Neighbours’ fury as £28m extension is left unfinished after workers downed tools when fraudster owner was jailed
They say the hole is "probably almost as deep as the Führerbunker in Berlin"
FURIOUS residents have told of their torment living opposite a 30ft hole in the ground left abandoned since a fraudster was jailed TEN years ago.
A planning application to build the mother-of-all-basements - complete with a cinema, pool and spa - was lodged by disgraced conman Archilleas Kallakis before he was jailed and the Chelsea property sold to a mysterious owner based in Dubai.
Since then, the 23,000 sq ft, four-storey basement has been deserted by workmen - prompting fears
fears that neighbouring properties and a 150-year-old archway could collapse into the hole which is "probably almost as deep as the Führerbunker in Berlin".
Local Tony Knight said: "It's a complete mess.
"I can't understand how it's been allowed to sit there for as long as it has in the state that it's in. It's a disgrace."
The 62-year-old said his wife, Angie, had bought the house in the early nineties, but that they had lived in the west London area for more than three decades.
He said: "That house, 31 Brompton Square, was originally owned by Lord Tanlow.
"But in 2005, Achilleas Kallakis bought the place. He threw several parties, and invited us because we were opposite.
"He seemed very nice - we all thought he was a shipping tycoon. I went to his offices on one occasion and he had all these ships everywhere.
"Little did we know that he was a rogue, but that's another story - there was just no way of knowing."
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He added: "He had lots of flash cars, his wife was very nice.
"Anyway, he applied for all this planning permission to do this thing. I just thought that if he wanted to do something with his property, then why shouldn't he?
"But when he went bankrupt, the house was taken on by the official receivers and sold for ten of millions.
"It was bought by this chap called Jonathan Hart, based in Dubai, through his company 31 Brompton Square - apparently he outbid the Saudi royal family.
"If you ring them up and ask who owns it, they'll just bullshit you, but everyone here knows that it's this Jonathan Hart chap.
"They then kept it for five years, without doing anything to it. But I think the development work, when they did start, it must have cost them 20 million quid."
Tony said that since the home has been under new ownership, the state of the basement garden has been a blight on the swanky neighbourhood.
He said: "We have to put up with the ghastly white boards, we don't have it as bad as some people here, but it's not very nice.
"The worst thing is that there's an archway right next to it which was built in 1870.
"It's probably totally stable, but that hole right next to is huge. It's probably almost as deep than the Führerbunker in Berlin.
"The council do keep an eye on the properties around here, and make sure they're secure and whatever, but how can they be so sure it's not just going to go?"
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