Jon Woods accused of dodgy dealings

Everton Boss Exposed


Jon Woods of Everton FC accused of shady business deals


To his fellow football fans and business folk, Jon Woods is a figure of respect in the English football game but one family is warning that the man is untrustworthy and has effectively denied them millions of pounds in lucrative business deals.

The sorry saga begins in 1997 when Mr Woods entered a business partnership with James Kenny, an extraordinary businessman and keen property developer.

This partnership would profit from Mr Kenny’s vast experience of developing property and create the opportunities for investment while Mr Woods, who made his fortune from computer games, would put up the money.

In the beginning everything worked as it should – Mr Kenny found the properties, while Mr Woods paid for them.

The Powerhouse development in Formby, Merseyside

One of their first big buys was to splash out £756,000 on a former power station called The Powerhouse in Formby, Merseyside. This 17 acre site housed electricity generators but is now derelict and home to vandals, travellers and local youngsters who use the buildings for drink and drugs dens.

The entire site is calling out for redevelopment but, until recently, the issue of who actually owned the site has been shrouded in mystery.

The site is, in fact, owned by Jon Woods – but shhhh don’t tell anyone because he doesn’t want anyone to know (least of all the taxmen at HM Revenue and Customs).

Jon Woods and his offshore businesses to conceal taxable profits

To help maintain the secrecy, Mr Woods set up Ovenden lnvestments which is registered in the British Virgin lslands and is administered through Guernsey. By doing this he has managed to keep his involvement in what is a controversial development, secret.

Over the years, Mr Kenny worked very hard for Mr Woods finding and buying land sites for him but the two men never signed a formal agreement to share future profits on their big buys – particularly the Powerhouse venture.

Unfortunately, Mr Kenny, a hugely popular man and great raconteur, died suddenly in 2001.

At the time he was in the process of formalising the verbal agreement with Mr Woods ensuring his 50% spilt of future profits, but he died before this was actioned – although deeds of trust were set-up for other properties worth £1.5m.

Most lucrative partnerships would go under at this point with Mr Kenny’s drive and experience having disappeared, but all was not lost, however, as Mr Kenny’s son Nicholas stepped into the breach and carried on where his father left off. In the next four years, he did so well he made £450,000 profit for Mr Woods

Nicholas willingly undertook this work on the strict understanding that the previous agreements still stood. The Yew Tree Farm venture which is in a fantastic 104 acre location for a housing development in Burscough, West Lancashire, was sold by Mr Woods later for a £1million loss (even though surveyors valued it at much more). It is now earmarked for 1,000 new homes!

So why would such an astute businessman such as Mr Woods do something as incredible as that?

The answer, it seems, is a business tactic that would deny his deceased partner’s family a share in future profits of their partnership when it was already carrying such a big loss.

Confused? So were the Kenny family and in the coming months – despite Mr Wood’s repeated assurances that everything about the deal with Mr Kenny would be respected – he then went for Mrs Kenny, a widow who couldn’t stand up to Mr Wood’s endless bullying tactics.

Jon Woods of Everton FC bullied a widow into submission

Mr Woods demanded, and got, Mrs Kenny to sign away her rights to any future profit for a fraction of what could be expected. In the face of legal action and poisonous threats, Mrs Kenny’s health severely suffered. He had warned the widow that she could face having to pay out millions of pounds if the properties made a loss.

Job done! Mr Woods is the proud owner of a housing site that could make of millions of pounds in profits.

Does he care?

No, he does not.

Jon Woods uses lawyers to silence critics and protect his reputation

The Kenny family tried to reason with Mr Woods and when that relationship broke down they reverted to the law but there wasn’t a lot the family – now in straightened circumstances – could do.

Nicholas took up the fight to seek justice for his late father and instructed his own solicitors.

Having spent £0000s the legal professionals concluded that he had been ‘royally screwed over’ and trying to overturn the legal agreement that Mrs Kenny had signed was virtually impossible and in any event would be very costly to pursue.

The law firm pointed out: ‘Unfortunately had you been able to get this into a court a judge would have took a very unsavoury view of Mr Woods’ behaviour’.

Nicholas even tried to use MPs and while he received a sympathetic audience – and an appreciation that he had a strong case – nothing was done in Parliament.

Mr Woods also uses his lawyers to close down criticism and frighten off the Kenny family.

Unfortunately for Mr Woods, Nicholas Kenny is made of sterner stuff.

Nicholas says: “I have tried everything to reason with this man, but you can’t negotiate with a man who sees somebody’s death as an opportunity to profit. He thinks that he can effectively bully my family from what is rightfully ours. He knows it. We know it.

“There is little I can do in law but anyone who goes into business with Mr Woods should be aware of who they are dealing with. He doesn’t keep his agreements and is not, in my opinion, a man to be trusted.”

Nicholas added: “My poor father worked his socks off for Mr Woods and sincerely believed they were business partners and would enjoy the fruits of their efforts. Without my father, Mr Woods wouldn’t be sitting on such a valuable asset.

“I even sat in Mr Wood’s home in Cheshire and he told me to my face that the agreement with my father would be honoured.

“Those were empty words from a dishonourable and greedy man.”

Football Association ‘Fit and proper’ rules

Mr Kenny is also highlighting whether the Football Association’s rules on who should own and run football clubs in England are as tough as they ought to be.

He explains: “Are we really saying that this is a man to be trusted with a football club that has been in existence for so long? This man has no integrity and the FA is trying to ‘clean up’ the game and protect its integrity by not letting such businessmen exploit their positions in clubs.

“I am calling for the FA to look more closely into Mr Woods and his business activities.”

Jon Woods of Everton FC and his ‘ruthless business practices’

However, the Powerhouse deal is not all that it seems. While Mr Woods is the owner, his friend Mike McComb has an option to re-develop the site for 75 houses

That is going to be a lot of houses for sale and likely to be hugely profitable for Mr McComb, a man who made his fortune in mobile phones.

Nicholas Kenny says: “I didn’t want Mr McComb involved with the Powerhouse site but Mr Woods claimed Mr McComb was best placed to take over my father’s work and wanted him to handle it. I had little choice at the time, despite the many offers to buy Mr Woods out of the site.”

Perhaps more curious still is the fact that Nicholas Kenny had previously set-up a mouth-watering £17million deal with Miller Homes to develop the site – a deal which Mr Woods cancelled.

This is a sorry tale and the Kenny family have learned the hard way of who they should trust.

People should be aware of their legal position when dealing with Mr Woods, says Mr Kenny, who says that business agreements count for nothing.

Bullying businessman protected by the law

Another interesting aspect to the whole shady deal is that it appears that Mr Woods had already drawn up the legal agreement for Mrs Kenny to sign and thus leading her to relinquish any claim against the properties.

This move led to Nicholas Kenny’s own solicitor to remark that a substantial claim must have already existed against Mr Woods which is why he pursued so ruthlessly his own aim of getting Mr Kenny’s widow to sign a deal on his terms. Nicholas Kenny has doggedly pursued justice for his family in the face of injunctions and legal threats and has tried to enlist the help of MPs to help his case.

At one point, there was meant to be an adjournment debate speech in the House of Commons which would have given the details in full – under legal protection – of Mr Woods’ extraordinary behaviour but there was not enough time for the debate to be heard.

Nicholas Kenny says: “Mr Woods believes he is untouchable and comfortable in a win-win situation. My family has effectively been defrauded out of millions of pounds and there is, seemingly, little I can do about it.

“There is no way to legal redress because Mr Woods has everything legally tied up but his practices and behaviour are nothing short of deplorable and the more that people know about him and his business ways, the better.”

He added: “The truth must come out and the record put straight.”

The Powerhouse is likely to be sold to Bellway Homes to build 75 houses.

The site is worth around £1m per acre which gives a sale price of between £7-8m and that doesn’t include the another 10 acres on the site. The deal means that Mr Woods stands to make a cool £6m in profit which is £3m more than he is morally entitled to.