LORD BLACK of Crossharbour, the former Telegraph Group owner, has been shown on video taking a dozen boxes from his office which a Canadian court later demanded be returned. The video footage was shown this week in an Ontario courtroom.

Lord Black has been ordered to vacate, by May 31, his long- time office at 10 Toronto Street, Toronto, by a judge who stipulated that he must seek approval from a court-appointed inspector before removing anything.

But the video, which was posted on the internet last night, shows Lord Black dressed in a dark blue suit moving a dozen cardboard boxes out of the back door of the Toronto Street office of Hollinger Inc with the help of his chauffeur, John Hillier, and his assistant Joan Maida.

The film shows Lord Black and Mr Hillier putting the boxes on the back seat of a dark Cadillac parked outside the office’s back door.

A spokesman for Lord Black said the peer had agreed to hand the boxes over to Ernst & Young, the court-appointed inspectors in the case brought against Lord Black by a group of disgruntled investors who claim he looted the publishing company.

“These were personal effects that Conrad believed it was OK to move out of the office,” the spokesman added. “The video was shot on Friday afternoon, the motion was filed in court on Wednesday afternoon and I think the boxes have already been returned.”

The Ontario court heard this week how at 2pm last Friday, just hours after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police installed the cameras that captured the footage, Lord Black and his helpers arrived at Toronto Street but were stopped from taking boxes by a former Mounty, now a security consultant. Then at 5pm, when the video footage was shot, Lord Black and his helpes returned to take the 12 boxes.

Security staff at the building were aware of Lord Black’s actions but did not try to stop him, the court was told. Instead, they wrote down in their log that Lord Black had taken 12 boxes from his office. The guards, who were contract workers, are understood to have been replaced.

Lord Black and some of his former colleagues are under regulatory investigations in the US and Canada for allegedly siphoning money and other assets from Hollinger International, the company that once owned The Daily Telegraph among other newspapers.

He is also under investigation for allegedly siphoning cash from Hollinger Inc, a holding company. Lord Black denies the allegations.

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