Don’t panic, this isn’t about US politics. Following information received it’s an update to something I wrote back in 2020.

As you will understand, I’m sure, what I’d promised for Monday, ‘Things Are Never So Bad That They Can’t Get Worse’, will now be delayed. (And anyway, I’d forgotten that Monday is a Bank Holiday.)

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RECAP

In December 2020 I put out Lucky Gwynedd – More ‘Investors’! Scroll down to ‘The Phoenix Hotel, Abersoch’ and you’ll get the background to what you’re going to read.

In a nutshell, chancers from N W England had bought the old White Hall Hotel in Abersoch and had big plans, expensive plans. I wrote in that earlier piece:

This establishment closed in 2004 or 2005, inevitably fell into disrepair, and was eventually demolished in the early part of 2016.  In the report I’ve linked to we read, “A 40-bedroom hotel and spa will now be built in its place and is set to open in 2018”.

Well, 2018 came and went. It’s now 2026, and it’s still not finished.

Two of the principals behind the project were: Charles Marshall Openshaw and Anthony John Hayton. Each had a string of failed companies to their name. I mentioned one of Openshaw’s companies, Rooftop Solutions Ltd, going bust in 2012 and owing almost half a million quid.

And yet, it seemed that Messrs Openshaw and Hayton were welcomed by Cyngor Gwynedd and certain agencies in Corruption Bay as bona fide investors with a string of glittering successes to their names.

And also getting positive, uncritical write-ups in the local media.

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CON MEN, POLITICIANS, BANKRUPTS

Let’s start the update proper with a piece that appeared last July in Boutique Hotelier. The property is now known as Tŷ Gwyn. The article mentions a series of delays, and suggests that the original plan may have been to lease or sell the individual rooms.

This of course is a model we’ve encountered before, perhaps most notably with con man Gavin Lee Woodhouse, from Yorkshire. He bought run-down hotels from Llandudno to Tenby, and was the inspiration behind the Afan Valley Adventure Resort which now employs thousands. Or maybe not.

To jog your memories, here’s something I put out around the time I was writing about Woodhouse.

Labour got hammered earlier this month in the Senedd elections, but you’ll be delighted to hear that Skates and Irranca-Davies were both re-elected. No doubt Plaid’s new team will be seeking advice from these financial whizz-kids.

In the Boutique Hotelier article, you’ll see that the sooper-dooper new “hotel and apartment complex” at Abersoch will be run by Bespoke Hotels of Warrington.

Problem is . . . Bespoke Hotels International Ltd was Dissolved in January. Then again, it might be Bespoke Hotels (North West) Ltd, Dissolved in February ’22. Or maybe it’s . . .

And what of the two entrepreneurs who kicked off this project, Charles Marshall Openshaw and Anthony John Hayton?

Well, it’s sad news there, too. Both were declared bankrupt just before Christmas. Below are the notices from the The London Gazette.

So who’s running things now? Who owns the Tŷ Gwyn hotel and apartment complex?

According to the Land Registry title document the property is now owned by Providence Gate Abersoch Ltd. But in March this year the company’s name changed to Abersoch Development Ltd.

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INTRODUCING ANIL KUMAR PITALIA

Abersoch Development Ltd, which bought the project in July 2022, is owned by Anil Kumar Pitalia. Here’s Pitalia’s Linkedin profile. He has many companies. Not all successful; here’s just a few of those that have gone to the wall.

The latest accounts for Abersoch Development Ltd (year ending 31.03.2025) show a ‘total equity’ deficit of £4,945,191. This might be accounted for by the loans, which are worth looking at.

The first two loans came from an outfit in Preston called E3C Solutions Ltd, 14.07.2022. Since renamed Quarry Rock Solutions Ltd. Another two from Gemini Finance Ltd, 23.08.2022, another back-street lender, this time in Liverpool.

All four loans, against the White House Hotel in Abersoch, were settled 05.04.2023. Then four more loans were taken out. Let’s look at the new loans.

The first, 14.03.2023 – three weeks before the first four loans were paid off – was with Crossbaron Ltd of Bolton. A company owned by – Anil Pitalia! Always nice when you can lend yourself money. Was this used to pay off the earlier loans?

The next, 21.07.2023, was with Lyell Trading Ltd of Cheltenham.

Closely followed by two loans, 25.07.2023, from Development Bank of Wales (DBW).

Which is somewhat confusing, because this response to a FoI request, dated 03.06.2024, says nothing has been offered.

I can only assume the FoI request went to the self-styled ‘Welsh Government’ rather than to the DBW. In which case, the response is, strictly speaking, true, even though the DBW is controlled by the ‘Welsh Government’.

Was it a bit naughty not referring the inquirer to the DBW? Anyway . . .

Anil Pitalia has also branched out into charity work. Which always warms the cockles of my cynical old heart. His particular charity is The Pitalia Charitable Trust – previously The Visionary Charitable Trust – bringing succour to those in distress in the mythic Englandandwales . . . also India.

At the risk of sounding unkind, the objectives look a bit, well, pro forma; like they were downloaded from the internet. Or found in a solicitor’s drawer.

Turning to the finances, for the period ended 05.10.2022 we see a huge leap in the charity’s income.

This is accounted for in the accounts filed with the Charity Commission as you see below. Wasn’t that nice of him! Though I suppose it might be reasonable to ask, why so much in one dollop? Why so little before or since?

And perhaps, where did it come from?

So, I got to wondering what might explain this outpouring of charitable zeal. And the timeframe is interesting: Pitalia paid over four million pounds into his charity around the time he paid off loans and took on new ones.

He was a busy boy in 2022/23.

Whatever, and moving on . . . I couldn’t find a website for this charity, but the accounts filed with the Charity Commission for the years following the arrival of that huge sum tell us this:

Little seems to be going out to worthy causes; the charity could even be mistaken for an investment vehicle. But if so, then what might it be investing in?

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THE DEVELOPMENT BANK OF WALES

However we got here, the fact is that Anil Pitalia, through his company Abersoch Development Ltd, has obtained loans from the Development Bank of Wales, a body owned by the ‘Welsh Government’.

Over the years, I’ve been critical of the DBW, and ‘Welsh Government’ funding in general. Getting good publicity often seems to be more important than acting wisely; or of doing background checks on the companies and individuals seeking funding.

This approach has led to so many mistakes over the years. Earlier I mentioned Gavin Lee Woodhouse, con man and instigator of the Afan Valley Adventure Resort. One of the properties he bought was Caer Rhun.

And the ‘Welsh Government’ agreed a tourism grant of £500,000. That’s a grant, not a loan. Nothing to be repaid. (Though it was later insisted that no money was ever handed over.)

I’m convinced that the word is out among a certain class of ‘investor’ that Wales is a soft touch for getting your hands on public money. All you have to do is buy some old pile, send a press release to the media, promise investment/jobs/visitors, have your photo taken with a politician or two, and wait for the money to roll in.

Such people will inevitably be attracted when they hear of organisations desperate to get money out the door as proof they’re doing their job, coupled with an almost total absence of serious checks.

With the result that Welsh public funding that could have been better used will be wasted.

As for the Development Bank of Wales itself, I went to the accounts, to see what I could turn up. Not easy because what’s filed with Companies House (or certainly what appears on the CH website) is a sometimes messy photocopy.

But if I’m reading it right, then profit for the last financial year was half of the previous year. (Full accounts available here in pdf format.)

I believe the Development Bank of Wales is a dysfunctional body. I also believe that description extends to the grant-awarding system throughout the administration.

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CONCLUSION

My belief is that a competent and legitimate businessman or businesswoman coming to Wales with a viable project should be able to find funding from the usual commercial sources.

Too many of those who’ve been awarded loans or grants, or been given publicly-owned land, and other forms of help over the years, have been out-and-out crooks.

But even when the recipients of funding are genuine, there’s always the danger that money given to be spent on a project in Wales will be lost through some intra-group dealing and end up somewhere else.

The ‘Welsh Government’ and the Development Bank of Wales should therefore focus on funding identifiably Welsh businesses and Welsh entrepreneurs, especially young entrepreneurs, operating solely within Wales.

Because building up an indigenous Welsh economy must be a priority. Also, building on what we already have, such as agriculture. Will the new Plaid Cymru administration do better than its Labour predecessor in this regard? Not a hope.

Because Plaid’s SMs know little and care even less about business. And anyway, when you’re saving a planet, while simultaneously fighting fascism and defending women with penises from genocide, you don’t want distractions like the economy, and jobs.

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© Royston Jones 2026