The man who owns and lives on the yacht on the Floating Harbour with a helicopter on its roof has been branded a ‘rogue landlord’ by council chiefs, and fined in court.
Thomas Flight pleaded guilty to committing consumer protection offences against his tenants, and has now been fined £12,000 and ordered to pay the council’s costs for the lengthy investigation, which totalled another £25,000.
Bristol Crown Court heard how council housing officers received a host of complaints about a property management business operating out of number 21 Portland Square in St Pauls between June 2019 and January 2021, although those making those complaints said issues dated back years before that.
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One issue the council told the court was that the business was operating at the end of a web of different names and companies, and no one renting homes or businesses in Portland Square ever really knew who their landlord was, or who was responsible when problems arose.
In June 2021, the managers of the Hidden Corner bookshop and cafe discovered they had been locked down and evicted, and a protest by its staff and customers was held. At the time, the landlords of that business, regarded as one of Bristol’s few LGBTQI+ friendly spaces, were named Presman Limited, but that was just another of the companies set up by Flight to separate him from the tenants.
An investigation by Bristol City Council’s private housing team uncovered evidence of multiple consumer protection offences. The investigation worked to follow the money paid by tenants in rents and deposits, and reached Mr Flight.
“Mr Flight’s identity was hidden from his tenants, allowing him to keep security deposit money instead of returning it, and to avoid responsibility for a number of unfair commercial practices including charging banned and hidden fees to tenants,” said a spokesperson for Bristol City Council.
“Tenants would receive made-up landlord and letting agent information, including false names and addresses. Mr Flight even went so far as to have a fictitious person registered as a director of one of his companies. Tenants who complained were then harassed with demands to withdraw their valid enquiries, until the local authority took up these complaints as part of their investigation,” he added.
In February 2021, Mr Flight was interviewed by Bristol City Council in relation to alleged criminal offences. Following this interview, Mr Flight voluntarily repaid those tenants who had been charged banned fees or whose security deposits had not been returned to them when they should have been. “During this interview, Mr Flight failed to cooperate with Bristol City Council, blaming the situation on an alleged letting agent who couldn’t be traced and is believed to be another of his inventions,” said the council spokesperson.
“At one of Mr Flight’s Court hearings in relation to this case, he supplied further documents to Bristol City Council containing more landlord details that also proved to be false,” he added.
In December 2021, Flight sailed his American-built yacht ‘Miss Conduct’ into Bristol’s Floating Harbour and moored it in a prominent location near the Matthew at Wapping Wharf. The boat, which had been an upmarket restaurant in New York for 20 years, attracted attention immediately - with its glitzy interior and helicopter parked on the roof.
When Bristol Live reported on the arrival of the yacht, the owners declined to be identified. The two men who said they were the owners, including Flight, issued a statement through a spokesperson explaining they'd named the yacht and they were only 'Bristol businessmen'. "Bristol has been good for us and our businesses, we have been lucky enough to have had great success in Bristol and we want to give something back to the city in the form of what we are good at - a little glamour, fun, connecting people and lots of charity work for good causes," they said in an anonymous statement at the time.
Speaking of the yacht's name, they added: "In this particular harbour full of historic vessels our boat is by comparison quite a young girl, so she couldn't named Lady this or Lady that - she had to be a 'Miss" to show some respect to the other boats. We didn't want a posh name, we've done well but we're not posh people.
"Miss Conduct stuck because after our somewhat whirlwind personal life which presented some rather unusual setbacks, opportunities and surprises, the cheeky Miss Conduct just seemed to fit. Our motto is 'if you can't set a good example to others then you must serve as a terrible reminder!'" they added in their statement.
They were described by their spokesperson at the time as "two ordinary (possibly eccentric) people from ordinary backgrounds, who having lived and operated a number of successful businesses in Bristol since 1990, decided that after travelling the world that Bristol was the best city on the planet". "The owners are proud to present her as, albeit a little glitzy, another new Bristol landmark in this great city they call home," they added.
It was only when a judge at one of Flight’s continuing court hearings insisted he give his name and address to the court, did he acknowledge that he was the owner of Miss Conduct and it was where he was living. On Bank Holiday Monday in August 2022, a protest was held on the quayside next to Miss Conduct, where tenants of Flight’s joined with staff and customers of the former Hidden Corner cafe highlighted his malpractices.
Much of the details of the case and the complaints of tenants have not been public due to reporting restrictions involved in the case, but with guilty pleas now and a hefty fine, Flight’s illegal actions can be revealed, and the complaints of tenants dating back to 2016 have been exposed in a Bristol Cable investigation.
Cllr Tom Renhard, Bristol’s housing chief, said Flight’s actions were ‘not acceptable’. “We are committed to protecting people across the city from rogue landlords, especially during the national cost-of-living and housing crises,” he said. “Mr Flight took advantage of tenants and that is simply not acceptable. We will continue to do all we can to pursue unscrupulous landlords where evidence of criminal exploitation is found,” he added.
However, because the offences for which Flight pleaded guilty to are not ones for which he can be banned from being a landlord, he is free to continue letting properties.
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