Bristol's Grosvenor Hotel developer facing jail after appeal dismissed

Work on Bristol's Grosvenor Hotel should have been completed by September 2017 but building work stopped

A developer found guilty of contempt of court has had his appeal against the conviction dismissed.

A judgement in July ruled Sanjiv Varma had breached court orders to disclose assets and made false statements.

It related to Grosvenor Property Developers Ltd's plan to turn Bristol's Grosvenor Hotel into student flats.

Varma - a de facto director of the developer - is now facing a prison sentence after the Court of Appeal rejected his appeal.

The project, which raised £7m from investors, was never completed and liquidators have been investigating what happened for several years.

Sanjiv Varma was photographed by a private investigator, who was instructed by liquidators in the case

At a previous hearing, Judge Alan Johns QC dismissed Varma's story that £3.1m of the developer's money was paid to his own Dubai company in 2017 to buy diamonds and jewellery in an attempt to safeguard investors' money.

He said there was "no real evidence of the existence of the jewellery and diamonds", and dismissed the idea presented by Varma that he had lost more than £8m in Dubai property transactions.

Varma was due to be sentenced for contempt of court in August, but that hearing was stayed after he was given permission to appeal.

He is due to be sentenced at a later date.