Who is the racist viscount jailed for inciting violence against Brexit campaigner Gina Miller?
Rhodri Philipps offered £5,000 for the first person to ‘accidentally’ run over ‘this bloody troublesome first-generation immigrant’
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Never let it be said that Rhodri Philipps, 4th Viscount St Davids, fails to observe the niceties of social convention.
While gracing a courtroom with his presence recently, and when called upon to stand under the name of “Mr St Davids”, he remained firmly seated.
Because, as the 50-year-old aristocrat duly explained: “I’m not Mr St Davids, I’m afraid. It’s Lord St Davids.”
It was surely only the modesty of noblesse oblige that prevented him from giving Westminster Magistrates’ Court the full answer to the “don’t you know who I am” question: Rhodri Colwyn Philipps, Viscount St Davids, of Lydstep Haven in the County of Pembroke, Baron Hungerford, Baron de Moleyns, Baron Strange of Knockin, of lineage that can be traced to Richard the Lionheart.
Such insistence on proper forms of address was, perhaps, only ever so slightly undermined by the fact that when he appeared in court in May – wearing tweed, naturally – Philipps was accused of sending a racially aggravated Facebook post about the anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller.
To be precise, the 4th Viscount St Davids had offered “£5,000 for the first person to ‘accidentally’ run over this bloody troublesome first generation immigrant”, while calling her a “boat jumper” and adding: “If this is what we should expect from immigrants, send them back to their stinking jungles.”
He also stood (or sat until correctly addressed) accused of responding to a news article about immigrant father-of-eight Arnold Sube by telling social media: “'I will open the bidding. £2,000 in cash for the first person to carve Arnold Sube into pieces. Piece of s***.”
And now he has been sentenced to 12 weeks in prison after being convicted on two counts of sending menacing and racially aggravated messages
But let that not tarnish the viscount’s reputation for social correctness, because he did eventually offer the court his “sincere apologies”, however much this baffled Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot.
Despite only being Lady Arbuthnot of Edrom by virtue of her marriage to former Tory minister James Arbuthnot, she dared to observe: “Two days ago he was explaining to me his racist views and saying his comments weren't menacing. Now when I told him prison was my first port of call, he says he is disgusted with himself and ashamed.”
One only hopes the prison warders show due levels of deference.
Because closer examination will reveal that, throughout his adult life, this polo-playing viscount – family motto, “Love of Country” – has added lustre to the British aristocracy via a series of particularly eye-catching adventures.
None more eye-catching, perhaps, than the time in Germany in 2006 when he narrowly escaped injury as his office was stormed by his enraged workforce at Hans Brochier, the construction company he was running.
Philipps had acquired the firm, founded in 1873 and employing more than 700 people, for a single euro in 2005.
A later court hearing would be told that, because of his aristocratic air, no one had noticed that Philipps had been made bankrupt in 2001 after a previous company he owned went bust with debts of £5m.
The same court was also told that Hans Brochier’s previous owner gave Philipps an £8.5m loan to revitalise the company but three weeks later, the money was transferred to a newly registered company in London.
Philipps was accused of squandering more than £350,000. It was alleged £12,000 was spent on renting a private jet and £5,000 on acquiring a shotgun from James Purdey and Sons of Mayfair. Large sums were also supposedly spent on promoting an opera singer, playing polo and fine dining in London restaurants.
When Hans Brochier was declared insolvent in 2006, the workers weren’t happy. They didn’t just storm his office. They called him “the job killer”.
Philipps was arrested at Frankfurt airport and denied bail in case he tried to flee the country. He spent about a year in jail awaiting trial before a German court – where of course he appeared wearing tweed – gave him a two-year suspended sentence for fraudulent breach of trust and embezzlement.
Philipps denied the offences, with his lawyer insisting the aristocrat had merely been “entrepreneurial”, and ever since reports mentioning the case have insisted the viscount is appealing.
But it’s fair to say he upset the Germans. They seemed to think his suspended sentence was too lenient.
Hans Beer, the head of the local construction workers' union, insisted: “He drained the company financially and brought it to ruin. This was the work of a shark.”
Nor, it seems, is the viscount particularly popular in Mauritius. That was where he attempted to sue the offshore management company Corporate and Chancery for £110m, alleging fraud and mismanagement.
It didn’t go well. The Supreme Court of Mauritius dismissed his claim and awarded full costs against him.
At the time, the Telegraph quoted a “friend” as saying: “Rhodri continues to have the delusions of a 'victim’.”
At least back in Britain Philipps has the love of his wife, Sarah Louise Butcher, an interior decorator, and according to newspaper reports his friends include at least one fashion model.
It is just a shame that the House of Lords has never had the benefit of his wisdom.
His father the 3rd Viscount St Davids, was a Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords, having also served in the upper house as a whip for John Major’s Tory government. (The raciest thing about the 3rd Viscount seems to have been that he had an internationally recognised collection of the manuscripts of the Italian composer Rossini.)
In 1999, though, the 3rd Viscount was excluded from the Lords when legislation limiting the number of hereditary peers was introduced. It meant that when Philipps inherited his titles after his father died in 2009, he was not able to serve – despite his considerable familiarity with financial matters, particularly when it comes to bankruptcy.
The 2001 bankruptcy was the first, but by no means the last, for Philipps, who studied economics in Chicago.
His second bankruptcy was declared at the High Court in 2011 after two businessman with whom he had dealings started proceedings against him.
It proved to be a bad year for the viscount. He also had his house repossessed by Barclays in 2011, after losing a long-running legal battle with the bank, which had granted him a mortgage of £2.4m.
He had bought the Grade II-listed country house in the Sussex countryside in 2005. With great pride, possibly a sense of humour, and definitely in reference to his Baron Strange of Knockin title, he had named it Strange Place.
Deprived of his country pile, it seems the viscount has had to make do with accommodation in Knightsbridge.
And now, having lost a country house and his liberty, it appears that the aristocrat has made it a hat-trick of bankruptcies.
On Thursday, Westminster Magistrates Court heard that Philipps had recently been declared bankrupt. Enquiries outside court established that this had occurred in February 2016.
Chief Magistrate Lady Arbuthnot of Edrom did at least note Philipps was now of limited means as she ordered him to pay £500 compensation.
And yet she warned she would send the bailiffs round if he did not pay up within six months.
She even had the effrontery to tell him: “You told me proudly in evidence that your family motto is ‘Love of Country’ and that is your motivation, but it seems to me on the evidence I have seen that you are not motivated by love of country, but by your hatred of anybody who has different views to yours and to any who have recently arrived in this country.”
Didn’t she know whom she was talking to?