Eight years after my husband and I lost Hafton Castle, I thought it was time to give everyone an update. Sadly, the experience of losing the home and business we had invested our life savings into, was too much for Gerry to bear, and he died very suddenly in 2009, a broken man. I've tried not to feel bitter about it, but recent posts on trip advisor have rejuvenated my anger, as has the fact that several derogatory reviews about the hotel have been removed, no doubt at the insistence of Peter Wilkinson.

We had some truly beautiful weddings at Hafton in the three years we were there, each and every one resulting in fabulous reviews and documented thanks from the happy couples. Of course we did things differently to the present owners. We charged a modest 'per head' amount. for the wedding breakfast, and nothing for the rental of the venue. Family and friends paid for their accommodation at the standard rate, and the bride and groom were given the bridal suite free of charge for the weekend. The pool area, where we had spent over £25,000 reopening it, hosted fantastic Friday night parties for the families as they arrived the night before the 'big day', again at no extra cost, and when everyone left on Sunday afternoon, we glowed in the praise from everyone who had stayed or attended.

For that reason I was saddened to see from a trip advisor review (now mysteriously removed) that many of the bedrooms had buckets to catch drips, the place was stinking of damp, and the conservatory, the place where we spent over £10,000 on the roof and £4,000 on the carpets, is now leaking like a sieve. How sad. It would seem that the loving care and hundreds of thousands of pounds we spent renovating the place has gone to waste. Angry though I was at that unscrupulous couple buying the place behind our backs because they knew of the favourable response we had from the planning department to turn Hafton into12 luxury apartments, I would still have preferred for the place to be safe after we left and not allowed to deteriorate. For the avoidance of doubt, they never viewed the hotel or had it surveyed before they bought it because the unscrupulous estate agent Marco Pellichi from Remax, who I had brought in to give me a valuation for our backers, had advised them of my favourable planning application after he had sold over £650,000 of property on their behalf.

Anyway, I just wanted to set the record straight, although those of you who read my blog in 2006 about us losing Hafton, know all the salient facts. My thanks again to all the wonderful people who supported Gerry and I when we lost everything because of this unscrupulous couple, and special thanks to the 'friends of Hafton' who reposted our story here after Peter Wilkinson managed to have it removed from the hotel website. I don't know who you are, but I shall be eternally grateful

Alexis Leech