Elsina Khayrova
(Picture: Dave Benett)The daughter of one of Vladimir Putin’s political allies has been told to pay more than £160,000 after being sued by a company which installed fountains and garden lights at her £22 million home in Surrey.
GSL Installations said Elsina Khayrova owed more than £240,000.
Ms Khayrova, who is married to Dmitry Tsvetkov, disputed the claim.
A judge has ruled that she should pay over £160,000– and pick up nearly £50,000 worth of lawyers’ bills run up by GSL.
The judge ruled that there had been an agreement between GSL and Ms Khayrova.
But he said a generator and a phase of a power supply had not yet been installed – and concluded that she should not have to pay those costs.
Ms Khayrova, a former model, is the daughter of Rinat Khayrov, an MP from Putin’s ruling party and former finance minister in the Russian republic of Tatarstan.
She is currently divorcing her husband, and told the High Court on Thursday that he was “on the Kremlin’s most wanted list”.
Barrister Alastair Panton, representing GSL, claimed that his firm had previously done business with Ms Khayrova and her husband at “various properties” in the UK and Cyprus for over a decade.
Ms Khayrova was unable to attend the trial due to mental health concerns, her barrister Montclare Campbell told the court on Thursday.
Mr Panton had told the judge that £241,272 was owed for work at Ms Khayrova’s “extremely large house”.
Bills had been paid for work at a flat in Knightsbridge, London, and other work at the house in Surrey, he said, but a bill for fountains and garden lights and the improvement of an electricity supply had not been fully paid.
Mr Panton said Ms Khayrova and her husband were in the process of getting divorced.
He said bills had previously been paid by Ms Khayrova, not her husband.
“The defendant gives a reason for this,” said Mr Panton in a written case outline.
“Apparently her husband is on the Kremlin’s most-wanted list.”
He added: “Apparently his life is in danger.”
Ms Khayrova had argued, in a written defence, that work carried out had been requested by her husband, not her.
