Paul Baxendale-Walker

This article is about British media personality, author and former lawyer. For the American writer & comedian, see Paul Chaplin.

Paul Baxendale-Walker

Paul Baxendale-Walker, also known under the pseudonym Paul Chaplin,[1] is a talk show host, former lawyer and an author of legal text books. He is, together with Andrew Thornhill QC, the author of The Law and Taxation of Remuneration Trusts[2] (Key Haven, 1997) and also the Purpose Trusts[3] (1999, 2009 [2nd ed.]).

Early life and education

Paul Baxendale-Walker was born of Anglo-Brazilian parents, but he was orphaned and grew up in Children's Homes. He read for a degree in law at Hertford College, Oxford and subsequently qualified as a barrister and solicitor.

Career

Walker worked in taxation law at the Bar in Lincoln's Inn and then in various City law firms and Arthur Andersen, before establishing his "Baxendale Walker" practice in Mayfair in 1994.

In 1994, Baxendale-Walker advised the trustees on the taking of loans from a pension fund established for the benefit of employees. Unknown to him, the borrowers were fraudsters and £2,135,000 went missing. In subsequent civil proceedings, Mr. Justice Etherton dismissed the claim that Baxendale-Walker had given dishonest assistance in a breach of trust but held him liable for knowing receipt of the fees which he had received, saying that completing the transaction was "a gross error of professional judgment".[4][5] In the course of the civil trial, it came to light that he had given a reference for a non-existent persona of the fraudsters, a move that the judge said showed "breathtaking lack of professional judgement". As a consequence, in 2005, the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal suspended him as a solicitor for three years. The Court of Appeal upheld the decision in 2007.[6][7]

Baxendale-Walker was struck off the roll of solicitors by the Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal on 11 January 2007, on the grounds that he had a conflict of interest in advising his clients on his own tax schemes.[8] He subsequently claimed that the Law Society and others had conspired to put him out of business. On 18 April 2011, his claim was struck out by the High Court on the basis that it had no real prospect of success.[9] He sued the Law Society in California Federal Court for millions of dollars, arising out of what he claims to have been unlawful interference by the Law Society in his US legal business, but the case was dismissed with prejudice, an action that was upheld on appeal in 2015.[10]

He was the author of the Employee Benefit Trust (EBT) tax strategy implemented by Glasgow Rangers FC, which was (in April 2011) challenged by HMRC in a first tier tax tribunal.[11] In November 2012, on a split decision, the Tribunal upheld the legality and tax effectiveness of the EBT strategy.[12] HMRC appealed twice, first to the Upper Tribunal (Tax and Chancery Division) which upheld the finding,[13] and then to the Scottish Court of Session which sided with HMRC, declaring that it was "obvious" that "payments to the various trusts and the application of the monies so paid amounted to a mere redirection of earnings which did not remove the liability of employees to income tax".[14] The costs to Rangers of Baxendale-Walker's advice included the insolvency of the club and relegation to the bottom of the Scottish football league. The financial cost is unknown. In August 2010, he submitted a claim for damages and subsequently lost the case in the High Court. During the proceedings, the judge indicated that he may have committed offences by impersonating an HMRC officer. Baxendale-Walker denied the charges but on Friday 15 April 2016 he pleaded guilty to one count of forgery. Five other counts of fraud will remain on file. He was fined £15,015 and ordered to pay £210,000 prosecution costs. Judge Moss said “Your intention in writing the letter was to lead the recipient to tell you things he would otherwise not have done. You determined by trick and underhand means to pursue an individual who was correctly employed by the SRA (Solicitors Regulatory Authority). Such people are entitled to be protected from the harassment you subjected them to.”


Media

Red Zone

He was the host of the TV discussion show Red Zone, which features political and media celebrities discussing randomly chosen subjects from "Devil Cards", without the usual time constraints of topical discussion shows. Red Zone debuted on EMTV (Sky channel 200) on 4 March 2009. His guests have included Boy George, Neil and Christine Hamilton, Richard Digance, Robin Bextor, Vicki Michelle, Carole Malone, Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace, Garry Bushell, Lawrie McMenemy, Derek Laud, Ray Santilli, and others.

Bluebird films

From 2005 to 2012, he owned the adult film company Bluebird Productions, and he has produced, directed and acted in a number of adult films, including the Batman spoof Katwoman.[15] He sold Bluebird in 2012, making an estimated US$20 million.

Loaded TV

On 26 November 2012, Loaded TV launched with an 8-hour programming schedule on Controversial TV. Loaded TV provides general entertainment programmes, aimed at both young male and female audiences and a wider audience.

Scriptwriting and show formats

Baxendale-Walker wrote the script for the sitcom Sexxx.

He wrote the show formats for:

Babedraw[16]
Babe IQ
Dial M
Drunk Skunk Review[16]
Fight Night Re-Loaded
Loaded Chick Lit[17]
Loaded Circus[18]
Loaded Fight Night
Loaded Lads Lit[19]
Loaded Top Five
Looser Women Live[20]
Keep it Raw[19]
Manfood
Tell Me About It
The Superbike Show

Presenting

Baxendale-Walker also presents several Loaded TV shows, including:

Babe IQ
Come Again
Loaded Lads Lit
Looser Women Live
Tell Me About It

Acting

Baxendale-Walker plays the lead role of ‘Pauly’ in Sexxx,[21] and he plays various comedy character parts in PC World (broadcast on Loaded TV as part of Loaded Circus).[18]

Musical

Baxendale-Walker writes, sings and plays lead guitar with his Brit rock band Candyrock.

Publishing

In May 2012, he purchased Loaded and SuperBike magazines,[1] and, in September 2012, he purchased the Paul Raymond Publications stable of magazines, including Mayfair, Men Only and Club International. Walker purchased Loaded on behalf of Blue Media Publishing Group,[22] however Blue Publishing entered administration a year later.[23]

Baxendale-Walker writes a monthly Agony column for Loaded magazine. He also writes a monthly editorial and shoots a special photoset for Mayfair magazine. He also ran a short lived, weekly spin-off magazine from Loaded called Zip Magazine.

Published books

References

  1. 1 2 "Loaded magazine snapped up by multimillionaire 'porn star'". Guardian.co.uk. 29 April 2012. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  2. "The Law and Taxation of Remuneration Trusts: Andrew Thornhill, Paul Baxendale-Walker: 9781870070935: Amazon.com: Books". Amazon.com. 30 October 1997. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  3. "Purpose Trusts: Second Edition: Paul Baxendale-Walker: 9781845924843: Amazon.com: Books". Amazon.com. 1 September 2009. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  4. http://www.sfo.gov.uk/news/prout/pr_424.asp?id=424 Archived 21 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
  5. Archived 4 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine.
  6. "Baxendale-Walker v The Law Society [2007] EWCA Civ 233 (15 March 2007)". Bailii.org. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  7. "Burton News | Burton on Trent News Headlines | Latest Burton Upon Trent Sports, Jobs & Business News". Burtonmail.co.uk. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  8. "Baxendale- Walker v Middleton & Ors [2011] EWHC 998 (QB) (18 April 2011)". Bailii.org. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  9. "D.C. No. 2:12-cv-03861-JGB-MAN" (PDF). uscourts.gov. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
  10. "The unravelling of Rangers – Sport – The Scotsman". Scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com. 16 April 2011. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  11. "BBC News – Former Rangers Football Club wins Big Tax Case appeal". Bbc.co.uk. 20 November 2012. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  12. "[2014] UKUT 0292(TCC)" (PDF). judiciary.gov.uk.
  13. "[2015] CSIH 77". scotcourts.gov.uk. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
  14. "Craig Whyte advisor is a porn star". The Scottish Sun. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  15. 1 2 "Babedraw". Loaded TV. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  16. "Loaded-Chic-Lit". Loaded TV. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  17. 1 2 "Loaded-Circus". Loaded TV. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  18. 1 2 "Keep-It-Raw". Loaded TV. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  19. "Looser-Women". Loaded TV. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  20. "SEXXX". Loaded TV. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  21. "Loaded magazine snapped up by multimillionaire 'porn star'". Guardian.co.uk. 29 April 2012. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  22. Turvill, William (18 June 2013). "Loaded magazine publisher goes into administration". Press Gazette. Retrieved 9 August 2013.

External links

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