the same room as her three daughters. She described the whole period as a “very anxious” time, during which at the back of her mind she hoped Nick would at some point “come to the rescue and influence Christian to behave decently”. But, she said that, during the whole deal, Nick refused to engage with Mark, with the exception of a call “to confirm that Christian was serious and indeed on the verge of selling the debt to people who would think nothing of physically hurting Mark, myself and or the children”. She said: “I used to worry constantly that Christian might take steps to hurt or even kill Mark when Mark travelled on business.” She said: “I think that as morally bankrupt and dishonest as he is, even Nick would have struggled to look Mark in the eye after what he and his brother had done.” She describes having had a close relationship with Nick Candy’s wife, Australian actress and singer Holly Valance, but said that in 2012 Valance blocked her as a Facebook friend, and also told a mutual friend to remove photographs she had posted on Instagram with Emma Holyoake in them. She said: “Sadly, the Candys are without shame and so driven by the love of money they have lost all sense of decency. There is no depth they will not plumb, no stunt they will not pull, no lie they will not tell.” • To send feedback, e-mail jess.harrold@estatesgazette.com or tweet @jessharrold or @estatesgazette