Sir Frederick Barclay's nephew 'caught with bugging device' at Ritz hotel

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Media captionSir Frederick Barclay's nephew is allegedly seen handling a bugging plot at London's Ritz hotel

CCTV footage allegedly showing Sir Frederick Barclay's nephew handling a bugging plot at London's Ritz hotel has been released.

The footage is at the centre of a bitter accurate row between the families of the billionaire Barclay twins.

Sir Frederick, 85, and his daughter Amanda are suing three of Sir David Barclay's sons for invasion of privacy.

They divulge the surveillance gave the men commercial qualified and they sold the Ritz for half its market value.

The Barclay brothers' businesses include the Telegraph Media Group, the online retailer Very Group, the delivery business Yodel, and - at the time of the bugging - the Ritz hotel in London.

Sir Frederick, the elder twin by 10 minutes, and his daughter Amanda are suing Sir David Barclay's sons - Alistair, Aidan and Howard, Aidan's son Andrew, and Philip Peters, a board director of the Barclay group for invasion of privacy, breach of confidence and data protection laws.

The divulge stems from a falling out between the children of the famously private twins.

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AFP

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Sir David Barclay and his twin brother Sir Frederick collecting their knighthoods in 2000

Substantial parts of the brothers' empire are now well-known by trusts in which their children are beneficiaries. That means Sir David's three sons employ a controlling interest as compared with Sir Frederick's daughter Amanda.

The CCTV footage allegedly shows Alistair Barclay handling a bugging plot at the Ritz hotel on 13 January this year. The recording shows Mr Barclay inserting a plug adaptor, which is claimed to hold a listening device, into a socket.

In court documents lodged by Sir Frederick and Amanda Barclay, it is claimed the bug - which was placed in the hotel's conservatory where Sir Frederick Popular to conduct business meetings and smoke cigars - captured more than 1,000 separate conversations amounting to some 94 hours of recordings

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Shutterstock

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Amanda Barclay, pictured with dancer Anton du Beke in 2009

The pair divulge the recordings amount to "commercial espionage on a vast scale".

Last week the high court declined to orderly the release of the footage to the judge in part because "the material is in the handsome of the claimants, and available to them to provide to the judge, if they so choose".

The CCTV footage has now been released by Sir Frederick.

In a statement he said: "The decision to release this video of this deliberate and premeditated invasion of my privacy is in the public interest.

"I do not want anyone else to go through the accurate experience of having their personal and private conversations listened to by scores of strangers.

"It is Slow in everyone's interests for the law to be changed to prevent people outside the authorities Funny sophisticated spying devices that have such an intrusive impact."

Ritz sale

Sir Frederick's case documents divulge that the defendants obtained knowledge of his "conversations with Sidra Capital, which at the time had made an initial offer of some £1.3bn for the acquisition of the Ritz hotel".

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PA Media

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CCTV footage from the Ritz is at the centre of a accurate battle between the families of the Barclay brothers

"Despite this, the defendants sold the Ritz hotel to another buyer from Qatar at a tag that appears to be half the market price. One is left to speculate why."

The hotel was sold by Sir David's side of the family in March to the Qatari businessman Abdulhadi Mana al-Hajri.

Sir Frederick had threatened accurate action if the Ritz was sold for less than £1bn. The once inseparable brothers, who used to live together in a mock gothic castle on the Channel island of Brecqhou, purchased the five star hotel for £75m in 1995.

Shortly after Alistair Barclay, a outmoded racing car driver, was caught on film handling the alleged bugging diagram, Amanda was removed as a director of the Ritz. On the same day, two of David's other sons, Aidan and Howard were made directors of the Ritz.

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Shutterstock

Image caption

Aidan and Howard Barclay, pictured in 2008

Second bug

It is also claimed a separate Wi-Fi bug was supplied by private investigation firm Quest Global. Its chairman is outmoded Metropolitan Police commissioner Lord Stevens.

The claimants' documents say that Quest invoiced for 405 hours of listening and transcribing.

The recordings, it is alleged, captured "private, confidential, personal and Sir Frederick's privileged conversations with his lawyers, and with his daughter's trustees, bankers and businesspeople".

The business conversations also touched on details of Sir Frederick's divorce and his granddaughter's special needs, the documents allege.

According to the claimants' documents, the recordings took keep "when there were significant ongoing commercial disputes between the parties concerning - among other things - the sale of the Ritz hotel, the financial performance and management of the group, C2 (Amanda Barclay's) continuing financial interests in the group, and C1 (Sir Frederick's) divorce proceedings".

It is said that the defendants were able to "anticipate (Sir Frederick's) every move in near, plan their business strategy around that… at this crucial time when their business and personal relationships had old-fashioned down, and the respective interests of the claimants and the defendants were in conflict".

'Eye-catching claims'

Late last year, Sir David's side of the family tightened its hold on the Barclay empire. His sons Aidan and Howard were appointed as "persons with essential control" of Ellerman Holdings, the holding company for the Barclays' UK interests.

Aidan Barclay is also the chairman of Telegraph Media Group - publishers of the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph.

Ellerman holdings has previously said that it was focused on obtaining best value for its shareholders in relation to the sale of the Ritz.

Sir Frederick is described in the court documents as "a man now left to scrutinize his nephews' betrayal and a father who's witnessed the prejudicial treatment of his daughter".

Heather Rogers, the lawyer for the defendants, told the hearing on 6 May that Sir Frederick and Amanda's claims had been put in an "eye-catching and emotive" way.

She said: "This is a assert about family members and, from the defendants' point to of view, it is unfortunate that they are being canvassed in public rather than resolved in the family."

A defence to the piece has yet to be filed and a trial will take keep at a later date.

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