Thomas Kingston’s business ‘was chasing nearly £50 million in bad debt’

Last year, Thomas Kingston died by suicide. Kingston was married to Lady Gabriella Windsor, the daughter of Prince Michael of Kent and his wife Princess Michael. Kingston’s death came in the middle of a particularly chaotic time for the monarchy and there was a sense that many people within the Windsor clan were left reeling. Gabriella, now a widow, quietly left the home she had shared with Thomas and she moved back into her parents’ palace apartment. Gabriella spoke at the inquest, as did Thomas’s father. The inquest heard from many people that Thomas going off his medications “provoked” his suicide (that was the word used in the inquest). But now, more than a year later, something else has come out: Kingston possibly had business trouble?

His death – intolerably sudden, as it was – left friends stunned and shocked, and his wife, Lady Gabriella Windsor, heartbroken. But now, 14 months later, more light can be shed on the scale and scope of Thomas Kingston’s business ambitions and perhaps also on some of the pressures that the 45-year-old former hostage negotiator was contending with.

After serving in the Foreign Office – notably in Baghdad, during the worst years of the Iraq War when he inspired a colleague to describe him as ‘one of the most remarkable people I have ever worked with’ – Kingston plunged into the financial world. By 2017 – two years before his marriage to Prince and Princess Michael of Kent’s daughter Ella, 44, in the presence of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip – he became a director of Devonport Capital, which specialises in providing finance for companies involved in post-war reconstruction.

The company, of which Kingston was joint owner, has now been put into administration. A preliminary statement shows that Devonport Capital owes creditors a staggering £29.5million. Kingston and his fellow director and joint owner, Paul Bailey, had secured the backing of New Zealand-born billionaire Christopher Chandler, who helped finance the television channel GB News. Such was Chandler’s faith in the duo that he’d invested millions in Devonport – and is currently owed nearly £13million by the company.

His Majesty’s Revenue & Customs is owed £788,000, though that’s dwarfed by the £1.67million which Devonport owed to another of Kingston’s companies, Aberdair Ltd. Tom’s father, the eminent barrister Martin Kingston, is personally owed £162,000.

All of this might suggest that Kingston had been overwhelmed by a sea of debt. But that would appear to be inaccurate: Devonport was, and is, in a position to return all money to investors and creditors – and still have a £2.5million surplus.

‘In February 2024, the decision was taken to wind down the business of Devonport Capital,’ a spokesman tells me. ‘Having made significant progress realising and securing funds, it became clear earlier this year that the best way to ensure fair and proper allocation of outstanding recoveries was to place the business into administration.’’

[From The Daily Mail]

This story was published by the Mail about a week ago, and I’ve been trying to figure out if the business is being put in administration (the British version of bankruptcy) so that Devonport’s holdings can be liquidated and the creditors can mostly be paid. But then the Telegraph just added another wrinkle – it seems like there were significant money and debt problems at Devonport after all:

Thomas Kingston’s company was chasing nearly £50 million in bad debt when he took his own life, documents show. Documents have revealed the financial difficulties that faced his company, Devonport Capital, the time of his suicide.

An administrators’ report showed that the company was placed into administration earlier this year after some creditors had been considering legal action to recover their debts. Two major borrowers were defaulting on combined debts equating to £48 million.

Kingston became a director of the company in 2017, which specialises in providing finance for companies involved in “high-risk, post-conflict jurisdictions” with post-war reconstruction. Michael Goldstein and Avner Radomsky, administrators from RG Insolvency, said: “Whilst the company was undoubtedly successful, the environment in which it operated meant that inevitably there were bad debts suffered along the way. Over time the interest compounding on amounts outstanding to lenders when the company’s borrowers failed to repay became increasingly challenging to manage. There are two significant loans in default, a total of approximately $60 million, including default penalties and accrued interest which have very significantly impacted the company’s performance.”

The report added that it is “uncertain as to the recoverability” of the £49 million in loans they are seeking to recover. As a result, they are estimating repayments between 20 and 60 per cent, which equates to between £9.8 million and £29.4 million.

[From The Telegraph]

There’s a reason I didn’t go into accounting and tax law, my God. I will just take it on faith that while Devonport was “successful” in some ways, they were also taking on more “bad debt” than they could handle, and the interest was going through the roof. There’s a huge discrepancy between the Mail saying “owes creditors a staggering £29.5million” versus the Telegraph saying “chasing nearly £50 million in bad debt.” Yiiikes. I wonder if Kingston and Lady Gabriella kept their finances completely separate too.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.