Hampton’s Swiss chalet owner pleads guilty to acting as a company director while disqualified

The chalet, which was imported in 1882, was put on the market in August 2016 for £13million.

Chalet owner Myck Djurberg, 56, of Hampton Court Road, pleaded guilty to breaking a court order banning him from working as a company director, and his then-business partner Gabor Moser, 36, admitted aiding and abetting him.

Moser was fined £10,000 with £20,000 costs at Kingston Crown Court on Tuesday (January 17), but Judge Michael Hopmeier said the pair may have faced prison had they been sentenced at a time closer to the offences.

The pair ran Lord Moser plc, a specialist construction firm that was liquidated in the summer of 2010 after running into financial difficulties.

A custodial sentence might also have been considered, Judge Hopmeier said, had Djurberg and Moser benefited financially from their offences.

Djurberg, whose disqualification from acting as a company director had been due to end in June this year, was disqualified for a further five years on Tuesday.

He was initially banned from working as a company director for eight-and-a-half years in November 2008 after declaring himself insolvent.

The court heard that Djurberg liaised with clients on behalf of the company, and a series of former employees said he appeared to be running the company as a director in mid-2010, while Moser was abroad for his wedding.

Judge Hopmeier said: “These offences are serious. Where disqualification orders are made, they are made for good reason. Where it is made, it should be obeyed.

“My judgement is quite plain: that they were at least reckless in the way they approached the positions they were in.

“If the convictions occurred nearer to the time of the offending and had it occurred for a longer period of time, I would have imposed a custodial sentence in the cases of both defendants.”

Judge Hopmeier deemed Moser to be aware of Djurberg’s disqualification because the pair were long-time business partners, and thus “astute businessmen”.

The defendants did not receive full credit for their guilty pleas because they only came once a trial date had been set, at which point the Crown Prosecution Service had spent approximately £58,000 in preparation.

Judge Hopmeier said Djurberg’s fine was proportional to his “great capital wealth”.

After Lord Moser PLC was liquidated, Djurberg worked designing and renovating house boats.

After purchasing the Hampton Riviera and Boatyard, Djurberg paid for the chalet to be raised from the flood plain land on which it sits in 2014.

The court also heard Djurberg went by the name ‘Mr Priost’ in former business dealings.