Jack Lyons
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Isidore Jack Lyons (born 1916) is a retired British financier and philanthropist.
He was charged in 1997 in the Guinness share-trading fraud of the 1980s, along with Ernest Saunders, Gerald Ronson, and Anthony Parnes, and the four men became known as "the Guinness Four". He was convicted but not sent to prison because he was suffering from ill health - bladder cancer, respiratory complaints, a poor heart and high blood pressure. However, he lost his knighthood and was fined £3,000,000 plus £1,000,000 prosecution costs.
Despite ill health and now in his 90s, he is continuing to appeal his conviction in the European Court of Human Rights. He lives in Geneva, Switzerland. As with fellow Guinness defendant Gerald Ronson, Jack Lyons, is once again a fixture at swanky gatherings; polite society has forgotten about his criminal conviction, if it ever cared about it.
The Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall is found at the University of York and is central to its music department. The department commemorated his 90th birthday with a special concert and dinner in York Minster on 28 June 2006, which included performances of Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, Crown Imperial and Orb and Sceptre, and Bernstein's Chichester Psalms by the University's Choir, Chamber Choir and Symphony Orchestra. He continues to bestow his support. Since providing the department with its first concert hall, Lyons has made contributions to the recently opened Music Research Centre and offered a full research scholarship for PhD students. There is also a Sir Jack Lyons building at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
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[edit] Background
Lyons was born in Leeds, where his late father had established a men's clothing business, with a factory and a few dozen retail shops. Lyons started at the bottom of the business, in the factory and the shops until he was appointed a director in 1937, in charge of sales and marketing, later becoming chief executive and chairman. Along with his brother Bernard, he contributed considerably to the growth of the original business with the expansion of branches and the development of a lucrative export division during the early post-war period, which enabled the business to grow rapidly into a large conglomerate of companies called UDS Group. By the 1960s, UDS Group had succeeded in taking the lead as the United Kingdom's top retailer, with a 1,300-strong empire of retail shops. Businesses within the UDS conglomerate included; Richard Shops, Allders of Croydon, John Collier, Timpsons, Alexandre Stores, John Blundell Credit Company, John Myers catalogue mail order business, Brooks Bros, Peter Pell, Arding & Hobbs & Whiteleys department stores, Fifty Shilling Tailors and other department and duty-free stores. The number of men's suits alone sold in all UDS menswear shops in the year ending January 1967 was 1,119,000. Within Allders alone growth continued throughout the 1970s to such an extent that in 1976 Allders could boast that it had become the third largest department store in the country, beaten only by Harrods and Selfridges. Meanwhile, the UDS Group had entered a new retail arena, that of the duty-free shop, when it acquired the license to open and operate the shop at London's Heathrow airport. Attached to its Allders department store division, and later operated as Allders International, the UDS Group rapidly built up its network of duty-free shops around the world. In 1983, the UDS Group was sold to Hanson PLC.
[edit] Guinness Affair
Lyons was accused of having used his personal friendship with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to ensure the brewing group's offer for Distillers got through the Office of Fair Trading. Thatcher replied to a letter from Lyons saying the matter would be passed to the then minister responsible Paul Channon. The bid was subsequently unblocked.
He was charged in 1987 in the Guinness share-trading fraud, along with Ernest Saunders, Gerald Ronson, and Anthony Parnes, and the four men became known as "the Guinness Four". He was convicted but not sent to prison because he was suffering from ill-health. However, he lost his knighthood and was fined £3,000,000 plus £1,000,000 prosecution costs. In 1995, on appeal, one count of conspiracy was quashed and his fine was cut to £2,500,000. Lawyers for the Guinness Four said their clients had lost their right to silence because they were compelled to give evidence to Department of Trade and Industry inspectors. Appeals by the four in 1991 and 1995 saw their convictions upheld. A third appeal in 2001 held by the European Court of Human Rights had ruled that the defendants were denied a fair trial by being compelled in law to provide potentially self-incriminatory information to Department of Trade and Industry inspectors which was then used as primary evidence against them. This breached their right to silence. The European Court stopped short of ruling that the men should have been acquitted. Parliament has since amended the law, in the light of the appeal rulings, to make evidence obtained under compulsion inadmissible.
At the time of the court of human rights verdict, Lyons said: "I welcome this judgment so that I may yet be able to enjoy a little of my retirement without the cloud of injustice hanging over me." The case laid bare the culture among financiers for aggressive dealing and spectacular money-making, and the trial was seen as emblematic of the 1980s culture of Thatcherism.
[edit] References
- "Life and high-flying times of four partners in crime", The Scotsman, 22 December 2001]
- Guinness Four fail in fight for acquittal, BBC News, December, 21 2001.
[http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/business/articles/882191 "How they live now"], Evening Standard, December 21, 2001. *Hosking, Patrick. Daily Telegraph, 28 November, 1997. "Lord Spens," Daily Telegraph, 6 January, 2001.
[edit] Further reading
- "Life in the Shadow of Terror", art exhibit associated with Lyons
- York Press concert preview, announcing University of York birthday concert for Lyons
- York Press concert review, giving details of the event
- University of York press release, announcing new music scholarships sponsored by Lyons
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9064-2220021,00.html
http://www.lso.co.uk/whatson/lso/details.asp?perf=19%2F11%2F06&d=19&m=10&y=3&act=&pg=0
http://www.tnra.net/hwoodhall.htm
http://www.ram.ac.uk/facilities/index.html
http://braude.ort.org.il/indexmain.asp?Page=campuslife/gallery/gallery&ext=2&lang=e
http://www.law.leeds.ac.uk/leedslaw/GenericPage.aspx?ID=213&TabID=1&MenuID=69
