A key player in the Barlow Clowes affair – one of Britain’s most notorious frauds – will be able to keep nearly £10 million after the High Court ruled that creditors could not pursue him in Mauritius, where he is now based.

Peter Henwood was served with a bankruptcy petition for £9,370,537 plus interest over his role in the 1980s financial scandal in which thousands of Britons, many of them pensioners, lost their life savings.

But a High Court judge ruled today that Mr Henwood was now permanently resident on the Indian Ocean island, where he is protected from UK bankruptcy laws.

Mr Justice Evans-Lombe said that it was “common ground that the law [in Mauritius] does not allow for bankruptcy proceedings against an individual who is not carrying on business in Mauritius and that thus the judgment obtained against Mr Henwood would not be enforceable against him.”

Mr Henwood, whose International Trust Corporation helped Barlow Clowes in the scam, moved from the Isle of Man to Villa Sans Souci in Mauritius in December 1992.

The judge said that decision was “very likely” influenced by “the attractions of Mauritian bankruptcy law” but accepted Henwood’s petition that the UK courts could not force him to surrender the money.

Barlow Clowes collapsed in 1988 after it emerged that co-founder Peter Clowes, who was jailed for ten years for his role in the scam, had spent more than £100 million of clients’ money on private aircraft, cars, homes and a luxury yacht.

During a 112-day trial, the court heard how investors believed that they were putting their savings into risk-free government bonds.

Mr Clowes, who only served four years of his ten year sentence, was later jailed for four months for benefit fraud.

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