Squatters take over BBC star’s luxury 21-room hotel – throwing wild parties, terrorising neighbours & starting fires
SQUATTERS have taken over a luxury spa hotel once owned by Men Behaving Badly star Neil Morrissey.
The group is led by a self-proclaimed “Robin Hood” who wants to create a “micro-nation” at the former hotel complex where guests paid £300 a night to stay and ate food cooked by Michelin chefs.
Morrissey’s Hurst House Hotel – later the Corran – in Laugharne, west Wales, closed down in 2021 after a series of failed attempts to make it profitable.
When the latest owners went bankrupt, the group of non-paying guests, led by Tom “Wilko” Wilkinson moved in to the 21-bedroom resort – and quickly began making locals’ lives a misery.
The squatters have been “terrorising” neighbours and throwing wild, outdoor parties round a huge bonfire in the grounds, often inviting friends who arrive in minibuses.
The once-grand entrance has now been roped off with an old tyre strung across the drive.
The sign announcing Corran Hotel and Spa has been vandalised and is falling apart.
Wilkinson claims he is preserving a piece of history and when he succeeds in his goals he would “make Robin Hood look like a true story”.
When The Sun approached Wilkinson, who sells bottles of ‘Micronized Zeolite Clay’ to his followers on Facebook, he told us to go away.
Flanked by a tall man in a hat, and a large young woman with facial piercings, the Mancunian, who goes by the name Tom Wilko online, said: “I don’t want to talk to you.
“I know what you journalists do, you just just fluff things up.”
The current owner of the hotel, listed on Companies House as Seychelles-based Upper Street Holdings, based in the Seychelles and who bought it in 2022 for just £19,600, have now filed court papers to try and force the squatters out.
Upper Street Holdings have applied to Llanelli County Court for possession of the property and name “Mr Thomas Wilkinson AKA Tom Walk and persons unknown” as the defendants in the case, to be heard on November 11.
Notes on the claim form sent to Wilkinson state that the purpose of the hearing is for the court to “consider whether or not you must leave the property and, if so, when”.
In response, Wilkinson posted an image of the claim form on his Facebook page alongside a rant in which he claimed he is planning a “counter claim” of £250,000 against the owners for “security costs alone”.
He posted: They really have gone and put their foot in it.
Men Behaving Badly reunion set
CRACK out the Stellas – Men Behaving Badly stars Neil Morrissey and Martin Clunes are reuniting.
The comedy duo are back for a new three-part series called Neil & Martin’s Bon Voyage.
They will be taking on a road trip through France, which has become Neil’s second home, visiting Normandy, the Alps and his own cider apple orchard in the South.
Martin said: “I’ve grown to miss Neil more than ever since he’s absconded to a country which he claims has the best scenery, food and wine on earth.
“I intend to find out by devouring the lot of it and seeing what I can remember afterwards.”
The three-parter will air on Gold in 2025 – 30 years after they last shared their BBC comedy flat.
“Just on security costs alone, my counterclaim comes to £250,000.
“£25 an hour x3 for 24 hours a day x5 months.
“If we added renovation costs, maintenance and cleaning to the bill the claimant would basically be paying me.”
But one local who has been inside the former hotel since Wilkinson and his friends took occupation in the summer says he is concerned the gang plan to burn it down if they are evicted.
The local, who asked not to be identified, said: “He took me upstairs and everywhere I looked there were scrunched-up sheets of paper – many of them clients’ records from the spa – and it looked like he was preparing for a fire if he gets thrown out.
“He is making everyone around here very nervous. He throws these noisy outdoor parties round a huge fire with music playing all through the night and people running around like they’re off their heads.”
Sandra Flaxman, 75, who runs a campsite a short distance from the former hotel, said she was forced to padlock her shower and toilet complex because Wilkinson and his cronies had been trespassing onto her land and using the facilities.
She said he has also intimidated her frequently by driving his car very slowly up and down the lane outside her home and “leering” at her through her office window.
She said: “He is terrorising me and this taunting is part of it. I contacted the police about him but they say there’s nothing they can do without an eviction order.
“So now I’m just praying the court will order him to leave. He is causing everyone around here sleepless nights.”
Gordon Ramsay's £13m pub squatters
By Clemmie Moodie and Amir Razavi
A GANG of squatters have set up home in telly chef Gordon Ramsay’s swanky £13million pub.
The brazen invaders have even slapped a legal notice on the outside of the Grade-II listed building, threatening action against anyone who tries to force them out.
The gang, said to be made up of at least six “professional squatters”, used Ramsay’s own kitchen appliances to barricade themselves in and have glued shut the locks.
Photos show the swanky bar area of the venue — which had been temporarily closed for a handover — resembling a tip, with debris sprawled everywhere and a squatter crashed out on a leather sofa.
Ramsay, 57, was about to sign over a multi-million pound lease to new partners when the gang broke in to the York & Albany pub and boutique hotel near Regent’s Park, central London.
The TV chef — who was embroiled in a legal battle over the venue back in 2015 — called the police last Wednesday but has been unable to remove the squatters from the 19th-century building.
Last night a source said: “It’s an absolute nightmare scenario for poor Gordon.
“The pub was temporarily closed whilst he was finalising a new lease, and during this handover period a gang of professional squatters somehow bypassed all the security and CCTV, and got themselves in.
“They’ve now boarded themselves in the building and are slowly taking over the place, leaving their crap everywhere and brazenly telling locals this is now their home.
“They’ve glued tight all the locks and are cooking up a storm in the kitchen, which is especially galling for Gordon.”
The source said there were at least five men and a woman there, adding: “Some are crashing on sofas, but others have taken over the beautiful bedrooms. God knows the damage and filth.
“Gordon called the police on Wednesday and is trying to secure an eviction notice, but it’s proving an absolute nightmare.
“It’s increasingly hard to forcibly remove these people.
“Gordon is at the end of his tether. Not surprisingly, a few choice words have been said.”
Yesterday, one squatter was seen sleeping barefoot on a couch in the bar area while wearing a hat, coat and trousers.
Another slipper-clad occupier was scrolling his smartphone.
Scattered around were a pair of crutches, a Sainsbury’s bag for life, tobacco, plugs, empty water bottles and wine glasses — with a blue sleeping bag dumped on another sofa.
A cat climber and dog toy were also visible, while kitchen equipment was seen on the floor at the back of the venue.
One squatter, wearing a blue hoodie, knee compression bandage and sliders, refused to comment when approached by The Sun.
The man — who had two black eyes with a cut above one — said: “I’m under no obligation to speak to you. Have a good morning.”
He asked for our reporter’s name but refused to give his own.
He pulled out a phone and was heard talking to a woman who warned him not to speak to us.
He then began recording and hiding around the back of the building.
At one point, he was heard saying on the phone: “They’re just trying to provoke me.”
When we said he was staying there illegally, he replied: “Is this strictly necessary?”
The squatters have placed a bike lock on a metal gate leading to the hotel.
They have also slapped a legal notice on the front door, saying they are entitled to stay there as it “is a non-residential building”.
They claim that the law which prevents squatting is not applicable because it “was NOT designed or adapted, before the time of our entry, for use as a place to live”.
Incredibly, they then threaten legal action, suggesting that if anyone tries to enter “by violence” they could end up in jail for six months.
They warn: “Take notice that we occupy this property and at all times there is at least one person in occupation.
“That any entry or attempt to enter into these premises without our permission is therefore a criminal offence as any one of us who is in physical possession is opposed to such entry without our permission.
“That if you attempt to enter by violence or by threatening violence we will prosecute you.
“You may receive a sentence of up to six months’ imprisonment and/or a fine of up to £5,000.”
The note, signed by “The Occupiers”, also warns: “If you want to get us out you will have to issue a claim for possession in the County Court or in the High Court.”