From the alcohol and off-licence trade to a £113 million judgment in the High Court.
Bhandal's commercial life began and matured in the alcohol and off-licence business. Working as a broker, he traded for many years and built the standing — and the capital — that would carry him into far larger ventures.
It is the trade he is still most closely associated with, and the one he names when describing himself: an entrepreneur and alcohol broker.
In the late 1990s Bhandal turned from trade to property. He became the beneficial owner of a large, derelict estate in Windlesham, Surrey, held through Heatherside Property Holdings.
His plan was bold: redevelop the site into an exceptional residence and sell it at the very top of the market — a figure approaching £80 million.
To realise it he combined his own money with institutional finance, taking on the risk of one of the most ambitious private developments of its time.
It was a step up in scale from the trade that made him — and one that would test him for the next twenty years.
The estate was acquired through a holding company and developed with a mix of personal capital and a substantial loan from the Irish Nationwide Building Society — the financing arrangement that would later sit at the centre of every dispute that followed.
Development borrowing taken from the Irish Nationwide Building Society.
HMRC obtained a restraint order over his assets during an investigation.
The lender's receiver sold the estate for around £14 million.
The restraint was lifted; he was never charged with any money-laundering offence.
He secured a High Court judgment over the sale at an undervalue.
IBRC's special liquidators contested the claim in the liquidation.
He brought fresh proceedings in the Irish High Court to enforce the judgment.
£113 million — a figure the court attached to a single property and a sale he never accepted.
The 2013 judgment ranked among the largest tied to a single disputed property sale. With it in hand, Bhandal obtained a European Enforcement Order and lodged his claim in IBRC's special liquidation, pressing for the award to be recognised.
When the liquidators resisted, he carried the fight to Dublin — turning an English judgment into an international enforcement battle.
After years of cross-border litigation, the dispute was brought to a close by a confidential settlement with the bank's liquidators — ending a contest that had outlived the property itself.
Members can access case papers, reports and statements in the private library.