Millionaire Anwar Rashid, 32, bought Clifton Hall, an estate in Nottinghamshire, England for £3.6 million ($6.84 million) in November 2006, then abandoned the property after only eight months. Rashid said that ghosts, voices and other paranormal activity drove his family from its home. Rashid is now seeking to avoid responsibility for the mortgage he took to purchase the home.

Rashid, who earned his millions from a chain of nursing homes and a hotel in Dubai, said the problems began the first day the family moved into the 52-room mansion, when they heard knocking on the walls and voices. Months later, the family’s maid saw “a grey figure” seated on her bed, and Rashid’s wife, Nabila, who had gone downstairs to feed their baby at 5 a.m., was surprised to see her oldest daughter watching TV. Rashid told the Daily Mail, “My wife realised something was up, so she went back upstairs to check on her and found her fast asleep in bed.”

At one point, Rashid called in experts from the Paranormal Investigations Network of Ashfield, but even they were frightened. Rashid said, “When we found red blood spots on the baby’s quilt, that was the day my wife said she’d had enough. We didn’t even stay that night,” he told the BBC. After Rashid stopped paying the mortgage, the Yorkshire Bank reclaimed the house.

Background: Clifton Hall

Rashid planned to use the mansion, which dates back to the Norman conquest, as a wedding hall but could not get a license, and skeptics claim he made up a story about ghosts to avoid financial responsibility for the house in light of his thwarted business plan. But Darren Brookes, the manager of a security firm that used to guard the mansion, supports Rashid’s claims. Brookes told the Daily Mail that many guards refused to be assigned to the home, and the guards who did work there returned with stories of “a monk walking through the grounds, a woman in the graveyard falling over, and chairs moving in one of the rooms.” The historic estate was briefly home to Charles I in 1632, and there are rumors that a “woman dressed in white” once jumped to her death from one of its windows.

How interesting and then I find out:

It turns out that Anwar Rashid is in bankruptcy. The following is from public records posted on Richard Dawkins.net:

7 (17.09.2007) BANKRUPTCY NOTICE entered under section 86(2) of the

Land Registration Act 2002 in respect of a pending action, as the

title of the proprietor of the registered estate appears to be

affected by a petition in bankruptcy against Anwar Rashid

presented in the High Court (Court Reference Number 9623 of 2007 )

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