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Geograph<\/p>\nGeograph<\/p>\n
Mentmore golf course, which closed 10 years ago, had featured in High Court litigation<\/p>\n
A golf course which shut a decade ago has deteriorated and will cost more than \u00a32.5m to revive, a judge has suggested.<\/p>\n
Sir Anthony Mann saw figures estimating the cost of restoring Mentmore golf course when overseeing litigation centred on the venue, in Buckinghamshire.<\/p>\n
Michael Gaymer, who owns the land at Mentmore<\/a>, has been embroiled in a civil court fight with a golf investments company which had a lease.<\/p>\n The judge was given detail, during a High Court hearing in London, of what had happened to the course since Mentmore Golf and Country Club <\/a>closed<\/a> in June 2015. He has ruled in favour of Mr Gaymore and against the other company’s right to retain the lease.<\/p>\n He said that in 2019, during a earlier litigation stage, expert evidence showed how, because of “deterioration”, the cost of restoration would be \u00a32.5m.<\/p>\n Sir Anthony suggested that greater sums would be required now.<\/p>\n He has overseen an appeal hearing centred on a lease granted to tenant Mentmore Golf and Country Club in March 1995.<\/p>\n The judge ruled in favour of Mr Gaymer and dismissed an appeal by Mentmore Golf Investments that it should keep the lease.<\/p>\n Mentmore is a country house that was once owned by the Rothschild banking family<\/p>\n Sir Anthony, who has outlined his reasons behind ruling in Mr Gaymer’s favour in a written judgment published online<\/a>, was told that the golf club had closed in June 2015 – and had not reopened.<\/p>\n Mr Gaymer served a notice to forfeit the lease in January 2017, “in respect of breaches of repairing obligations”.<\/p>\n Judges in local courts had been asked to make decisions.<\/p>\n Sir Anthony said a “saga” began – and proceedings continued for several years<\/p>\n The judge said another company with a similar name, Mentmore Greenland, had also been involved in the litigation.<\/p>\n He described businessman Simon Halabi was a “central player” in the story – while Mr Gaymer said Mr Halabi was, in effect, the “real principal” behind the two companies.<\/p>\n Mr Gaymer argued that there had been a “very serious shortfall” in compliance with the obligations to repair buildings and the course.<\/p>\n Mr Halabi argued that “enough” had been done to “comply with the repairing obligations in the lease”.<\/p>\n A judge oversaw the latest stage of litigation at a High Court hearing in The Rolls Building in central London<\/p>\n Sir Anthony said a judge had ruled in favour of Mr Gaymer, and made a possession order, in October 2023.<\/p>\n Mentmore Golf Investments had then, in December 2023, applied to have the lease reinstated.<\/p>\n A judge at Luton Crown Court had, in 2024, again ruled against Mentmore Golf Investments.<\/p>\n Mentmore Golf Investments then challenged that order and Sir Anthony oversaw an appeal hearing in July 2025.<\/p>\n Sir Anthony, who heard arguments during a High Court hearing at The Rolls Building in central London, dismissed Mentmore Golf Investments’ appeal.<\/p>\n He concluded that the company’s claim for “relief from forfeiture” was part of a “scheme to string out a piece of litigation”.<\/p>\n Mentmore has links to the Rothschild banking family<\/a> and was the headquarters of the Natural Law Party<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Geograph](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/cac270c0-b2c4-11f0-a603-956edde8e77a.jpg.webp.webp\")
Geograph<\/p>\n![\"Brian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/4b983400-b310-11f0-aa13-0b0479f6f42a.jpg.webp.webp\")
Brian Farmer\/BBC<\/p>\n