Millionaire who used children’s gravestones to pave his drive is declared bankrupt

Tanveer Mann

Kim Davies was found guilty of using children’s gravestones to decore the walls and patio of Llanwenarth House last year (Picture: Dimitris Legakis/Athena Pictures)

A millionaire property developer who used children’s gravestones to pave the drive of a historic mansion has been declared bankrupt.
Kim Davies, 61, was declared bankrupt after fighting a costly three-year legal battle with the Brecon Beacons National Park authority.
 

 Davies was accused of sacrilege by using children’s gravestones to decorate the walls and patio as part of his refurbishment of the Grade II-listed building Llanwenarth House.
The seven-bedroom mansion was formerly the home of Poet Cecil Alexander in 1848, where she wrote the children’s favourite hymn All Things Bright and Beautiful.

The historic Llanwenarth House where where All Things Bright And Beautiful was penned by poet Cecil Alexander (Picture: Dimitris Legakis/Athena Pictures)

Last year, Davies was fined £60,000 after admitting to taking tombstones from a derelict chapel and cementing them to the walls of the house and using them as flagstones for his patio.
He was also ordered to pay the national park’s legal costs of £240,000.
Sentencing Davies at Newport Crown Court in August, Judge Daniel Williams said the work carried out at the seven-bedroom mansion was ‘vandalism’.
He told Davies: ‘You turned the house into something comparable to a hidden palace of an iron curtain dictator.’
Davies was forced to sell his Aston Martin and Lamborghini sports cars to pay for court costs including his own legal fees estimated at in excess of £250,000.

One of the gravestones used at Llanwenarth House during Davies’ refurbishment (Picture: Dimitris Legakis/Athena Pictures)

The former millionaire will only be able to sell the historic mansion, near Abergavenny in Wales, once the property has been restored to its former glory.
The authority is now in negotiations with the Official Receiver to recover the money.

A spokesman from the Brecon Beacons National Park Authority said: ‘The Authority successfully prosecuted Mr Davies for carrying out unauthorised works on a listed building.
‘We understand that Mr Davies has been declared bankrupt and our outstanding legal costs are now in the hands of the Official Receiver who we understand has appointed an independent solvency practitioner.’