Helen Hume-Kendall is married to Simon Hume-Kendall, the man who originally set up LCF and then went on to become one of the firm’s biggest borrowers before it collapsed in 2019.
It has emerged that Mrs Hume-Kendall was handed the tax bill for unpaid Stamp Duty Land Tax [SDLT] on a property she purchased in Bewl Water in Wadhurst.
According to court documents dated to August 2019, Mrs Hume-Kendall had claimed the £1.2million Hook House, which had been bought through her now dissolved company, Waterside Estates, was exempt from the higher rate of stamp duty of 15 per cent as it was bought as a holiday let.
But HMRC had unveiled a clause in her shareholder’s contract that demonstrated that Mrs Hume-Kendall had on a number of occasions stayed at the property, which overlooks Bewl Water reservoir, so she did not qualify for relief on her SDLT.
The tribunal sided with HMRC and Mrs Hume-Kendall was left with a bill for unpaid stamp duty of £118,750.
LCF collapsed in January 2019 owing around 11,500 investors more than £237million. Last week a handful of investors launched a judicial review over the handling of compensation claims after the FCSC [Financial Services Compensation Scheme] refused to give the majority of investors any recompense.
Administrators to LCF, Smith & Williamson said last year that they were to sue 13 people connected to the firm, including both Mr and Mrs Hume-Kendall, for £178million, over the collapse.
The Serious Fraud Office is also investigating the failure of the minibond firm.
