PLEASE APPRECIATE THAT I GET SENT MORE INFORMATION AND LEADS THAN I CAN USE. I TRY TO RESPOND TO EVERYONE WHO CONTACTS ME BUT I CANNOT POSSIBLY USE EVERY BIT OF INFORMATION I’M SENT. DIOLCH YN FAWR
♦
The original ‘Jake Berry MP’ was such a hit with the popcorn-munching public that Jac Universal Studios is unashamedly rushing out a sequel featuring our lantern-jawed hero.
In this offering you will meet a number of new faces including another Jake, the police get involved, and there’s a cameo appearance by Boris Johnson.
So dim the house lights, sit back, and prepare to be entertained. (But don’t make too much noise with the popcorn!)
♦
LAST TIME . . .
We left our hero clinging to a ledge above a 1,000 foot drop with the villain about to stamp on his aching fingers . . . oh, sorry, wrong screenplay.
Though it would have been a good place to start because at least we’d know where he was. For Jake Berry is a difficult man to pin down; he ducks and weaves, always on the move, like the Muhammad Ali of the government benches.
This tale began last week, you’ll remember, with reports that Berry and his family had turned up at one of their Rhoscolyn properties on Ynys Môn in defiance of lockdown instructions. They had probably come from their London SW1 home.
But Virginia Crosbie the local MP, unexpected victor in last December’s election, insisted that the family had been at Rhyd-y-Bont since February, long before lockdown. It was just that no one had noticed them . . . for three months.
Her exact words, quoted by NorthWalesLive, were: “Mr and Mrs Berry have been living here in the island since February – it is their home.” Though whether telling us that the MP for an east Lancashire constituency lived on Ynys Môn really helped Berry is a moot point.
Then evidence started dribbling out making it clear that if the Berry family had been at Rhyd-y-Bont since February then Jake Berry had been regularly breaking lockdown. And if they’d arrived on Ynys Môn the week before last, then that too was breaking lockdown. It was no longer a question of whether Jake Berry was guilty, but of which offence.
The unravelling of the alibi also tells us that the local Conservative MP has been telling porkies.
◊
YOU WERE LEFT WONDERING . . .
Now then, let’s clear up a few loose ends from the previous blockbuster. We identified three properties at Rhoscolyn owned or part-owned by James Jacob Gilchrist Berry.
There was Cerrig, part-owned with his parents. Plas Coch, part-owned with his mother and another family member. Then there’s Rhyd-y-Bont, the farm for which he paid £780,000 up front in November.
Correction 19.05.2020: I am now informed that Max Jonathan Berry and Ruth Elizabeth Berry, co-owners of Cerrig, are Jake Berry’s siblings. Lucy Charlotte Berry, co-owner of Plas Coch, is either another sibling or the wife of Max.
I mentioned that there was a fourth property at Rhoscolyn waiting to be identified. Well now I have it. It’s Mountain View which, I’m informed, is next to Silver Bay Caravan Park. Lovely, traditional Welsh names. Names like these being the benefits of tourism and social engineering.
According to the Land Registry title document Mountain View was bought some time ago for £92,000. It’s now for sale with Dafydd Hardy at an asking price of £485,000. (I’ll explain how I came by this information in a minute.)
So that’s four properties, but I’m told there might be more properties in the area owned by Jake Berry. Specifically, the property where his defender, local MP Virginia Crosbie lives when she visits the island. I await information from my man in the shrubbery.
There was also some uncertainty as to where the Berry family actually lives. Do they have a fixed abode, or do they move with the seasons, like members of some pastoral society, driving their flocks before them?
As I’ve hinted, the permanent abode is in London SW1, a property bought for £2,150,000 in February 2017, with money up front, just like Rhyd-y-Bont. So the Berry clan will in future be moving between London and Ynys Môn with the pater familias making the occasional foray into his constituency.
You’ll see that I have redacted the identifying details from the London property. This seems the right option following a telephone conversation with North Wales Police on Saturday, a convivial chat with a chief inspector who agreed that what Jake Berry had complained about – me putting out his personal details – was already in the public domain via the Land Registry.
What I can tell you is that the London property is in the name of Berry’s wife.
The difference is that the Rhoscolyn properties were known locally and being identified on social media before I got involved. The London address is not publicly known.
◊
THE MAGIC MONEY TREE
Something else I wondered about in the first part was where the lucre is coming from to make these expensive purchases. For Berry is a non-practising solicitor and seems to have no directorships. I remarked that his MP’s salary seems to go a long, long way.
Though I suppose with the London property being in his wife’s name she might be worth a few bob herself. Alternatively, the SW1 house could have been bought with Berry’s money and registered in her name to throw people of the scent.
On the question of companies and directorships, while there seem to be no current directorships for Jake Berry there have certainly been directorships in the past.
One snippet I was sent mentions a company called Rhoscolyn Limited. I’m afraid I don’t have the context. (Though maybe it’s from the site Company Director Check?) And of course this is how I learnt about Mountain View.
I drew a blank on the Companies House website and other sites, so if anyone out there has information on Rhoscolyn Limited, then it’s the usual routine, either leave it in the old hollow tree or send it to editor@jacothenorth.net.
Digressing slightly, but staying with the subject of money – always a Conservative MP’s prime consideration – MPs get well paid with expenses. With this in mind I went to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) site to check on Jake the Lad’s expenses.
Which was quite interesting.
For the last full year available, 2018-2019, he claimed £16,618.31 for accommodation in his constituency. That accommodation I understand is Clough Cottage in Rossendale, which is owned by Tony Cope, a bigwig among Rossendale & Darwen Conservatives.
A nice little earner for Tony.
Let’s return to companies and directorships, for while Jake Berry himself seems to be ‘clean’, others close to him do dabble.
There’s PEPC Ltd which was run by Berry’s Parliamentary PA Paul Lambert Fairhurst and his Personal PA Louise Inglis, using a Liverpool address. This company was dissolved in December 2018 without apparently troubling HMRC or anyone else. It just did nothing in its brief existence.
Fairhurst was also involved with a company called PND Group Ltd, with a Manchester address, which went under in March 2020, also after a short period of apparent inactivity.
Inglis was further involved with a company giving a Nottingham address, called Licensing Objective Ltd. It was dissolved in February 2019 after less than five years of shuffling around a bit of small change.
Setting up companies to provide a cover for nefarious activities is something I report on regularly on this blog, but that can’t be the case here, surely? So why set up companies and just let them fold?
Let’s conclude this little excursion into the corporate world by turning our attention to Ford Bridge Farm Ltd. And if that sounds weirdly familiar then it’s because it is of course Rhyd-y-Bont, one of Berry’s Rhoscolyn properties, rendered into English. The sole director is Mrs Berry.
The company gives a correspondence address in the town of Bacup, in Berry’s Rossendale and Darwen constituency. Though why a company that uses a corrupted version of the Ynys Môn property’s name needs to be based in Lancashire is a mystery.
Can anyone offer a suggestion?
To be exact, Ford Bridge Farm Ltd is headquartered in this splendid old building in downtown Bacup that was available for rent or lease when this Google Earth image was captured in September 2018.
UPDATE: I am indebted to @JanZamosky for suggesting that Mountain View Ltd might have been formed to avoid paying council tax. Would this also explain the more recent Ford Bridge Farm Ltd?
◊
GODFATHERS AND A ROAD TRIP
When Jake Berry’s first child was born in 2017 one godfather was Harry Cole, former co-editor of the Guido Fawkes website and now deputy political editor for the Mail on Sunday. He had rented a flat from Mrs Berry and was the long-time partner of Carrie Symonds. The other godfather was Boris Johnson.
Jake Berry obviously had important and influential friends.
Then on 24 May last year Theresa May surprised no one by announcing that she was jacking in it and told the Tories to look for a new leader. Jake Berry threw himself into Boris Johnson’s campaign.
And it was godfather Harry Cole who reported rather sniffily that Berry was to do a tour of north west England in a “yellow truck like the ones used in the cheesy 1990s American TV series Baywatch”. And for company Berry would have Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Yes, I know what you’re thinking – what a pleasure it must have been to travel 170 miles in the company of Jacob Rees-Mogg! Though I’m sure there are some who’d feel sorry for Rees-Mogg having to spend that much time with Jake Berry.
Maybe they deserve each other.
One source – who seems to know his stuff – suggests the £4,000 quoted as the purchase price for the Ford Ranger was on the cheap side. While another source might have provided the answer by telling me that Berry sends his PA Fairhurst to auctions on his behalf! Is this covered under MPs’ expenses?
As history now records, it all paid off. Boris Johnson won the leadership vote and the general election in December. Jake Berry was made Minister of State for the Northern Powerhouse. Though Rees-Mogg seems to have fallen from favour since his hommage to a fin de siècle slapper reclining on a chaise longue.
Though it turned sour for Berry as well because earlier this year he was sacked. Yes, he was allowed to make the ‘spend more time with the family’ excuse and resign. But this was a ‘Make him an offer he can’t accept’ kind of ‘resignation’.
I have no idea what became of the yellow Ford Ranger that must carry so many happy memories. Indeed, it might have been an attempt to recapture those memories that prompted Jake Berry to buy another. There’s certainly one parked now at Rhyd-y-Bont. (Or are we expected to call it ‘Ford Bridge Farm’?)
What’s odd is that the registration for the truck used in last year’s Boris Johnson Productions re-make of Thelma and Louise was CV60 ZJE, while the one parked up now is CV11 JYA.
CV is the registration for Swansea.
Harry Cole told us the road trip vehicle was “formerly used by council street cleaners”. If so, then does Jake Berry have a direct line to Swansea Guildhall that enables him to pick up old council vehicles on the cheap?
Or is there some other explanation? Does anyone recognise those registration numbers?
◊
CONCLUSION
It’s all very well having a laugh at Jake Berry and the rest of them, but turning us into strangers in our own land is no joke.
Yet we are expected to welcome being priced out of our communities because a lying politician or a trainee hack on a provincial rag tells us that rising property prices is a sure-fire indicator of prosperity.
That may be the case in a normal society, but not in a colony!
Wales may lack the monuments to a great past, and the institutions of a mighty state. But we have something far more important – a sense of nationhood that has survived without these trappings, and in defiance of them.
Today this nation nation is growing restless because the ‘progressive’ parties have failed us.
They’ve failed us because they refuse to accept that there’s a real country beyond Corruption Bay; a country with broken communities and angry people who are sick of funding middle class lesbian co-operatives and other forms of gesture politics.
While we who are trying to combat colonialism are traduced by wassisname, who leads the ‘progressives’, as inherently right wing.
If so, then I’m proud to be a right wing nationalist standing up for my people. It’s more honourable by far than being a smug, two-faced ‘progressive’ collaborating with the colonialist system.
♦ end ♦
Jonathan Edwards M.P has had a run in with Dyfed Powys Old Bill and is now an independent as the Plaid whip was withdrawn ( ouch !). With a bit of luck his transgression will offend the high priestesses of Plaid and their Deryn thought police consultants and dear old Jonathan will be Party-less. Cracking chance for him to join McEvoy or Gwlad and cause a surge down West.
I live in hope !
This is very unfortunate as JE is the best politician Wales has representing her in Westminster
I’ve always had time for him. And there aren’t many Plaid Cymru politicians I can say that about!
With a bit of luck the crackpots will prevail and the boy will be a free agent to join up with the other patriotic radical thinkers. Of course that would trigger the usual Plaid bleats that he should stand down and re submit to the will of the electorate while getting branded a homophobic, antitrans, fascist mysoginist yakk yakk yakk ………Quite good to see the makings of an implosion shaping up.
Off Topic- Why is the BBC leading with fake news?
They are running an hourly bulletin on News24 that due to a different type of lockdown claiming Sweden has the highest death rate of Covid-19 in Europe. This is not true. In Sweden there have been 3831 deaths, a rate of 38 per 100k of population. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom has had 35704 deaths, a rate of 53 per 100k of population. It’s the UK that’s the basket case of Europe.
https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/geographical-distribution-2019-ncov-cases
21/05/2020.
There was a ‘conspiracy theory’ doing the rounds which is based on the CDC projections from the United States, but these were estimates (not actual deaths) based on their comparisons between US policy and other countries. It assumes a percentage of deaths as a proportion of cases identified, but as we know, in Europe, the number of cases ‘identified’ is more a measure of the testing regime. If you don’t test, you don’t identify a case, unless, of course the patient falls ill or dies.
https://coronaviruscymru.wales/
21/05/2020.
In Wales, deaths with Covid-19 is 1238 which is 40 deaths per 100k of population, but in Cwm Taf Health Board area it is 90 deaths per 100k of population.
So the mortality rate as at 21/05/2020, is.
90 for Cwm Taf.
53 for the United Kingdom.
40 for Wales.
38 for Sweden.
The BBC does not need to do Vox-pop interviews in Stockholm, perhaps they should go to Merthyr or Pontypridd to find out what’s happening?
I see the poor Belgians are way out in front of everyone, 80.1 per 100,000 population. Those strong Belgian beers, and boy are they good, have done nothing to ward it off. It won’t stop me enjoying them at every opportunity.
Yes Stan.
France introduced lockdown on 17thMarch but it wasn’t until 20th March that Belgium went into lockdown and neighbouring Netherlands even later. Belgium was least prepared to ‘close the borders’ and when it did it was of little practical effect.
This resulted in a number of early ‘hotspots’ developing, due to inward travel for shopping and tourism. It was a critical factor in exponential growth of infection in Belgium and documented by Ghent University by Prof Jan M. Baetens and Hasselt University by Prof Niel Hens. It’s the effect of migratory activity (daytrips and cross border shopping) on the R number. This finding by Belgium is also being ignored by the BBC.
It’s also an important warning for Wales with the possibility of a second wave due to inward travel, as like Belgium we have a long and open land border. The Welsh Government seeks to play down this factor in order to follow their bosses in London and protect ‘tourism’, with ineffective penalties.
Wales should heed the lessons of Flanders.
Here you go Stan, service is excellent, although post and packing charges are not cheap to say the least.
https://www.beerofbelgium.com/en/
Sorry to stray way off-topic Jac.
Using total deaths so far, per 100k, Sweden is indeed behind the UK.
But… the start date for deaths differs between countries. The standardisation method uses a seven-day rolling average across each stage of the pandemic as it progresses.
The FT explains it here:
ft.com/content/46733256-5a84-4429-89e0-8cce9d4095e4
The covidlive.co.uk site has a slider that allows you to track the growth in cases since 12 April. South Wales got off to an early start.
The seven-day rolling average of new deaths is not an informative statistic for comparing countries because countries are differ, socially and geographically.
It is an obviously false standardisation method. In Sweden the type of lockdown varies according to municipalities, it’s a proactive process driven by municipal infection rates and track and trace is prioritised. There is a difference between the virus spread in rural areas to that of cities, and critical is how cities are connected.
Severn-day rolling average could be applied to compare New York with London, but not Sweden with Norway, nor London and Wales. Coronavirus can only spread through close proximity person to person contact.
Tory MP’s do have issues with their houses and which one to call home such as Therese Coffey and Robert Jenrick and no doubt many more
Gone are the days someone represented their own community
Reading with interest these people and how they organise their affairs only leads me to comment on the landscape that has allowed them to be in their current positions
The one man that championed inequality and levelling up society seems to be the one that forced people to vote tory – Jeremy Corbyn and the small matter of Brexit
Adding in of course the lib dems and the disastrous campaign lead by Jo Swinson in calling the election in the 1st place
How different things would have been now if Boris had been held in that negative minority he suffered in the run up to the election – they the opposition should have kept their nerve
These tory hangers on wouldn’t be in position now with their 80 majority with a city banker from east England now representing Ynys Mon
off topic but still on Ynys Mon I am somewhat shocked, although I should not, by the appearance of what appears to be a very mealy mouthed quote from Rhun ap Iorwerth, or will he be changing his name to Ryan Edwards before he goes to tea at Ford Bridge Farm. If our leading local Plaid politician is getting ready to accommodate the presence of a large colony of well financed types from beyond Clawdd Offa does that mean he’s fancying his chances of getting a slice of their votes at the 2021 election ? Not on your fuckin’ nelly. The boy is bending the knee like the good servile spineless twat he has become since he started following the prevalent groupthink within his yellow party.
You can just imagine the chat over tea and biccies …..”Yes sir no sir 3 bags full sir, we cannot have that type of rebellious upstart within our membership. I will check whether he still lurks within our membership and if so will have him removed at once” ……. “I don’t think we are able to publicly flog him but if he’s a member we will reclaim his free issue pair of rainbow laces when he leaves. Will that be all sir ? So sorry you have been troubled”
He has since answered my tweet with what he no doubt thinks is both a response and a put-down.
This is the only comment I can find as I don’t have a Twitter account :
“You might think second homes add value to tourism. I don’t. We need to promote local control & ownership of the tourism sector to try to maximise value to local(& Welsh) economy. The unregulated 2nd home market undermines that. That’s why I say 2nd home ownership isn’t ‘tourism’.”
In which case it’s just a very poor bit of deflection. By separating 2nd homes from tourism he is creating an artificial distinction which will only benefit evasive types like his (Ryan’s) new friend for the big House in London. I’m beginning to like using the name Ryan for the boy and will continue to do so until he grows up,or grows a pair, same thing really.
Back in the 1980s, during the MG campaign, I remember Prys Edwards, then chair of the Wales Tourist Board, being interviewed and saying that holiday homes had nothing to do with tourism. I can understand him trying to distance himself, but I was amazed that the interview just let it pass.
Prys Edwards, son of Sir Ifan ab Owen Edwards, went on to great things, not least among his achievements was Aberystwyth marina. This, he assured us, would create 100 jobs. One materialised . . . and that was done by his son!
Ah, Prys Edwards, a gwlad-garwr of the kind that wanted his idyllic vision of Wales tucked neatly into a fold in the United Kingdom’s best suit. The elder Edwards, who I think was founder of the Urdd, wanted Wales tucked into the folds of the Empire, but that should be in an important fold. On this matter Gethin is bang on the money with his fixation about Crachach, and it prompts a query as to whether Ryan/Rhun is working his way into that magical circle or is he already a fully fledged member ? An awful lot of Cymry who ought to know better are well embedded in such circles.
There has always been this strand in Welsh life that wants Wales treated with more respect, within the Union, and with them as some kind of local elite. This thinking has always been well represented in Plaid Cymru, and more especially among the fellow travellers who can’t afford to be ‘political’ themselves but want others to make the progress from which they can benefit. But as I’ve argued many times, for these people independence not on the agenda.
Unless they could be the new “royalty” in a free Wales. Some of these fuckers can be seriously grand in their delusions. So best go for a republic and skip any thoughts of bloods royal and all the related bullshit.
Yes that’s it, his comment at the very end of the video seems to suggest his landlady has some kind of affiliation to the Conservative party, just like our Mr Berry.
Came across this morning, https://twitter.com/sandybatchelor, the grubby greedy world of the property speculator, sorry property developer. The video depicting where this poor guy calls home posted @17th May is the real shocker, or not as the case may be.
And all thanks to the efforts of a certain seventies’ era Prime Minster, and the 1980 Housing Act, further ‘enhanced’ in 2012 by one David Cameron ( remember him ). But never forget, how could you, since they tell us often enough ” they work for us “. Any benefits they obtain from their inside knowledge, their business contacts along with the obscene sums they make from property deals are purely coincidence, right ?
Is this the link?
Meant to mention earlier that the BBC news, normally quick to pick up on politicians’ behaviours, seems to have missed Berry’s antics altogether. Compare that with Tharah “Lithper” Thmith’s attack on Nicola Sturgeon on 18th May broadcasts. Venomous bitch got it out on the 6 o’clock news and repeated on the 10 o’clock edition. Unchallenged opportunity for Unionist mouthpiece to launch snide unwarranted attack. Amazing how a silly woman can forget she only got her job cos her dad was much respected within the BBC related Establishment.
That was disgraceful. We think the BBC is bad in Wales, but in Scotland it really is an arm of the UK Establishment.
On 28/03/2020, Stephen Kinnock and his wife Helle Thorning-Schmidt both travelled down the M4 to visit their parents in the Bayswater area of London. This prompted the following message from South Wales Police – “Hello @SKinnock we know celebrating your Dad’s birthday is a lovely thing to do, however this is not essential travel. We all have our part to play in this, we urge you to comply with @GOVUK restrictions, they are in place to keep us all safe. Thank you.” This prompted Stephen and Helle to return to their third home in Wales. It is unknown if they were issued with a fine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2LJB29cVUo%5Bremovetoplay%5D
VE Day song of Denmark.
On 21/05/2020, last night, BBC Question Time, Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester participated in the programme from his home, it being unsuitable for him to travel to BBC studios in Manchester due to corovavirus restrictions. There was, however, one participant live in the London studio. That was Ms Helle Thorning-Schmidt. Not wanting to prompt another phonecall from GogPlod to the editor of this blog, I cannot disclose the exact disposition of the many homes of the Kinnocks, but AA autoroute tells me that her journey would have been 58 miles through the land of STAY AT HOME and 115 through the land of STAY ALERT.
Or has the MP for Aberafan since left Wales with the rest of the family?
message from S.Kinnock M.P – listen my inferior citizen. Those rules were adopted to keep the likes of you confined. For us, that’s me who’s destined to rule and my dear wife who has already ruled, well, they simply do not apply. A local officer may wish to chide us politely over the medium, but my daddy can have a word with his Commissioner and nothing will happen. Also the Commissioner knows that in his dotage his only chance of wearing ermine is via a shower of my goodwill when I’m a Minister in Sir Keir’s government. Understood ? Stay safe.
Ms Helle Thorning-Schmidt is also on the ‘Facebook Oversight Board’ for the UK.
So if a Facebook page is removed via a non-automatic process (porn, terrorism etc) and requires a more nuanced censorship, it goes via the Thorning-Schmidt inbox.
When I say nuance, I mean in a rather loose sense. It takes a special kind of nuance. The type that declares that a husband is not resident in Denmark and therefore should not be subject to Danish taxes, while at the same time make use of a Danish tax deduction mechanism for the said husband via the Danish ‘transferable allowance’ mechanism.
It’s a bit like thinking Atlantic College is a comprehensive in Port Talbot.
Confirms that rules are for the little people while the ruling elites can bend them to suit their particular needs at any point in time.
In Jake Berry MP, Part 3, I shall give more examples of ‘bending’ the rules.
Huge investigation needed here by his bosses also by buisnes company house and hrmc…this man by his own admission brought covid 19 to anglesey …said he showed symptoms ..and stayed ..then his child showed symptoms and stayed ..but his wife in hospital in bangor ..and he was looking after 3 kids and visiting her … phew waat a hero eh…not sute about the untruths tho …i am born and bred on anglesey ..small clusters of communities people see and notice when holiday homes are being used ..so no point lying …you are sussed jake berry ..in every way …
https://www.landlordtoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2019/8/ministers-supplementing-salaries-via-buy-to-let-investments
That link is from August 2019, before him and his wife bought Rhyd-y-Bont. So the three properties he was renting would, presumably, have been Cerrig, Plas Coch and Mountain View.
I’m sure that everything Mr Berry has done is perfectly legal and above board
A heads up on some rules and regulations
An appointee to the FO would be subject to vetting by the security services. Depending on the level of vetting it would involve an examination of a persons finances.
However appointments do go ahead and the vetting process starts once they are appointed
When a person purchases a property the conveyancing solicitor must carry out due diligence regarding the source of the funds to satisfy the money laundering regulations.
If the solicitor is not satisfied as to the bona fides of the funds they are required to submit a SAR (suspicious activity report) to the National Crime Agency. It is illegal for the solicitor to let their client know that a SARs has been submitted (the offence of ‘tipping off’)
Anyone can make a planning application but if you don’t own the site in question you have to serve notice on the site owner, and specify such in your planning application. I notice that in this application a Certificate D accompanies it which basically says you have been unable to identify or serve notice on the owner of the land. The only thing is, if Cuddy left a will then his executors should have had a planning notice served on them by the applicant. I wonder if the old fellow died intestate in which case the estate would be carved up according to the rules of intestacy, and if there are no relatives to be found, then presumably it would revert to the Crown?
While Cuddy had no children there were plenty of relatives mentioned in the obituary notice. But, then, if he left no Will . . .
There was a will. You can purchase it for £1.50 from the government Find a Will website. Usually arrives a few days later by PDF. Here are the details
CUDDY MICHAEL PETER date of probate 07 December 2017 ref no 5287208
date of death 05 February 2017 Grant and will Cardiff office
Patience
Thank you, Patience. So if he left a will why wasn’t a beneficiary’s name on the planning application/ And why is the property still registered at the Land Registry to a man who died over three years ago?
I have an account with Find a Will so could get the will and grant of probate for you. That would give the name of the executor(s) and the value of the estate. After probate has been granted, there does not seem to be a timescale for changing the ownership details of a property at the Land Registry unless the beneficiary wishes to sell straightaway. In which case it would seem that Cuddy is still the registered owner and therefore that is why the planning application is in his name. It may also be the case that the beneficiary has decided to sell the outbuildings with planning in place, in order to maximise his/her inheritance.
Patience
I’d be very grateful, Patience, because I’ve made so many purchases tonight that my bank has now blocked my card!
Will do. I notice that the beneficiary/ies of the estate instructed a firm of solicitors to submit the planning application in August 2019, not submitted in their own name(s), which was refused, and the subsequent appeal was dismissed in November by the Planning Inspectorate. The will and probate should name the beneficiaries ie new owners.
John Tyson Williams LLP on behalf of the Estate of Mr Michael Cuddy (deceased)
I am guessing they are handling the estate.
Patience
Surely if John Tyson Williams LLP the vendors solicitors is acting on behalf of the Estate of Mr Michael Cuddy, it is their task to ask in the best interest of the vendor. The vendor being the beneficiary of the will. I have to ask therefore why a sale of the property by private treaty is being entered into, rather than the disposal of the property on the open market, through an estate agent.
A purchaser, when buying a secondary property the purchaser pays an extra stamp duty rate on top of the normal stamp duty rate.
https://hoa.org.uk/advice/guides-for-homeowners/i-am-buying/stamp-duty-for-second-homes/
For example, if you’re buying a second home worth £300,000 you would pay 5% stamp duty, plus the extra 3%. That means a total stamp duty bill of £14,000. In contrast, you’d pay only £5,000 if it was the purchasers only property. Such a stamp duty tax was introduced to discourage second home ownership and should put such a purchaser at a disadvantage compared to someone who is purchasing the property as their main home.
Why then is John Tyson Williams LLP entering into sale by private treaty arrangement with Jake Berry MP?
There is a possibility that such an arrangement is being entered into because the current ‘open market’ is closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and it would be reasonable for John Tyson Williams LLP to consider such a direct sale as in the best interests of the Estate of Mr Michael Cuddy.
In other words Jake Berry is snapping up property on Ynys Môn because he’s in the area. Other potential purchasers, estate agents, EPC inspection, and property valuations are at a disadvantage, as they cannot travel to the property. But Jake can. This also suggests that Jake being on Ynys Môn is nothing to do with having been caught out on the island due to lockdown, but a deliberate wheeze to use the lockdown to assist in up building his property empire.
Has John Tyson Williams LLP acting for Estate of Mr Michael Cuddy obtained an up-to-date EPC on the property?
https://www.gov.uk/buy-sell-your-home/energy-performance-certificates
All sales of residential property on the open market have to have an EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) but not if the sale is by private treaty.
I’m told this is a very attractive property, secluded, with its own jetty.
jetty ? neat if you are also in the business of ” importing” small quantities of goods, people, indeed any old stuff that you’d prefer Customs and/or Immigration didn’t know about !
Perish the thought!
If it’s secluded and got a jetty I’m surprised Bear Grylls didn’t have a go for it. Must be kicking himself.
I have not seen the relevant “Section D” notice, but in general terms “Owner” is defined in the notice as “a person having a freehold interest or a leasehold interest the unexpired term of which is not less than seven years”.
Jac, I sincerely hope that you made the best use of your conversation with the Chief Inspector and brought to his attention the Volvo XC70 located at Plas Coch which may be in violation of at least one, possible two sections of the Road Traffic Act 1988.
I didn’t have time, we got talking about this and that, but he must have read the earlier piece and he would have seen it for himself
I reckon the majority of those progressive gutterrats who look down on you and abuse you from the protection of their keyboards read your every word. Though they would never admit it, even to themselves.
Thank you, Dai, now I have a bit of a puzzle that I need help with. So this is open to everybody.
A man named Peter Michael Cuddy of Glan Traeth farm Trearddur Bay died in February 2017.
Yet the property is still in his name according to the Land Registry, which sometimes happens with an abandoned property, one where there are no heirs, or heirs cannot be traced. None of which apply in this case.
The real puzzle is that last year a planning application was submitted to convert outbuilding to residential accommodation, with the applicant named as Michael Peter Cuddy. How can a dead man make a planning application?
Needless to say, a source is telling me that Berry has bought this property.
Why is Berry a ‘non-practising solicitor’, has he been struck off? Just asking for a friend. I wonder if he has started legal action against you? You can start asking difficult questions in court, if he does. And all, well most of Cymru, will be cheering you on.
His branch of the law is conveyancing. It’s the kind of thing spivs go for if they plan on becoming estate agents or buy-to-let landlords. It’s hardly Clarence Darrow, or even Rumpole.
Jac, he would still need an LPC. Legal Practitioner Certificate, governed by the Law Society, to ensure good practice.
As someone who never earned in a lifetime the kind of money Jake forked out, in cash, for his second/holiday/seasonal homes, I’m a bit gobsmacked how they do it. Add in to the mix a cash purchase of £2.15 million for the London home and it’s almost surreal to me. Wikipedia states Jake only qualified as a solicitor in 2003. By 2010 he was an MP, so presumably became non-practicising in his profession. Now an MP’s pay is pretty good but not stratospheric by any means and I can’t see how based on that he’d have anything like enough to acquire this property portfolio. Which suggests to me a lot of family money behind this, plus anything his wife might have brought to the table. As stated by Jac and others, I think it’s highly likely the SW1 address is the family home. We’ve been told the three children in the last three years have all been born in London, which further reinforces the SW1 connection as the family home.
Back to Jake the Solicitor though. His specialism was property and development. We know the wheels came off the property chariot in the banking crisis 2008/2009. Did he make a killing in those few years as a solicitor and was prescient enough to chuck it all in just at the right time? Or could he have lost out in a big way – hence the change of career in 2010? And if that’s the case, where’s all the moolah come from?
I’m not entirely sure yet, but I suspect he had money before meeting his current wife. That said, I’m sure she brought her own contribution to the family pot. A source I’ve quoted told me that Cole was renting a flat from her. Given property prices in central London that flat has to be worth a few quid.
Though I’m sure that earlier in his career Jake was claiming for a percentage payment on a flat, so was he sharing with Cole, and were they both therefore renting from the woman who became Mrs Berry?
I don’t have time to check. I’m exhausted. I shall go and drape myself over the chaise longue.
Thanks, Jac. You put your feet up and recuperate. We need to keep you productive for a while yet 😂 I’ll take a look at those earlier rental payments on the flat via IPSA and let you know if there’s anything to update.
I’d be grateful. I’m sure I read something about 1/4 share, making it sound like Friends. Or possibly Bottom, when Eddie’s mates turn up.
Dave Hedgehog and Spudgun!
The very same!
I like the fact that the piece you attach from ‘Politics Home’ – about his resignation/sacking from government three months ago – includes a quote from a third party that Mr Berry is a ‘champion of devolution’ (in relation to northern England); and that he did not wish to undertake ‘substantial amounts of foreign travel’ if given a Foreign Office brief, as he has three young children.
The past three months either give the lie to, or corroborate, those two claims. I cannot as yet come to a clear conclusion myself which, though.
My working title was, ‘Jake Berry MP 2, the Rambling Boy (apologies to Tom Paxton)’.
A brief in the foreign office is the naughty step. All they have to do is shake hands with the natives, wear a pith helmet if the queen phones, say nothing, and spend as much time away from London as possible. It takes a special kind of idiot to screw it up, as Boris Johnson himself did not long ago. I suspect our Jake will soon be elevated to the senior position of Steward of the Chiltern Hundred quite soon, for fear of damaging his fellow buds elsewhere in the north of England.
One such flower he’s already damaged is Virgina Crosbie MP.
She is not without talent. On her facebook page she posted a photo of herself at the ‘Anglesey Sea Zoo’, presumably taken just before lockdown. Her hair is a long frizzy unkempt mass. Yet on her most recent video blog posted in yesterday (with a background of mid May apple blossom) her hair is de-fizzed, split ends neatly trimmed, and includes tapered layering, very popular amongst the country set of SW7. An amazing feat. With most other ladies I know the lockdown process has had the opposite effect.
Perhaps y merched môn should phone her surgery this week to pick up some tips?
That guy looks like a Grade A spiv, fraudster, shark ….. you get my drift. Would wager a small amount that he ( or an arm’s length associate) could turn up at Skates’ office with one of those “racing cert” investment propositions that our government keep falling over themselves in their eagerness to shower with funds and photo opportunities.
You unconscionable cynic!
Me ? How dare you ! That’s outrageous, I shall ask my solicitor to write to you.
Make sure he’s a real solicitor not a property spiv.
I think your chat with GogPlod actually confirms where Jake Berry really lives.
Their concern over the details of the London SW1 property would be related to the protection of MPs from stuff like terrorism. Mind you, if Jake Berry was kidnapped HM Government would probably pay a ransom for you to keep him. This will be the ‘flagged’ address. No such concern applies to the constituency address of an MP. This is from where they are tasked to perform their democratic responsibilities.
In the case of Jake Berry, he performs, or rather fails to perform, this from his farmhouse on Ynys Môn, and his abandonment of his constituency is now clearly evident.
He’ll be splitting his time between SW1 and LL65 with well-publicised forays into his constituency. But live there!