Who Controls North Glen Estates Limited?

Following on from Alan Brown’s guest blog on who really owns Craiganour Estate, I now dig into who is really behind North Glen Estates Ltd., the other entity currently being investigated by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service for offences under the Register of Persons Holding a Controlled Interest in Land regulations. I ask whether the Register of Persons Holding a Controlled Interest in Land (RCI) and the Register of Overseas Entities (ROE) – are in fact revealing anythign useful about the beneficial owners of offshore landowning companies.

Previous blogs on this topic can be found here, here, here and here.

NORTH GLEN ESTATE OR ESTATES?

First of all though, I want to raise a problem in defining who we are talking about. In my very first blog on this topic in April 2014, I noted that the owner of North Glenbuchat Estate was North Glen Estate Limited, a company registered in the Turks and Caicos. I noted also that there was a separate company, North Glen Estates Ltd. registered in the UK (SC341613). I also noted that in the 2013 accounts of the UK company, its viability was underwritten by North Glen Estates Limited (Turks and Caicos) “who own the estate”.

North Glen Estate Ltd is the registered owner of the estate and Registers of Scotland has confirmed that “Estate” singular is what appears in the deed presented for registration and thus entered on the title sheet.

However, as will be seen below, the registrations of this entity in the RCI and ROE are in the name of North Glen Estates Ltd as is the report from Police Scotland to the Crown Office. The plural form does indeed appear to be the owner and my previous blogs therefore mis-direct readers. The fault appears to lie with the agent who handled the 2007 sale who erroneously named the company in the singular form.

I am now assuming that North Glen Estates Limited (Turks and Caicos) and North Glen Estates Limited (SC341613) are the only relevant entities and that there is no such company as North Glen Estate Limited. Quite why three statutory registers (RCI, ROE and Land Register) record an entity by two different names is a question I have raised with Registers of Scotland.

The Keeper correctly points out however, that the RCI is a self-serve register and that as far as the Land Register is concerned, she can only record an entity as it appears on the deed submitted for registration. There is no systematic procedure for ensuring that entities which are indeed the same are recorded as such on all statutory registers. None of this is helped by the fact that the entity is registered in a tax haven and Registers of Scotland is not among the agencies with the power to require that the Turks and Caicos authorities open up their registers.

This state of affairs is unacceptable and made worse by the fact that the entity that is subject of criminal investigation is incorrectly named in Scotland’s official register of landownership. In some circumstances such as situation could lead to judicial proceedings being dropped.

THE RCI and ROE

Having dealt with the naming issue, we get to the question of who is in fact behind North Glen Estates Limited? The company is entered here (RP009787). The associates (those who exercise significant control over the owner) are named as;

Sarah Spencer, The Medina Trust, David St John Stewart, Front Street Nominees Limited, Coriats Trust Company Limited.

Notably, the RCI tells us nothing more about these entities other than these bare names. There is no way of telling whether they are UK entities or offshore, no information on how to contact them and no details about the nature of the alleged control they exercise. In short, this information is next to useless.

The ROE lists North Glen Estates Limited (OE34388) and names four of the above entities as beneficial owners (The Medina Trust is omitted). Importantly, there is much more detail.

Sarah Spencer is named as Lady Sarah Georgina Spencer, with a correspondence address at Glenbuchat Lodge. The other three all have correspondence addresses at PO BOX 171, 82 Cherokee Road, Providenciales, Turks And Caicos Islands, TKCA 1ZZ (see image at top of this blog). Her date of birth is provided as well as details of the control she and the others exercise.

So what are we to make of this information?

Spencer owns more than 25% of the shares in North Glen Estates Ltd. which owns North Glenbuchat Estate as a nominee for Spencer.

David Stewart owns more than 25% of the shares as trustees of a trust (not identified) and North Glen Estates Ltd is a nominee for him.

Coriats Trust Company Limited has significant control over a firm (not identified) which holds more than 25% of the shares in North Glen Estates Ltd.

Front Street Nominees Limited owns more than 25% of the shares in North Glen Estates Ltd which acts as nominee for another entity (not identified) for which this person (Front Street Nominees Limited) is the registered beneficial owner.

So in addition to the above, we have a trust, a firm and another entity all involved but none of which are identified. At least this is a bit more information than in the RCI but it does not help in working out who controls North Glen Estates Limited!

MILFORD HAVEN – MOUNTBATTEN – MEDINA

In the Autumn 2013 edition of Land Business, the magazine of Scottish Land and Estates, The Marquess of Milford Haven, Glenbuchat Estate is noted as a new member.

He is otherwise known as George Ivar Louis Mountbatten. His former wife Sarah Walker is now married to Michael Spencer, Lord Spencer of Alresford and is now Sarah Spencer. Their son is Henry (Harry) David Louis Mountbatten, Earl of Medina.

Apart from Sarah Spencer, neither George nor Henry are mentioned anywhere in the RCI or ROE. I have it on very good authority that George did in fact effectively own the estate (hence the membership entry in 2013) and that in recent years the running of the estate has been passed to Henry. Henry is in fact the sole Director of Glenbuchat Estate Limited (SC643669) whose registered office is at Glenbuchat Lodge and, along with his mother, Sarah Spencer, one of two persons with significant control of the company.

On 6 July 2025, as I noted in a previous blog, the Times and Press and Journal both reported Henry as having applied for planning consent to build a gym and extension “to extend his Scottish estate”. The applicant was named as Glenbuchat Estate Ltd, and falsely declared as the owner of the land. The planning application has now been withdrawn.

The UK registered North Glen Estates Limited is controlled by a Laura Joyce Sorrentino whose address is given at Great Trippetts in Hampshire, the location of the polo club run by Lady Clare Husted Milford Haven, the current spouse of George Mountbatten. Laura is described on her Linkedin profile as Executive Assistant at Great Trippetts Estate Limited. Great Trippetts Estate is the home of the Marquess which appears to be owned by this company registered again in the Turks and Caicos.

SO WHO CONTROLS NORTH GLENBUCHAT?

So who controls North Glenbuchat Estate? This is the question that is meant to be revealed by these public registers and is a potentially important question in relation to any vicarious liability that may arise from recent police raids investigating alleged wildlife crime on the estate.

Is it Sarah Spencer, The Medina Trust, David St John Stewart, Front Street Nominees Limited, or Coriats Trust Company Limited?

Or is it one, some or all of the trust, the firm and another entity mentioned in the ROE but not identified?

Or is it George Mountbatten, Marquess of Milford Haven or his son Henry Mountbatten, Earl of Medina (who maybe has something to do with the Median Trust)?

The RCI and the ROE do not answer these questions.

Why not?