Judge orders allowance cut to curtail Vijay Mallya’s ‘extravagant’ lifestyle

A High Court Judge has told Vijay Mallya, the fugitive former head of India’s United Spirits, that his lifestyle is “extravagant”, and that his spending allowance must be cut.

A High Court Judge branded Vijay Mallya’s spending “extravagant”.

Mallya, who is appealing against extradition to India where he faces charges of fraud and money laundering, had his global assets frozen almost two years ago when the Insolvency and Companies court in London upheld an Indian freeze and imposed a spending limit on him of £18,300 a month.

He wanted that raised to £26,585 but Judge Catherine Burton cut this to £22,500 and told the former self-styled “King of the Good Times” that “there should be scope for further reduction”.

Meanwhile Mallya has seen the Indian courts seize approximately £1.5 billion in assets owned or controlled by him. They plan to sell them off to meet his alleged debts of £1.15 billion to a consortium of state-owned Indian banks. These were incurred during the collapse in 2012 of his Kingfisher Airlines.

He says he has always planned to repay the debts.

Separately Diageo and United Spirits are suing Mallya for financial misconduct when he was both chairman and chief executive of United. In addition, Diageo has won London a court order against Mallya ordering him to repay $135m for a loan guarantee Diageo was forced to meet after Mallya and associated companies defaulted.