A businessman who sold towels to The Dorchester hotel has accused his son of having “dumped in skips” £300,000 of luxury furnishings in a row over a £2.2 million property.
Michael Parker told a High Court judge that his son, Thomas Parker-Bowyer, either “flogged” or simply disposed of items including a £12,000 baby grand piano, £40,000 in gym equipment and a Union Jack armchair.
The court was told that the father, 60, made a fortune from selling luxury towels to top hotels including The Dorchester on Park Lane in London, and was now entangled in a legal dispute with his son over the ownership of a ranch-style property in Bourne End in Buckinghamshire.
Parker lived at the seven-bedroom, eight-bathroom property — known simply as The House — until 2019, when it was assigned to his son for inheritance tax reasons, he told a hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice.
Father and son are suing each other over ownership of the property and furnishings, which Parker says are worth £300,000.
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Parker has claimed that he signed the house over to his son on the understanding that he retained control over the property during his lifetime.
The towel tycoon has asked the court to declare that there was a “constructive trust” agreement to that effect between him and his son. He is seeking an order for damages for its contents and items from another property on family land.
Parker-Bowyer, 30, has argued that his father “gifted” the property to him in return for the son paying off the mortgage in 2019. The son has also told the court that the contents of the house came as a package for which he paid an additional £10,000.
Parker-Bowyer is counter-suing for payment of a £24,000 energy bill for which he said his father was responsible. He has asked the judge to order an injunction that would ban his father from “trespassing” by entering The House or its grounds.
At the beginning of the hearing, Judge John Linwood was told that Parker was a successful property developer, who also ran a surgical supply company, before joining forces with his then wife, Barbara Cooke, in a thriving luxury towel business, BC SoftWear.
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The property at the centre of the row has two acres of grounds and includes a bespoke kitchen fitted in American black walnut and Orissa blue granite. The house has a cinema, aqua-lift swimming pool with adjustable floor height, gym and bar, as well as separate staff quarters.
Giving evidence in court, Parker said that until the dispute, he had a good relationship with his son. “If I could have cut off my right arm and given it to him, I would have done,” he said.
The dispute centres on a 2019 agreement between them shortly after Parker moved to his other house, Babs Park, nearby. Parker acknowledged in court that he had transferred The House and its land and buildings to his son, but strictly on condition that he retain a lifetime interest in the property himself.
In court, Gavin McLeod, a barrister representing the businessman, told the judge that the transfer had been made to minimise inheritance tax and that he planned to leave Babs Park to his older son Eddie, 33, who is not involved in the dispute.
Piers Digby, the barrister for Parker-Bowyer, said that the son used his £200,000 savings and a £1.2 million mortgage to pay off his father’s mortgage, and that as a result his father gave him the remaining equity in the property.
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The case continues.
