How my brother left me penniless

Emerging from a marriage break-up and with three children to look after, Yvonne Youngs came to Hove for a safe haven - and found one with younger brother Keith.

First he invited them to share his home in St John's Road, Hove.

Then he gave her a job before appointing her a director of the Youngs Owen letting agency he had just set up and for which he harboured great hopes.

In return, 41-year-old Yvonne invested thousands of pounds from the recent sale of her former home in Kent.

And her loyalty remained firm even as her brother's firm spectacularly collapsed, with angry clients claiming debts of more than £60,000.

When The Argus first revealed the messy fall-out from the company office's sudden closure last April, it was Ms Youngs who was left to defend her brother as he went to ground.

But that sibling solidarity was shattered when Ms Youngs realised she was about to lose her home - and her 29-year-old brother was to blame.

She has now decided to lift the lid on how the Youngs Owen dream turned to disaster - leaving her with little cash, less confidence and no idea where she will be living next month.

The prompt for her emotional, candid interview with The Argus was the discovery that the house she believed her brother owned actually belonged to Brighton restaurateur Ali Merat.

Ms Youngs had split from her husband and sold her house in Kent when she arrived in Sussex in March last year.

She said: "When I moved down here, I was under the impression Keith owned the house, which is what he told me.

"I had no reason to question him. He was paying rent to Mr Merat but I thought he was paying a mortgage.

"He told me he owned two other apartments, which he was renting out. We walked past them, in Brunswick Terrace and in Upper Rock Gardens, and he pointed them out.

"Ali and Keith were good friends but they fell out because Ali was owed money on flats he owned, which were managed by Youngs Owen and Keith missed some payments."

Mr Youngs left Brighton three months ago, telling his sister he would have to move to get another job because of the publicity that followed the closure of Youngs Owen.

He moved to Blackpool and took on two jobs in Manchester - one using his management experience, the other a bar job.

Ms Youngs said: "He told me he was trying to get all this money together to sort everything out. In the meantime, he obviously hadn't kept up the payments on this house.

"Mr Merat phoned me and said he had to sell the house because his father had died and he had a large death duties bill to pay. He said: 'I'm serving notice.'

"I said: 'What do you mean? Keith owns the house.' Then I found out the truth. I was in tears, I was totally gobsmacked - to think that my brother could lie to me so much."

Mr Merat has told The Argus he is owed about £10,000 by Mr Youngs, who used to work as a part-time waiter at his restaurant, Bartons in Prince Albert Street, Brighton.

The experience of the past few months has forced Ms Youngs' 17-year-old daughter, Helen, to abandon a media studies BTEC college course in Kent.

Ms Youngs said: "She has been getting distinctions for all her work so it's so frustrating to see her leave and get a job instead. I couldn't afford to pay for the course any more."

It has also been deeply upsetting for 16-year-old Laura and nine-year-old Jordan.

Ms Youngs said: "I'll go to court this month for the possession order hearing and speak my part and hopefully someone will see fit to give me a few more weeks.

"Some people have said don't move out until the bailiffs come but I don't really want to get to that stage.

"I want to get out of here and do the best I can.

"I don't want to put Mr Merat to bother. It's not his fault. I'm sympathetic to him. He has already sold the house.

"But by the same token I've got my kids to think about. It has been a nightmare for them and it won't be much better to be stuck in a bed-and-breakfast, not knowing what to do."

Members of the family have rallied round, offering financial support.

Ms Youngs said: "Keith feels he's done the best for me. I'm sure he believes that. He has said to me since: 'I've got another job, I'm going to send you some money down.' But I've yet to see anything.

"When I rang him up and had a go at him about the house, he assured me: 'I did it for your own good because I thought it would make you feel more secure because of your blood pressure.'

"But he was in the house for a year before I moved down here."

Ms Youngs started helping out part-time at the Youngs Owen office shortly after moving to Hove.

She said Mr Youngs asked her in April last year to become a director and then to invest £7,000 from money she had just received from selling her Kent home.

She said: "I was thinking he had done me a favour by making me a director and letting me live in his house so I agreed. I thought it would be to my benefit as well so it made sense to do it."

She has lost that money, as well as another £5,000 she says Mr Youngs encouraged her to invest in an IT company run by one of his friends.

Ms Youngs acknowledged her brother was a hard worker but believes he let his ambitions run away with him, leading Youngs Owen into serious debt.

She said: "The more I kept trying to tell him to be careful with the spending, the more he kept putting in big adverts in Latest Homes, G-Scene and other magazines.

"There were six people working in the office when we would have been better off just us.

"Keith has got the ability to start a business and work it up. He'll put the hours in. He was in that office sometimes until five in the morning doing paperwork.

"I just don't know what happened with him and the spending. He tried to run before he could walk. I think there must be something seriously wrong with him."

The Argus has previously reported how landlords complained about not receiving rent collected on their behalf, while tenants lost deposits and contractors were not paid for jobs.

Police last month sent letters to 22 complainants who had made statements about the firm, asking for evidence. Officers are considering whether any criminal offences were committed.

Ms Youngs has voluntarily spoken with officers heading the investigation to offer what help she can.

Insolvency firm Wilson Field, directed by Mr Youngs to liquidate the company, has since washed its hands of the affair, claiming he has not provided vital information and cash.

The company accounts have been frozen since a Brighton County Court judgment last March, ordering Youngs Owen to pay more than £20,000 to landlord Chris Camillin.

Mr Youngs had launched his own firm largely on commissions to manage apartments in art deco apartment block Embassy Court in Brighton on behalf of landlords such as Mr Camillin.

However, Mr Camillin launched his court action after becoming concerned that tenants' rents were being collected but not passed on to him.

Ms Youngs, who witnessed the office becoming increasingly tense as claims mounted, said: "Of course I feel sorry for people. I didn't know what to tell them when they came into the office.

"I didn't want to lie and I was meticulous processing all payments. I've lost money too. I'm going to be homeless - all down to stupidity.

"I've tried to talk to Keith. His attitude is: 'That's right, I get all the blame for it. You were there as well.'

"Yes I was but I did try to tell him and I tried to make him realise he couldn't carry on trading the way he was."

Ms Youngs was forced to quit several months before the office closed on April 3, due to stress.

She said: "I couldn't cope with what was going on down there. It was worrying me to death. My blood pressure was going through the ceiling."

Some acquaintances of Mr Youngs have spoken of his love of trendy clothes and flashy cars but his sister said she was not sure how much he spent on personal items.

She said his beloved gold Rolls-Royce was bought to impress potential clients.

She said: "It was supposed to be used to take people round to view properties.

"Everyone else was getting these Smart cars and Keith thought it would be a nice twist if you turned up in this old Rolls-Royce.

"It wasn't expensive. It was second-hand and was in a bit of a state."

She said while they both were entitled to draw a wage from the company, she did not take up the £85-a-week she was owed.

She said: "Because we couldn't really afford it, I said I wouldn't actually take it.

"Plus I was entitled to my family credit and I was all right with that. If I needed to go to the shops I might occasionally say: 'I need £30 to go and get some groceries.'

"I don't really know how he spent his money.

"I never knew about the shop he wanted to open in Kemp Town until much later on."

Mr Youngs rented an office in St James's Street, Kemp Town, earlier this year for a new Youngs Owen branch but it never opened.

Mr Youngs told The Argus in April he intended to relaunch the firm soon and no one would be left out-of-pocket.

However, he has since refused to speak to The Argus and referred all inquiries to his lawyers, who this week denied he was responsible for his sister's eviction.

They said the family was taking care of rehousing her and that Mr Youngs was awaiting advice from liquidators and did not want to comment further.

The Argus revealed earlier this year how Mr Youngs previously revealed on the Friends Reunited web site he once had a notorious boyfriend.

While living in Spain in the late-Nineties, he became involved with Richard Baker, who was later convicted of several rapes and indecent assaults in Brighton, Essex and north London.

Mr Youngs was unaware of his partner's criminal activities and later won damages from The Mirror for implying he did.

In his Friend Reunited entry, now deleted, Mr Youngs also claimed to be a former male model who used to date a famous singer.

A feature in The Argus referred to the Keith Youngs saga as "a compelling soap opera" - a description Ms Youngs believes is fully justified.

She said: "It's like The Argus said, a soap opera.

"It's a bit like Eastenders. I think I could easily get a part in one of those shows now after what I've been through."