A disgraced tycoon was arrested in Liverpool after demanding a free Stena Line ferry ticket to Belfast.
Nobu Su, a 62-year-old Taiwanese shipping magnate, was sent to jail for contempt of court last week in relation to a long-running legal dispute over a business deal gone sour.
The flamboyant businessman was once the boss of a hugely successful set of companies but had his assets frozen in 2014 and was declared bankrupt with debts of £654million last year.
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Mr Su suffered a double blow in separate High Court hearings last week after one judge, Mr Justice Bryan, ruled that Mr Su and his mother, Toshiko Morimoto, hid cash resulting from the sale of two villas in Monaco and a private jet.
But in a separate hearing, judge Sir Michael Burton GBE, also jailed him for 24 months for multiple contempts of court including failing to disclose his interests in various companies.
Mr Su and his network of companies now owe in excess of $70million to a Greek company called Lakatamia Shipping, owned by Polys Haji-Ioannou, the brother of EasyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou.
The fallen tycoon had inherited the booming shipping firm Taiwan Maritime Transport Co Ltd, later renamed Today Makes Tomorrow (TMT) from his father, Su Ching Wun, who died in 2001.
In a written judgement, Mr Justice Bryan described how the financial crisis in 2008 was a major blow for the business, but was exacerbated by how Mr Su had run things since the death of his father.
The judge wrote: "What is not in issue is that, after Mr Su succeeded his father, he made sweeping changes to the business, and embarked on massive speculation in the market in forward freight rates, trading in derivative instruments through various companies in the TMT group, including TMT Co Ltd, Liberia (“TMT Liberia”).
"Since the financial crisis in 2008 (and as a result of his abject mismanagement of the successful business inherited from his father) he brought that business to its knees."
In July that year Mr Su entered a complicated financial arrangement with Lakatamia in a desperate bid to raise cash, but his companies failed to repay the Greek firm leading to protracted legal action.
The judgements reveal how in 2018, following repeated failures to pay up, Lakatamia applied to the High Court for a Passport Control Order - meaning Mr Su would have to surrender his travel documents.
But the businessman evaded authorities in Paris, where he was staying at the time, and arrived at Heathrow Airport in London on January 10, 2019.
Police officers met him at the airport and confiscated his passport, and he falsely stated he was heading to the Dorchester Hotel.
But according to the court judgement: "On 14 January 2019, Madam Su (Mr Su's mother) transferred 100,000 New Taiwanese Dollars (“NTD”) to Mr Su's credit card.
"The following morning, Mr Su took a taxi to Liverpool with a view to fleeing the jurisdiction by ferry to Belfast, demanding a free ticket on a Stena Line ferry on the asserted basis that he was good friends with the owner of the company.
"The staff were suspicious and called the police. He was arrested and spent the night in HMP Liverpool."
Mr Su was jailed a few weeks later for refusing to comply with court orders, and served around half of a 21 month sentence in London's HMP Pentonville.
He has previously complained to reporters that he is not legally entitled to work in the UK but is unable to leave, and claimed his rights have been violated.
He also claimed to have been threatened with a knife during his first prison sentence and to have witnessed drug taking and violence.
Mr Su will likely be released after serving around 12 months of his latest sentence.
