A Dragons’ Den spin-off star has lost a contempt appeal in a £200,000 dispute after King Charles stripped her of an MBE.
Julie Meyer was unsuccessful in a Court of Appeal challenge against a suspended prison sentence imposed after she was found to be in contempt of court in a dispute involving London law firm Farrer & Co.
The entrepreneur, who was chief executive of Viva Investment Partners, was held in contempt of court in January 2022.
The case centred on what the High Court described as a “deliberate, cynical and continuing” breach of court orders requiring her to provide financial documents and attend court in person for debtor questioning.
Mr Justice Kerr imposed a suspended sentence and said Meyer had shown herself in the proceedings to be “a selfish and untrustworthy person” whose word “counts for nothing if it suits her to break it”.
The Law Gazette reported that Meyer, who lives in Switzerland, also failed to attend a separate hearing in February 2022, after which the judge issued a warrant for her arrest.
Meyer appealed against both the finding of contempt and the sentence, arguing there were procedural deficiencies relating to the service of court orders.
However, the appeal was unanimously dismissed by the Court of Appeal.
Lord Justice Males described Meyer’s procedural complaints as “entirely technical” and noted that there was no submission that the alleged deficiencies had caused her prejudice.
The court also rejected her appeal against the sentence, finding that Mr Justice Kerr had been entitled to conclude that Meyer was in “deliberate and cynical breach” of the order.
Meyer later forfeited her MBE, which she had received in 2012, with the official Honours Forfeiture Committee record stating the reason as “bringing the honours system into disrepute”.
She had been well-known to the UK public, appearing on the online version of Dragon’s Den in 2009.
The most recent person to have their honours forfeited in the UK was the former leader of the Democratic Unionist Party Jeffrey Donaldson.
He had appeared at the Oxford Union, participating in a well-publicised debate in 2004, but in June he was convicted of historical child sex abuse offences at Newry Crown Court.
Reacting to this, the leader of the Oxfordshire Conservatives, Liam Walker, commended His Majesty for protecting the “integrity and value of the honours system”.
Mr Walker said: “Honours are awarded to recognise outstanding service and achievement, and anyone convicted of serious criminal offences has forfeited the privilege of holding them.
“Stripping those honours helps protect the integrity and value of the honours system.”
