A senior member of the Barclay family is facing a new front in his battle against creditors as Luxembourg bankers bid to prise open secretive offshore trusts and companies.
Deutsche Bank Luxembourg on Friday issued a new High Court claim against Alistair Barclay, 36, the youngest son of Sir David Barclay – the former joint-owner of The Telegraph – who died in 2021.
High Court filings seen by this newspaper lists as a co-defendant Vauvert Administration LBG, a Guernsey company which is trustee to two trusts in Alistair’s name.
It also names as a co-defendant LW Group Ltd, a company registered in Tortola in the British Virgin Islands.
All three defendants are listed as litigants in person, meaning they are currently unrepresented by lawyers. Deutsche is using the City firm Pinsent Masons.
LW Group is part of a notoriously complex web of Barclay family companies and trusts that once controlled a multibillion-pound empire including The Telegraph, the online retailer Very, the parcel deliverer Yodel and a host of luxury hotels.
Alistair, co-founder of the online estate agent Yopa and a motor racing driver, and his older half-brothers Aidan and Howard, inherited sway over the family business from Sir David – along with a bitter dispute with his twin brother Sir Frederick. The brothers and their uncle have overseen its total implosion under heavy debts in recent years.
Deutsche’s latest action against Alistair, the trustee of his trusts and LW Group Ltd comes alongside bankruptcy proceedings, filed at the High Court in September. In that battle he is represented by Osborne Clark, according to court documents.
Deutsche Bank Luxembourg is the second private bank involved in bankruptcy proceedings with Alistair in two years. In 2024, Investec’s private bank issued a petition over an allegedly overdue loan of £1m, which was eventually settled out of court.
The lender hired investigators to track down Alistair, claiming had been “actively avoiding” service of its claim. He was found living in a Monaco seafront tower block called Le Roccabella. Investec claimed Mr Barclay had moved to the Mediterranean microstate after selling a grand townhouse in Chester Square, Belgravia.
In documents filed with the High Court, the bank also alleged that one of the reasons Alistair was in default is that he had failed to refinance £22.5m in separate personal borrowing from Deutsche.
The German lender did not comment on Investec’s bankruptcy petition and last night declined to comment on the proceedings it is involved with, or on its new claim targeting Alistair, his offshore trustee and the Barclay family’s LW Group Ltd in the British Virgin Islands. The parallel action has been filed in Commercial Court, where alleged breaches of contract are considered.
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