Ex-EastEnders star wins home battle

10:49pm Friday 25th July 2008

Former EastEnders star Nicola Stapleton has won her High Court bid to have a house she bought from her fraudster father excluded from a confiscation order imposed on him.

Ms Stapleton, who played Mandy Salter in the long-running soap and Janine in Bad Girls, is the daughter of Vincent Stapleton, who was sentenced after appeal to four years' imprisonment in 2001 for his part in a £11 million VAT fraud.

Stapleton, of Kingston, Surrey, who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to cheat, was also made subject of a confiscation order of £1.615 million. Ms Stapleton, who was not involved in any criminal activity, says she legitimately bought her home in South Norwood, south London, from her father for £175,000 and it belongs to her.

HM Revenue and Customs alleged the house came within Stapleton's realisable assets and could be seized, because Ms Stapleton paid for it with money he gave her from the £780,000 sale of a house in Silver Lane, Putney, south-west London.

Counsel David Barnard told the judge, Sir Thomas Morison, in London that their case was that the sale of the South Norwood property to her in 2000 was effectively "a sham" and Ms Stapleton was a front for her father.

"It's our case that far from this money, which was released on the sale of Silver Lane, being the proceeds of sale to which either his wife, Kathleen, or Nicola were entitled, it was money which Mr Stapleton treated as his own."

Giving his ruling, the judge found that the 33-year-old actress invested £50,000 of her own money in Silver Lane, so it was not possible to say that when the property was sold, all the proceeds belonged to her father. She also contributed to the mortgage when living there.

He said that Ms Stapleton had never been accused of being involved in her father's financial deals, and there was no evidence that she could be manipulated by him, adding: "I regard the idea that she is holding the house on trust for her father as fanciful."

He rejected the idea that she had been guilty of money laundering for her father or had perjured herself in sworn statements and in the witness box. She was a "generally honest and truthful witness" who was straightforward and entirely consistent in her evidence.

Ms Stapleton, who was also awarded her costs, wept as she heard the decision in her favour. She would not comment afterwards.

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