Previous owners

[steve-p]

The previous owners on a V5 are usually pretty anonymous, so aren't really very interesting. However, the last but one owner of my 993 was Viscount Reidhaven according to the V5. So, I typed him into Google as you do, and came up with some interesting stuff including:

said:

Ken McIntyre reports (Sunday Telegraph Review, 11/24/91) on the story of Viscount Reidhaven, who came under the spell of a 'spiritual advisor,' 34-year-old Muhammed Ali of the Sufi sect Naqshbandi, and reportedly became obsessed with chanting, changed his name to Abdul Qadir, and lavished expensive gifts on his 'master.' The family looked on for about 18 months, and then Reidhaven's father, the Earl of Seafield, took action. A film-script-like chain of events ensured that Muhammed Ali went to America while his 'disciple' appeared in Inverie, one of the remotest villages on the Scottish west coast, where he stayed for several months under the supervision of American exit counselors and a psychiatrist. The locals took it all in their stride, but commented that James looked a lot better after his stay in Inverie. The exercise appears to have been very expensive, but perhaps less than if the young viscount had stayed under the influence of his mentor, who seemed greatly interested in the family's fortune.

...and...

said:

Escape from Sufi group The Sunday Times (13.10.96) carries a full-page interview with Viscount Reidhaven, who discusses his involvement with a mystical Sufi Muslim group, described by the Viscount as a "sect", with which he became involved in 1990. Viscount Reidhaven comes from one of Britain’s wealthiest families, with a fortune estimated at £35m. Family lawyers have taken charge of the estate until Viscount Reidhaven can show that he is no longer under the influence of the Sufi group and is mentally sufficiently stable to manage his own affairs. [BMMS October 1996 Vol. IV, No. 10, p. 2/3]

He owns the Strathspey Estate in Scotland , which is 30,000 acres:

www.strathspey-estate.co.uk/

I dare say my car may have been there in a former life!