Amazon campaigner claims London flat was sold 'without his knowledge' » Housing » 24dash.com

A 68-year-old environmental activist claimed today at the High Court that his flat was sold without his knowledge while he was campaigning in the Amazon rainforest.

Captain Clive Kelly, barefooted and with his face tattooed in native designs, told a judge that he had not seen a penny of the £200,000 sale.

He is accusing three men of conspiring to sell the property in Sinclair Road, West Kensington, west London, which had been valued at £265,000.

Mark Dencer, representing him, told deputy judge Mark Pelling QC that the three formed a "dishonest association" from which they had all benefited.

"The claimant is an elderly environmental campaigner who had only two assets of note - a fairly basic trimaran called Survival on which he has for decades lived, travelling around the southern hemisphere pursuing his various ecological ends, and a long lease of a flat in West Kensington."

He added: "That flat was sold without the claimant even knowing of the sale, let along approving thereof.

"It seems that the first he heard of the sale was in July 2006 when he rang his UK solicitor from Brazil to say he was thinking of selling his flat, and inquiries by that solicitor at the Land Registry revealed surprisingly that the flat had apparently been sold two months earlier."

Capt Kelly is claiming that Ibrahim Bakir, a Turkish businessman, used the power of attorney he gave him to sell the flat.

He is also alleging that the man who bought the property, estate agent Arshad Mahmood. and the neighbour who looked after the flat while he was away, Keith Steward, were all involved in a conspiracy to defraud him.

Mr Dencer said: "Not a penny of the £200,000, or whatever the real price was, has ever been paid to the claimant, with Bakir taking a large proportion of it with him when he promptly fled the jurisdiction."

Captain Kelly, who kept a pencil he used to make notes in a hole through his ear lobe, told the judge he allowed his heart to rule his head when he granted power of attorney, allowing Mr Bakir to run his affairs.

He said Mr Bakir had offered him around 900,000 dollars to continue his campaigning and set up a museum of the Amerindian tribes of the Amazon. But he said he had not received any of the money.

He said he had been married to a Brazilian woman for eight years and when he was not at sea, he spent most of his time living in a hut in the Amazon.

But he said his trimaran was now a wreck after being damaged in a storm and his hut had been eaten by ants.

"I had hoped to use my flat in London for my retirement and as an investment, but when I returned to London I found I was homeless."

Mr Mahmood, who will say he believed the purchase was genuine, and Mr Steward deny any knowledge of a conspiracy. Mr Bakir is not involved in the case.

Captain Kelly told the court that at the age of 23 he owned six clubs in the North of England and acted as an agent for pop groups including the Rolling Stones.

He said he never was interested in money other than as a means of pursuing his ideas.

"That is why I am trying to get my flat back so that I can continue to pursue my mission for as long as I can."

He said he gave up the entertainment industry when he saw how lives were being destroyed by drugs and alcohol and set off for the Amazon.

"There I met the tribal Indians who were closely connected with the hippie culture of which I was a part."

He said in 1973 he made the first of his films about the life of the Indians, one of which was nominated for an Oscar.

"I became very concerned about the indigenous inhabitants and so for the last 30 years I have been fighting to protect the Amazon rainforest as well as campaigning for the world's eco-systems in general."

He said he had never met Mr Mahmood and the first knowledge of him was when he valued his flat in 2004.

The second time he heard of him was in July 2006 when he found out he had bought his flat, he told the court.

Captain Kelly said he first met Mr Bakir in 1969/70 in London and he set him up making and selling jewellery in Las Palmas.

He said he did not see him for 34 years when Mr Bakir saw him on television in the Canary Islands and re-introduced himself.

"He told me that by teaching him the business I had made him a rich man."

They then discussed staging exhibitions around Europe of his collection of Amerindian artefacts."

Captain Kelly said Mr Bakir told him that he worked for the Turkish Chamber of Commerce and that his father had recently died and he wanted to put the 900,000 dollars left to him into Captain Kelly's bank account so that they could set up a hotel and museum business.

Mr Bakir suggested that he should sign a power of attorney to give him the authority to deal with his artefacts.

"It was never agreed, or even discussed, that Mr Bakir would use the power of attorney to sell my flat in London."

The hearing was adjourned until tomorrow.