A disgraced lawyer swindled an aristocratic dressage rider out of her £2.1 million life savings, a judge has ruled.
Baroness Jacqueline van Zuylen, the former wife of a Dutch nobleman, had told the High Court that she had sleepless nights after passing her money to Rodney Whiston-Dew to invest on her behalf in 2012.
Whiston-Dew, 70, was struck off as a solicitor after being jailed in 2017 for his role in a £65 million tax scam. He was described in court as persuasive, impressive and like a Svengali.
Van Zuylen sued for the return of her £2.1 million, which included a divorce payout, and the same in damages. Judge Nicholas Thompsell ruled on Wednesday that Whiston-Dew had perpetrated acts of “deceit” on his aristocratic client and was responsible for reimbursing her. The amount he owes has yet to be calculated.
During the trial, lawyers for Van Zuylen, a former semi-professional dressage rider who claimed never to have worked, said she had to “beg, steal and borrow” to survive without her savings.
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Whiston-Dew denied wrongdoing and claimed he did not have access to the money, having invested it in an offshore trust with her permission.He told the court that he had encouraged Van Zuylen “to rein in her extraordinary spending habits”.
Van Zuylen, who lives in the Cotswolds, was the third wife of Baron Thierry van Zuylen, a scion of Netherlands nobility who made a fortune in banking. He also owned a string of racehorses and was a leading figure on the French racing scene for more than 50 years.
The couple split before the baron’s death in 2011 and, after receiving a lucrative divorce settlement, Van Zuylen settled into English rural high society in the village of Little Faringdon. Her daughter, Allegra, attended Cheltenham Ladies’ College before going to New York to study art.
The High Court heard that the baroness was “financially unsophisticated” and was persuaded to transfer her savings via solicitors to GBT Global, an offshore company of which Whiston-Dew was director.
Van Zuylen claimed she had been promised a monthly income for life and had signed a power of attorney in Whiston-Dew’s favour, giving him the right to handle her finances.
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In 2017, after losing faith in the arrangement, Van Zuylen asked for her money to be returned and for an explanation of what happened to it. She told the court that she received neither.
That year Whiston-Dew was jailed for ten years for his role in a £65 million tax-avoidance scam, purportedly linked to a reforestation project in Brazil. He was struck off the roll of solicitors in England and Wales in 2018.
After the judge ruled that Whiston-Dew must return the funds, a barrister for the disgraced lawyer said he was “technically made bankrupt” during the course of the trial.
Whiston-Dew may still be liable to pay the baroness back when his bankruptcy expires.