Not So Gilded Youth

Police and the Serious Fraud Office have been asked to investigate the multi-million-pound purchase by a teenage magistrate of a successful construction firm that then went bankrupt while he led an extravagant lifestyle.

Gareth Darbyshire, who was only 19 when he bought the company, saw it collapse within months, throwing dozens of people onto the dole and devastating the community at its base in west Wales.

As his new business piled up debts, Darbyshire, who is one of Britain’s youngest magistrates, drove around in Ferraris and a customised Range Rover, stayed in a suite at Claridge’s in London and went on lavish trips to Ibiza and Dubai.

TPT Construction Ltd has been forced into liquidation less than 16 months after Darbyshire, now 21, bought it in a £7m deal. The total amount claimed by creditors is understood to exceed £4.5m.

No doubt he will already have had a chat with his Clerk and his Bench Chairman to clarify matters.