I left Britain a broken man with no hope, runaway tycoon Asil Nadir tells jury, asil nadir, bark & co

FORMER fugitive tycoon Asil Nadir told a court today that he fled Britain because he was a "broken man without hope".
Nadir said he could not see how he could get a fair trial on theft charges in 1993.
His offices had been raided, his papers seized and there was an allegation that an attempt had been made to bribe his trial judge.
Nadir, 71, said: "I was a totally broken man. My health was in tatters, my hope of a fair trial was in tatters, I had zero hope of receiving a fair trial."
Nadir was giving evidence at the Old Bailey where his trial for theft is in its fifth month.
The former head of Polly Peck International (PPI) is accused of siphoning off £150million from his business empire.
The company was put into administration in 1990 with debts of £550million.
Nadir, of Mayfair, central London, denies 13 specimen counts of theft amounting to £34million between 1987 and 1990.
He fled Britain for his native Northern Cyprus before he could be tried, returning voluntarily in August 2010.
The prosecution says his flight from the country for 17 years is evidence of dishonesty.
When administrators went to Northern Cyprus to recover assets, they found the money had vanished into a "black hole", it is alleged.
But Nadir told the 11 jurors that he was not guilty of theft, although he did not dispute the money was transferred out of Britain.
This, he said, was to get better exchange rates to boost the company's expanding business interests abroad. The money had been replaced by cash payments in Turkish Lira by relatives.
Nadir said PPI, which had been worth £2billion, should never have been put into administration because it was not insolvent at the time.
But by 1993, he was being sued by the administrators, had been made personally bankrupt and facing criminal court proceedings.
He denied any involvement in the alleged attempt to bribe High Court judge Mr Justice Tucker.
Nadir said he first heard details of the alleged plot at a hearing in November 1992, when prosecutors warned that police may wish to interview the judge.
"It was a frightening situation for me," Nadir said.
"I was in a court in front of a High Court judge, that I was relying on being given a fair trial, and now the prosecution was actually, in my understanding, putting the judge in the most difficult position.
"I still remember the concern and fear his Lordship had in his face."
Nadir told the court he left the country on May 4 1993. "I was a broken man with no hope," he said.
The court had earlier been told that the judge was not interviewed but was cleared of any suspicion about his integrity.
The CPS said there was no credible evidence to support the allegation.
He was "extremely worried and concerned" to find that certain items of his post had been intercepted as part of the bankruptcy proceedings.
Nadir only discovered this was happening when his lawyers employed private detectives to look into what was going on, the court heard.
Nadir, wearing a blue suit and yellow tie, gave evidence watched by his second wife Nur, 28, from the back of the court. » I left Britain a broken man with no hope, runaway tycoon Asil Nadir tells jury, asil nadir, bark & co