As reported to the Family’s website at  http://www.mvpicton.co.uk Marie Louise and Vince Shalom, with their five daughters, Hannah, Naomi, Rachel Rebekah and Jessica were evicted by Crest Nicholson from their own houseboat Home, of 14 years, in October 2003. The Family say it is an injustice too hard to ignore. It’s not as if it’s been simple or easy to just carry on with their lives. Their Home, called ‘Picton’, (the only home that their five children had known since birth) was taken to England in the middle of the night and later destroyed...their Family’s possessions, those that can be accounted for, remain seized.


In view of the recent takeover* bid, the Family have written an ‘open letter’, care of, HBOS Plc asking for support. It is reproduced below:


29th November 2006

For the urgent attention of:

Mr. Andrew Hornby Chief Executive HBOS Group Plc,
Bank of Scotland Corporate (Joint Ventures Team)
Castle Bidco / West Coast Capital / Sir Tom Hunter


C/O HBOS Plc
The Mound
Edinburgh
EH1 1YZ


Sent by Arrangement via Fax: To Mr. Ross Keaney Tel 0131 243 7082


Dear Mr. Hornby, Sir Tom Hunter,

All Respective Board Directors, Ladies and Gentlemen,


Crest Nicholson Plc


With reference to the above, it has come to our attention that, between your associate organisations and institutions, you have collectively expressed critical interest in the outright ownership of this company. For the benefit of doubt, we confirm that Crest Plc is a property developer operating under the chair of Mr. John Matthews, based at Crest House, Pyrcroft Road, Chertsey, Surrey, England.



We are presently informed that further considerations in this regard may be taking place but nothing has been finalised or confirmed, but we acknowledge the fact that Castle Bidco is now the largest single shareholder in Crest Nicholson Plc.



Further to our earlier enquiries with HBOS Group Plc, ( a previously listed and presently listed major shareholder with Crest Nicholson Plc) we kindly inform you that Crest Nicholson Plc, is the company that caused our Family to become ‘Homeless’ and lose all possession of our Family’s entire personal private belongings.


With our five children we were callously evicted by Crest Nicholson Plc from our own perfectly safe and satisfactory Family houseboat home of 14 years. But this was only after the company had caused an earlier night time grounding and toppling accident to it and at a time when Mrs. Shalom was eight months pregnant!


Subsequently, under the sole direction of Mr. John Callcutt CBE, (who was Crest’s Chief Executive Officer at the time and ‘solely responsible for enforcing health and safety throughout the Crest Group’) Crest Nicholson Plc deliberately set-about a course of action which forced a full scale legal eviction.


In a very calculated manner, our houseboat and home eviction was brought about by Crest Nicholson refusing to grant us permissions so that we could make necessary repairs, which would have enabled us to gain ‘minimum insurance requirements’, and therefore enable us to comply with standard marina ‘terms and conditions’.



We believe that John Callcutt CBE, (presently Chief Executive of English Partnerships), acted immorally whilst leading the Crest Plc Group. However, we also believe that as a consequence of his direction, Crest Nicholson Plc at least took its part in immoral activities against us, our children and our home.


The matter is well documented to our official ‘Family Campaign for Social Justice’ website at  http://www.mvpicton.co.uk and we kindly invite all of you to avail your good selves of the pertinent facts. We feel strongly aggrieved at the injustice that has been committed against our Home, our Family and our chosen ‘Way of Life’ by Crest Nicholson Plc. We did nothing wrong.



Finally, regardless of your present or future interests in the Crest Nicholson Plc Group, we ask you please, to support us, in our Family Campaign for Social Justice from Crest Nicholson Plc.

With kind regards,




Marie Louise and Vince Shalom

And Our Daughters: Hannah 15, Naomi 13, Rachel 9, Rebekah 7 and Jessica 6.

c.c.
H F Baines HBOS PLC Company Secretary 0131 243 5546

Letter Ends:


References:-

* Crest Plc, Sir Tom Hunter, Castle Bidco Take Over Bid as reported in the Times Online  http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9064-2449168,00.html

*Castle Bidco Take Over Bid Crest Plc ‘Clarification of Shareholding’ as reported by HBOS Plc  http://www.hbosplc.com/investors/stockexchangeannounce.asp?id=37230924361910&ric=


More details about West Coast Capital can be found here  http://www.westcoastcapital.co.uk/


Bank of Scotland Corporate it’s here at  http://www.bankofscotland.co.uk/corporate/


HBOS PLC it’s here at  http://www.hbosplc.com/home/home.asp

John Matthews Chair of Crest Nicholson is here  http://www.crestnicholson.com/investorrelations/directors.aspx

John Callcutt CBE English Partnerships is here  http://www.englishpartnerships.co.uk/johncallcutt.htm


Houseboat Eviction Latest News is here at  http://www.mvpicton.co.uk/latest_news.htm