UK billionaire's son plunges to death

File picture: Sxc.hu

File picture: Sxc.hu

Published Nov 9, 2015

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London - The son of a billionaire steel magnate died in a fall from his penthouse home on Sunday as his company teeters on the brink of collapse.

Angad Paul, 45, suffered catastrophic injuries after plummeting from the eight-storey property in central London.

The tragedy comes as administrators battle to save the business founded by his father Lord Paul, 84 - one of the country’s richest men.

The company, Caparo Plc, has been torpedoed by the collapse in steel prices and was forced into administration weeks ago with the loss of 450 jobs across the UK and another 1 200 in the balance. Emergency services raced to a building beside his home in Portland Place, Marylebone, on Sunday morning after father-of-two Mr Paul was seen lying on the roof.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said there were no suspicious circumstances and officers are preparing a file for the coroner.

High-profile chief executive Mr Paul, who married 40-year-old lawyer Michelle Bonn in 2005, shares the property with his parents, Lord and Lady Paul, and his 57-year-old twin brothers Ambar and Akash.

His sister Ambika died of leukaemia shortly after his parents travelled to England from India in the 1960s to seek medical treatment.

On Sunday night, close friends paid their respects as news of the sudden tragedy spread. One said it was a further blow to Lord Paul, adding: ‘It is hard, a son is a son.’

The Caparo Group is one of Britain’s leading companies and includes interests from car component manufacture to hotels and hospitality. But the international conglomerate has suffered as the fortunes of British steel nosedived following the recession and 16 of the 20 businesses under its wing have now been taken into administration. Job losses followed at factories across the UK and all websites associated with Caparo have been suspended.

Administrators are considering whether a series of ill-fated ventures in supercars, film and design led by Mr Paul contributed to the collapse.

He spearheaded an attempt to create the world’s fastest road-legal supercar, the £800 000 Caparo T1 and was an executive producer on a string of films including Guy Ritchie’s gangster hit Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

Mr Paul also teamed up with Stella McCartney’s husband Alasdhair Willis to form upmarket furniture brand Established & Sons.

In an interview in 2010, the businessman - who was handed the reins of the family group in 1996 - said his work was ‘never over’, adding: ‘You have to be your own harshest critic.’ He once spent time living with an Amazonian tribe, learning about how they exchanged ideas.

His father Lord Paul, who has donated around £500,000 to Labour and counts Gordon Brown as a close friend, is reportedly the 47th wealthiest person in Britain with an estimated wealth of £2.2billion.

Moving to Britain in 1966, he founded Caparo group with a £5,000 bank loan and was made a peer in 1996, sitting as an independent since 2010.

But he has been linked to controversy. After it emerged he held an account with the Swiss branch of HSBC embroiled in tax-dodging, Lord Paul was accused of being a ‘dodgy donor’ but denied any wrongdoing. He was suspended for ‘gross irresponsibility’ for four months following the expenses scandal in 2010.

No-one from the Paul family was available to comment last night. The Met said inquiries are ‘continuing’.

Daily Mail

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