Brocket Hall Collection

Owner

Upon the death of his grandfather, prominent Conservative Party politician and Nazi sympathiser, Ronald Nall-Cain, in 1967, Charles became the 3rd Baron Brocket. He inherited Brocket Hall, the family's Georgian estate, which was in a poor state of repair, and converted it into one of Britain's leading conference centres using a loan from American Express.

With the cash flowing in, he began to indulge in sports cars, notably Ferraris, and in 1982, married former Vogue model Isabell Lorenzo. Soon enough, his bank noticed that some of his collector cars had tripled in value and therefore loaned him £5 million to turn it into a formal business. This resulted in the accumulation of over 50 exotic cars, valued at approximately £20 million.

However, when the nineties came around, interest rates soared and business was struggling. Charles now had debts of over £10 million and needed £4.5 million as quickly as possible. His cars were insured for well over their true value, so a scheme was drafted.

Over three nights in May 1991, Charles and two of his workers dismantled three Ferraris and a Maserati, burning or hiding the majority of the parts. A few weeks later, Charles 'discovered' that the cars were missing and lodged an insurance claim for said £4.5 million. The authorities didn't buy it, and neither did General Accident, who refused to pay up.

Charles took this case to court, only to pull out when the bank stepped in with £15 million to help Brocket Hall. However, upon her arrest for forging prescriptions to fuel her painkiller addiction, Isabell spilt the beans. Charles was charged with insurance fraud in 1996 and sentenced to five years in prison.