Couple win £150k in lawsuit against their nephew after he claimed ownership of £4m UK mansion they bought in his name 19 years ago
A wealthy couple who accused a nephew of stealing their £4 million house has won him in court.
Self-made millionaire, Michael Lee, 79, and wife King-Su Huang, 73, sued Cheng-Jen Ku, 40, after he claimed to own the property in Kensington’s Queen’s Gate Place Mews.
The couple purchased the building in Ku’s name back in 2004 for ‘privacy reasons’ as they did not want the extent of their wealth to become public knowledge, Central London County Court heard.
Ku initially lived there but later claimed he was the true owner of the house and that it had been ‘gifted’ to him in line with Taiwanese tradition by his rich auntie.
Mr Ku
But he told Judge Alan Johns that he had later moved out of the multimillion-pound house ‘because his auntie and uncle were too strict’.
The judge, Alan Johns, said Ku’s behaviour ‘didn’t look like the actions of an owner’ before awarding ownership of the house to his aunt and her husband.
The judge ruled that Mr Ku is liable to pay his auntie and uncle’s lawyers’ bill of around £115,000. He will also have to pay his own legal fees, which were estimated before the trial at £35,000.
Businessman Mr Lee, who made his fortune through a £13m Essex electronics company, met his wife while working in Taiwan and later channelled his cash into a property portfolio.
When he and his wife found the property in Queen’s Gate Place Mews, just a short walk from the Royal Albert Hall and Natural History Museum, they decided to buy it.
Mr Ku, a ‘close’ nephew whom Mr Lee had been fond of as a ‘cute little kid’, had lived with the couple in their £1 million-plus Essex former home after moving to the UK from Taiwan.
Lee told the judge that his wife handed their nephew £1.57 million to buy the house in his name, explaining that for ‘privacy’ reasons and to prevent the property being called on as collateral for business loans they wanted to put it in Mr Ku’s name.
The property is now worth more than twice the price that was paid, with lawyers valuing it at up to £4 million.
Mr Ku later went on to claim the house was his because it was ‘gifted’ to him by his aunt, a claim blasted as ‘piffle’ by Mr Lee in evidence during the trial.
Mr Lee told the judge that his nephew had gone from being ‘a cute little kid’ nicknamed ‘Trouble’ to become ‘mean and nasty’ in adulthood.
‘He is trying to steal our house because he has turned out to be a devious little sod and that’s why we’re in court,’ he said from the witness box.
In his ruling, the judge said: ‘I’ve reached a clear conclusion that the intention in this case was for the mews house to be owned by Mrs Huang. Indeed, there was an express agreement to that effect.
‘There was an express discussion over the telephone before the house was purchased in which she said she wanted to buy a property but use Mr Ku’s name. He agreed.
‘As understood by the parties, it was an arrangement not that the mews house was to be Mr Ku’s but was to be Mrs Huang’s and just to be held in Mr Ku’s name.’
He added: ‘I make a declaration that the mews house is held in trust by Mr Ku for Mrs Huang.’
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