The owners of the historic London casino Les Ambassadeurs Club in Mayfair revealed they were to sue Azam Kolia for unfairly trying to prevent the casino from getting the amount of £470,000 as he believed that he could convince the casino to reduce his debt.
Currently, Les Ambassadeurs Club in Mayfair is believed to be one of the most exclusive and popular gambling clubs on the territory of London, operating since the beginning of the 19th century. After a re-opening which took place in 1991, the club has been owned by a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based Landing International Development Limited.
According to the claims of the casino owners, the debt of Kolia, an international casino player who once lost the massive amount of £2.4 million, had increased. Yesterday, a preliminary hearing of the case at the High Court before Mrs. Justice Jefford. The latter expressed an opinion that the assets of the player should be frozen considering the pending case.
Mr. Kolia was not present at the hearing. According to the barrister who represented the London-based casino, he was known as a gambler who preferred playing in high-stake games. As the barrister revealed, Mr. Kolia had gambled not only in London, but also in Australia and the Philippines. In also became clear that he had used a bank account in Bournemouth, Dorset and stayed at The Ritz hotel at the times when he stayed in London.
From the barrister’s speech it also became clear that the Singaporean player had spent £2.6 million and lost £2.4 million in only one night in December 2012, after buying chips with “dishonoured” cheques. The historic Les Ambassadeurs Club, which also houses Les A Club casino, claims that the player had refused to pay his debts to the club, possibly as he had been trying to negotiate the debt down.
Miss Boutler, the barrister of the Mayfair casino further revealed that the player had recently offered the Les Ambassadeurs Club an offer of settlement, but he had not paid up his debt. When describing the case, she said there was “a history of evasiveness” and said that everything points that Mr. Kolia had the means to pay and actually acknowledged the debt, but simply refused to pay. She made it clear that the club had no intentions of negotiating the amount that is due to be paid by the player.
As the court revealed, Mr. Kolia lived in Singapore, but he frequently travelled around the world, so it was hard for the club’s lawyers to find him and serve documents on him. In addition, it also became clear that during the High Court hearing the player did not comply with a judge’s order that required from him to provide more detailed information about his current assets.
- Author
Daniel Williams
