Return of the prodigal tycoon

Though he rapidly built his fruit juices-to-electronics group, Polly Peck International, into one of Britain’s top 100 quoted companies, the difference between Nadir and most of his contemporaries was that he was seriously flawed as the head of a public company: he diverted millions of pounds from the company for his own purposes.

In May 1993, he fled the UK in disgrace months before he was to due to appear at London’s Old Bailey facing 66 counts of theft totalling 30m. He claimed at the time this was because he believed he would not receive a fair trial.

Nadir was the great panjandrum, the man who for many years duped City auditors, banks, institutional shareholders and the media with his Mediterranean charm and generosity. He fled Britain, on what he described defiantly as a "triumphal" flight, to northern Cyprus, where he has since lived in exile. Britain has no extradition treaty with Turkish-controlled Cyprus. Peter Dimond, the pilot who flew Nadir from Britain to France where an executive jet was waiting to whisk him to northern Cyprus, was jailed for two years for perverting the course of justice.

So for more than a decade Nadir has lived in some luxury in self-imposed exile on a small island that has begun to feel to him like an open prison. A friend says: "Although he is free to swim, meet and telephone people and control his finances, and run his newspapers and radio station, there are only so many beautiful sunsets a man like Nadir can take in a lifetime."

Until the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) raided his South Audley Management, the company that controlled the Nadir family interests, the uncrowned king of northern Cyprus could do no wrong in his native land. The raid triggered a massive run on Polly Peck’s shares. With pre-tax profits of 161m and assets of 845m, it employed 17,300 employees until it collapsed in 1990.

The buoyant stock market fortunes of Polly Peck were reflected in a boom time in the breakaway republic, with his hotels, fruit-packaging business, bank and newspapers bringing much-needed employment to local people. After the state, he was the largest employer in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) with 7,500 people dependent on his businesses. The republic, recognised only by Turkey, became his personal fiefdom.

Since his hasty departure from the UK, Nadir has had plenty of time to reflect and watch his star waning. He has been holed up in his walled villa in Lapta, a village that sprawls through citrus groves on the lower slopes of the Kyrenia mountains, overlooking the Mediterranean. From there, on a clear day, you can see the coastline of Turkey, a much reduced horizon for a man who, in the late 1980s, was head of a global entity worth 2.2bn.

Life may be comfortable in a sleepy village in northern Cyprus but it is a far cry from his glittering, champagne days as the Sultan of Berkeley Square, as he was once known. The Polly Peck offices at No 42 were furnished with the finest antiques from West End dealers; Annabel’s, London’s poshest nightclub, was just a few doors away - a glamorous environment for work and play.

Though there were some uneasy mutterings on his return to his native Cyprus in 1993, he was, on the whole, given a hero’s welcome by those who had good reason to salute the man whose investments once accounted for more than a third of the country’s economy. But the former whizz kid has lost a lot of his lustre over the past decade. As a fugitive from justice in his shuttered enclave in Lapta, surrounded by henchmen and sycophants, Nadir has seen his political influence dwindle along with that of his former empire in northern Cyprus. His hotels were seized to pay off tax debts in 1994, while his Kibris Endustri Bank was taken over by the Turkish Cypriot central bank last year because it was said to be a danger to the banking system. All that is left is the top-selling Kibris newspaper, the English-language weekly Cyprus Today, and TV and radio stations.

Last week, the SFO was unmoved by Nadir’s latest manoeuvres. If he returns voluntarily "we will proceed with his trial", an SFO spokesman said. Nadir’s lawyers are trying to secure an agreement with the SFO which would ensure his freedom in the UK while he attempts to clear his name. For the second time, he is considering launching an abuse of process application in London’s High Court under the Human Rights Act. His first attempt in January 2001 failed after Mr Justice Potts ruled that Nadir could not expect to rely on applications in the British courts while refusing to return from Cyprus. He added that it would be "an affront to public conscience" to allow the application while Nadir remained a fugitive from the court’s jurisdiction. Last week, Nadir, 61, said he now feels strong and confident enough to pursue a new application to the British courts.

At the height of his fame and fortune, Nadir mixed with London’s socialites, making generous donations to charities, rubbing shoulders with MPs and top businessmen and donating funds to the Conservative Party. At the height of his troubles, the panic-stricken Nadir received a watch as a gift from Michael Mates, a friend and former Northern Ireland minister, with the inscription: "Don’t let the buggers get you down."

Why Nadir has decided after so much time has passed to risk returning to the UK is unclear. Some feel it is because he believes, like other critics, that during his decade in exile the SFO has been discredited. Certainly many of the big high-profile cases the SFO has pursued have collapsed. It went after Kevin Maxwell, son of the late, disgraced British publisher Robert Maxwell and lost that case. It has lost other high-profile cases such as that involving directors of DIY group Wickes; and, more recently, the UK courts acquitted Andrew Regan, chief executive of Hobson, whom the SFO alleged had bribed two Co-operative Wholesale Society directors.

It also went after Elizabeth Forsyth, Nadir’s aide and confidante who was also living in northern Cyprus. She decided to return to Britain to fight the charges against her, having been accused of helping Nadir with the illegal transfer of company funds. On arriving in Britain she was arrested and eventually sentenced to five years in prison. After serving five months, a higher court dismissed the charges and she was freed.

Some suggest Nadir’s change of heart may have been brought on by the prospect of imminent upheaval in the island’s political landscape. Many Turkish Cypriots support swift unification with the south, which is due to join the European Union next May.

With the political landscape shifting in Cyprus, Nadir finds himself out of step with the veteran Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktash (a personal friend of the Nadir family), who is opposed to any idea of reunification with the Greek Cypriot south. Nadir takes a pro-unification stand.

To his family, Nadir remains the golden boy. Father Ifran and mother Safiye were hardworking people who ran a grocery store in Famagusta. Life was dangerous for Turkish Cypriots. Greek Cypriots were intent on driving the British from the island and wanted to unite the island with Greece. So, like so many other Turkish Cypriots, Nadir’s family took advantage of their British connections to move to London in the early 1960s. At the time, Nadir was attending university in Istanbul and, after graduating, he joined the family, which was involved in the ready-to-wear trade in London.

Young Nadir spotted that there was a gap every year in London when no fresh fruit was available. It was too early to obtain supplies of citrus fruit from Spain and Portugal, but too late in the season for South American produce. Cyprus had an abundance of fruit and vegetables ripening at that gap period. So Polly Peck International was born and the business flourished.

He repatriated profits to northern Cyprus by investing in the production, processing and packaging of citrus fruits. He supplied tons of fresh fruit from Cyprus into the London market and he was on his way to riches. He bought the famous Del Monte peaches brand and everything seemed to be turning to gold for him and his beautiful wife, Ayshegul, whom he married and divorced twice.

Ayshegul became known for her antique collecting and redecoration of old houses. The couple regularly featured in the columns of newspapers and magazines; there were rumours that Nadir might even run for a seat in parliament. Relax: that’s not in his mind this time.