Tennis great Boris Becker, who is on trial in London accused of failing to hand over his assets after he was declared bankrupt, has told a jury about his struggles with money including payments for an “expensive divorce” and debts when he lost large chunks of his income after retirement, the Associated Press reported. Becker said Monday that he wasn’t able to earn enough to pay his debts because of bad publicity when his reputation declined. He said that he had “expensive lifestyle commitments” including a house in Wimbledon that cost 22,000 pounds ($28,800) in rent each month.
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An Indian-origin soft drinks businessman from central England has been banned from holding a company directorship for nine years after admitting inflating figures to acquire a loan under a Covid-19 pandemic support scheme, the Hindustan Times reported. Inderjit Singh Dadial, whose ban comes into effect from this week, was the sole director of Cali Juices Limited, a wholesaler of specialised soft drinks incorporated in 2019 with a registered address in Wolverhampton.
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The U.K. Treasury will pocket about 27 billion pounds ($36 billion) more a year in revenue than previously forecast despite eye-catching tax cuts on pay announced in its Spring economic statement on Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported. The figures, buried in documents from the Treasury and Office for Budget Responsibility, leave Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak presiding over the highest tax burden since Clement Attlee’s Labour government in 1949.
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The U.K. plans to sell fewer bonds than expected over the coming fiscal year, softening the blow of the first borrowing package in over a decade that will be financed without the help of the Bank of England, Bloomberg News reported. Britain will sell 124.7 billion pounds ($165 billion) of gilts in 2022-23, around a fifth less than the median expectation in a Bloomberg survey of primary dealers. The nation’s Debt Management Office said it will also sell 23.2 billion pounds of bills to fulfill the U.K.’s funding requirements.
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The United States and Britain ended a four-year dispute over U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs on Tuesday, pledging to work together to counter China in a deal that also removes retaliatory tariffs from U.S. motorcycles, whiskey and other products, Reuters reported. In a joint statement, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and U.S.
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Tommy Robinson has failed to appear at the High Court to answer questions about his finances in connection with unpaid legal bills, The Mirror reported. The English Defence League founder was successfully sued for defamation by Jamal Hijazi when the then 15-year-old was assaulted at Almondbury Community School in Huddersfield in October 2018.
British government bond issuance will fall closer toward pre-pandemic norms in the coming financial year, when the market's biggest buyer over the last decade — the Bank of England — will move to the sidelines, according to a Reuters poll of primary dealers, Reuters reported. The Debt Management Office's 2022/23 gilt issuance remit is likely to show about 147 billion pounds ($193.8 billion) of bond sales, compared with 194.8 billion pounds in the current year, according to the median forecast in the poll.
Boris Becker dishonestly “played” the bankruptcy system, hiding cash, property and trophies from authorities, a court has heard at the opening of his trial, The Guardian reported. The multiple-grand-slam-winner is charged with 24 counts relating to concealing assets, nine of which relate to trophies and medals won during his illustrious playing career, including from his first Wimbledon men’s single championship when he burst on to the world scene, aged just 17 years old. Becker denies all the charges.
HSBC is buying a plot of virtual real estate in an online gaming space called The Sandbox for an undisclosed sum, the bank's first major foray into the metaverse as it shrinks its UK branch network, Reuters reported. The digital push will enable HSBC to engage with sports, e-sports and gaming fans via its slice of turf in The Sandbox, a virtual space majority-owned by Hong Kong-based Animoca Brands.
The Bank of England raised interest rates on Thursday for a third meeting running, as expected, but softened its language on the need for further increases from here, Reuters reported. Eight out of nine members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to raise the Bank Rate to 0.75% from 0.5%, following the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision on Wednesday to raise borrowing costs for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe voted to keep rates on hold, warning of a big hit to demand from higher commodity prices.