Craig Whyte loses castle over mortgage repayments

A HIGHLAND castle belonging to disgraced former Rangers owner Craig Whyte has been repossessed over his failure to pay the mortgage.

The businessman and his former wife Kim purchased Castle Grant in Grantown-on-Spey for £720,000 in 2006 with a 110 per cent mortgage of £800,000.

Bank of Scotland raised a legal action against Mr Whyte last year after he had failed to make the £7,000-a-month repayments from 2012.

The long-running battle over the 14th-century property came to an end at Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday when Mr Whyte finally agreed to the repossession of the castle.

Witnesses reported seeing belongings being removed from the building over the past two weeks, including French chandeliers and heating oil drums.

Removal men had been working at the property for a number of days.

The operation was apparently overseen by Mr Whyte’s father, Tom, who was also spotted at the castle.

It is understood many of the belongings have since been transported to London. There were padlocks on the gates of the property last night.

A spokesman for Bank of Scotland declined to comment, as did Mr Whyte’s lawyers.

His failure to pay the mortgage follows a court ruling last April in which Mr Whyte was ordered to pay investment firm Ticketus £17.7 million. He lost an appeal in December.Ticketus had provided funds for Mr Whyte to buy Rangers under a deal which would see the money paid back from ticket sales. But when Rangers entered administration, the deal was terminated.

Ticketus then sued him after he failed to tell them he had been previously disqualified as a company director, and won.

Castle Grant was raided by police last year – who removed the front gates in the process – as they investigated his takeover of the football club.

The 43-year-old and his estranged wife Kim, 44, have been embroiled in a number of court battles in recent years, including when Mr Whyte failed to pay her £5,000-a-month maintenance, as instructed by the courts. At the time, Mrs Whyte disclosed that the castle was no longer insured, which breached mortgage conditions.

Then in December last year his former housekeepers Jane Hagan and husband Terence Horan were convicted of stealing thousands of pounds’ worth of goods from the castle and fined £1,000 each.

Mr Whyte bought Sir David Murray’s 85 per cent controlling shares in the Ibrox club for £1 in May 2011. Rangers went into administration in February 2012 and were liquidated in October 2012.