A British businessman known as Barry — an entrepreneur and alcohol broker whose career moved from the off-licence trade into major property investment, and into one of the longest-running commercial disputes in the British and Irish courts.
An entrepreneur and alcohol broker who built, borrowed and litigated on a scale few ever attempt. Baljit "Barry" Bhandal
Baljit Singh Bhandal — widely known as Barry — spent many years working successfully in the alcohol and off-licence business before turning to large-scale property investment in the late 1990s. The capital he generated in trade financed an ambitious redevelopment in Surrey that would define the next two decades of his life.
What followed was a protracted financial dispute with his lender and its successors — a contest that produced a £113 million High Court judgment in his favour and proceedings that crossed from England into the Irish courts.
Read his storyBhandal's commercial foundation was the alcohol and off-licence trade, an industry in which — by his counsel's account before the Irish High Court — he worked successfully for many years.
That success gave him the means to move into property, where he became the beneficial owner of a derelict Surrey estate and set out to transform it into a landmark residence.
The full careerThe defining chapter of a dispute that began with a single property and ran for more than twenty years.
Bhandal obtained a High Court judgment of £113 million against IBRC, successor to his original lender, over the sale of the property at what he argued was an undervalue.
He secured a European Enforcement Order and lodged his claim in IBRC's special liquidation, pressing for recognition of the award.
When the liquidators disputed the claim, he brought fresh proceedings in the Irish High Court — a case ultimately resolved by settlement.
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