Bristol Post

Owner of 'Miss Conduct' yacht in Bristol harbour guilty of being 'rogue landlord'

The man who owns and lives on the yacht on the Floating Harbour with a helicopter on its roof has been branded a ‘rogue landlord’ by council chiefs, and fined in court.

Thomas Flight pleaded guilty to committing consumer protection offences against his tenants, and has now been fined £12,000 and ordered to pay the council’s costs for the lengthy investigation, which totalled another £25,000.

Bristol Crown Court heard how council housing officers received a host of complaints about a property management business operating out of number 21 Portland Square in St Pauls between June 2019 and January 2021, although those making those complaints said issues dated back years before that.

Read next: American superyacht used by Donald Trump docks at Bristol harbour

One issue the council told the court was that the business was operating at the end of a web of different names and companies, and no one renting homes or businesses in Portland Square ever really knew who their landlord was, or who was responsible when problems arose.

In June 2021, the managers of the Hidden Corner bookshop and cafe discovered they had been locked down and evicted, and a protest by its staff and customers was held. At the time, the landlords of that business, regarded as one of Bristol’s few LGBTQI+ friendly spaces, were named Presman Limited, but that was just another of the companies set up by Flight to separate him from the tenants.

An investigation by Bristol City Council’s private housing team uncovered evidence of multiple consumer protection offences. The investigation worked to follow the money paid by tenants in rents and deposits, and reached Mr Flight.

“Mr Flight’s identity was hidden from his tenants, allowing him to keep security deposit money instead of returning it, and to avoid responsibility for a number of unfair commercial practices including charging banned and hidden fees to tenants,” said a spokesperson for Bristol City Council.

bristol yacht miss conduct

“Tenants would receive made-up landlord and letting agent information, including false names and addresses. Mr Flight even went so far as to have a fictitious person registered as a director of one of his companies. Tenants who complained were then harassed with demands to withdraw their valid enquiries, until the local authority took up these complaints as part of their investigation,” he added.

In February 2021, Mr Flight was interviewed by Bristol City Council in relation to alleged criminal offences. Following this interview, Mr Flight voluntarily repaid those tenants who had been charged banned fees or whose security deposits had not been returned to them when they should have been. “During this interview, Mr Flight failed to cooperate with Bristol City Council, blaming the situation on an alleged letting agent who couldn’t be traced and is believed to be another of his inventions,” said the council spokesperson.

“At one of Mr Flight’s Court hearings in relation to this case, he supplied further documents to Bristol City Council containing more landlord details that also proved to be false,” he added.

In December 2021, Flight sailed his American-built yacht ‘Miss Conduct’ into Bristol’s Floating Harbour and moored it in a prominent location near the Matthew at Wapping Wharf. The boat, which had been an upmarket restaurant in New York for 20 years, attracted attention immediately - with its glitzy interior and helicopter parked on the roof.

When Bristol Live reported on the arrival of the yacht , the owners declined to be identified. The two men who said they were the owners, including Flight, issued a statement through a spokesperson explaining they'd named the yacht and they were only 'Bristol businessmen'. "Bristol has been good for us and our businesses, we have been lucky enough to have had great success in Bristol and we want to give something back to the city in the form of what we are good at - a little glamour, fun, connecting people and lots of charity work for good causes," they said in an anonymous statement at the time.

Speaking of the yacht's name, they added: "In this particular harbour full of historic vessels our boat is by comparison quite a young girl, so she couldn't named Lady this or Lady that - she had to be a 'Miss" to show some respect to the other boats. We didn't want a posh name, we've done well but we're not posh people.

"Miss Conduct stuck because after our somewhat whirlwind personal life which presented some rather unusual setbacks, opportunities and surprises, the cheeky Miss Conduct just seemed to fit. Our motto is 'if you can't set a good example to others then you must serve as a terrible reminder!'" they added in their statement.

bristol yacht miss conduct

They were described by their spokesperson at the time as "two ordinary (possibly eccentric) people from ordinary backgrounds, who having lived and operated a number of successful businesses in Bristol since 1990, decided that after travelling the world that Bristol was the best city on the planet". "The owners are proud to present her as, albeit a little glitzy, another new Bristol landmark in this great city they call home," they added.

It was only when a judge at one of Flight’s continuing court hearings insisted he give his name and address to the court, did he acknowledge that he was the owner of Miss Conduct and it was where he was living. On Bank Holiday Monday in August 2022, a protest was held on the quayside next to Miss Conduct, where tenants of Flight’s joined with staff and customers of the former Hidden Corner cafe highlighted his malpractices.

Much of the details of the case and the complaints of tenants have not been public due to reporting restrictions involved in the case, but with guilty pleas now and a hefty fine, Flight’s illegal actions can be revealed, and the complaints of tenants dating back to 2016 have been exposed in a Bristol Cable investigation .

Cllr Tom Renhard, Bristol’s housing chief, said Flight’s actions were ‘not acceptable’. “We are committed to protecting people across the city from rogue landlords, especially during the national cost-of-living and housing crises,” he said. “Mr Flight took advantage of tenants and that is simply not acceptable. We will continue to do all we can to pursue unscrupulous landlords where evidence of criminal exploitation is found,” he added.

However, because the offences for which Flight pleaded guilty to are not ones for which he can be banned from being a landlord, he is free to continue letting properties.

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Its secret owners say they want to give "a little glamour" back to the city

  • 13:29, 13 DEC 2021

Miss Conduct

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A private superyacht that was once a floating restaurant where celebrities dined has docked in Bristol.

The 40 metre-long ‘Miss Conduct’ vessel was originally built in Florida and is now owned by two unnamed Bristol businessmen, who converted it from a dinner cruise ship into their home and charity headquarters.

The yacht arrived at Wapping Wharf over the weekend after being transported from Avonmouth.

READ MORE: Bristol restaurants and bars gearing up for more Covid restrictions

Built in 1987, it was based in New York for 20 years and became a popular dinner cruise venue, with billionaire George Soros and Donald Trump said to be among regular guests.

The yacht was once hired by a film company for the 1989 hit film Arthur II starring Dudley Moore and Liza Minnelli.

In 2000 it ranked as the 195th largest private yacht in the world, having slipped down the list as larger vessels were built.

Capable of transporting 175 passengers and crew, Miss Conduct has six engines and costs £53,000 to fill up with fuel. It also has a helicopter pad for guests who arrive by air.

After an eight-month refit, the owners and crew sailed Miss Conduct across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe.

The voyage took 28 days at sea but the whole journey took much longer as she stopped off at Bermuda, the Azores and Barry Island.

She then underwent another very long refit and paint job in Sharpness where she was converted from an energy guzzling 1990s vessel to one of the most eco-friendly superyachts in Europe, according to a spokesperson for the owners.

bristol yacht miss conduct

The bilge pump outs go through special pollution filters to prevent any water contamination.

The Miss Conduct also runs on standard red diesel (not polluting heavy oil) and can even run on biodiesel/green diesel made from domestic vegetable oils, animal fats and recycled restaurant grease, removing overall emissions by up to 75 per cent.

Around 25 per cent of the yacht (the back end) has been partitioned off to make a large two-level meeting space and venue for the owners’ philanthropic projects, particularly fundraising, plus accommodation for their extended families and wide circle of business friends who they want to introduce to the city.

The owners, who want to keep their identities secret, said in a statement: “Bristol has been good for us and our businesses, we have been lucky enough to have had great success in Bristol and we want to give something back to the city in the form of what we are good at - a little glamour, fun, connecting people and lots of charity work for good causes.”

'We're not posh people'

Speaking of the yacht's name, they added: " In this particular harbour full of historic vessels our boat is by comparison quite a young girl, so she couldn't named Lady this or Lady that - she had to be a 'Miss" to show some respect to the other boats.

"We didn't want a posh name, we've done well but we're not posh people.

"Miss Conduct stuck because after our somewhat whirlwind personal life which presented some rather unusual setbacks, opportunities and surprises, the cheeky Miss Conduct just seemed to fit. Our motto is 'if you can't set a good example to others then you must serve as a terrible reminder!'"

They were described by their spokesperson as " two ordinary (possibly eccentric) people from ordinary backgrounds, who having lived and operated a number of successful businesses in Bristol since 1990, decided that after travelling the world that Bristol was the best city on the planet".

"The owners are proud to present her as, albeit a little glitzy, another new Bristol landmark in this great city they call home," they added.

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bristol yacht miss conduct

The Home Safe Scheme

Bristol private landlord with yacht named "miss conduct" guilty of misconduct and ordered to pay £37,000 in fines and costs for exploiting tenants.

Harry Ulaeto - 13 January 2023 - Category: PRS Industry News

Rogue private rented sector landlord Thomas Flight pleaded guilty to committing consumer protection offences against his tenants at Bristol Crown Court after an investigation by Bristol Council's private housing team into his use of false identities and fake letting agencies.

The landlord was described as having used "an elaborate web of misinformation designed to exploit his tenants" and was fined £12,000 and ordered to pay the council's costs of £25,000. He has also reportedly repaid £10,646 to the tenants that he exploited. After a number of court hearings the landlord came to an agreement with the council to plead guilty to 4 of the 6 charges levelled against him.

The council had received complaints between June 2019 and January 2021 about a property management business which operated under a range of different names from an address in Portland Square in Bristol. This meant that it couldn't be discerned by tenants who they were actually dealing with or who was ultimately responsible for resolving problems that arose. The council's private housing team worked with a colleague in trading standards to trace money paid by the tenants back to Mr Flight who had used "various companies and trading names to receive rent, fees and deposits" thus hiding his true identity from his tenants.

His exploits enabled him to take and keep security deposits from tenants and not return them when required and to charge illegal and hidden fees to his tenants. Tenants also received "made-up" landlord and letting agent information. Even during one of the court hearings Mr Flight provided documentary information to Bristol Council officers which turned out to be false.

Cllr. Tom Renhard , Cabinet Member for Housing delivery and Homes, said "Mr Flight took advantage of tenants and that is simply not acceptable. We will continue to do all we can to pursue unscrupulous landlords where evidence of criminal exploitation is found". The council said that Mr Flight was not banned from letting properties as the offences did not come with the list of banning offences under the Housing and Planning Act 2016.

With the culmination of legal proceedings meaning the case and the extraordinary history behind Mr Flight's practices can be fully reported, The Bristol Cable has a full and eyeopening report on this particular private rented sector saga including how Mr Flight allegedly harassed some of his tenants beyond his commercial falsehoods.

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The Bristol Activist

News | insight | inspiration.

Two people stand in front of a large yacht. they hold a placard that reads "All Landlords are Bastards"

Boat party protest outside landlord’s yacht

The mooring of the yacht Miss Conduct was a fitting location for a protest against a landlord who shut down a popular queer space last year. 

The Miss Conduct , berthed at Wapping Wharf, is home to Thomas Flight and his partner Harry Steeley. Flight is a landlord of several properties in Bristol, including the Hidden Corner Café on Portland Square, the owners of which he evicted last October . 

Aaron Onuora and Sophia Khan ran the Hidden Corner Cafe in a unit they rented from Flight until arriving at work one day to find the doors chained shut and a notice of eviction on the window. 

That eviction spurred days of protests by supporters of the cafe, which served as an important hub for Bristol’s black LGBTQ+ community. 

Around two dozen protesters gathered outside the yacht on Monday, August 29, for what was billed as a “boat party” to raise awareness of the anger against Flight. The protest was promoted by some prominent LGBTQ+ groups. 

Misconduct outside the Miss Conduct as supporters of the Hidden Corner Cafe protest its eviction by yacht-residing landlord Thomas Flight. pic.twitter.com/a1J1JxPwTj — The Bristol Activist (@BristolActivist) August 29, 2022

Legal proceedings against Flight are ongoing, limiting what can be reported at the present time. 

Speaking via a megaphone, one protesters said that Flight and Steeley are well-regarded in the queer community and seen as ‘cool guys.’ 

However, the protester continued, there are others who disagree and ‘see a completely different face’ to the pair. 

A man holds a placard that reads "W'anchors Aweigh"

Another protester said they had joined the protest to show solidarity with people for whom the Hidden Corner Cafe was an important space. 

‘We need to do something about this,’ they said, ‘because people like Thomas Flight are taking what they want and they’re getting away with it because of the money they have and the influence they have. 

‘I don’t understand how the power is so skewed in favour of the more advantaged people.’

A third protester turned his anger on the yacht itself, describing it as ‘gauche’ and ‘a giant bathtub.’

Referencing the helicopter on top of the yacht, which is understood to be fake, the protester said: ‘You can’t polish a turd but you can park a toy helicopter on top of it.’

The boat party protest lived up to its name. People danced under the late summer sun to classics such as ‘I Want to Break Free’ by Queen, and ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’ by Britney.

A person speaks through a megaphone with their right fist raised. Behind them in is a large white yacht. A person to their right holds a rainbow flag.

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American superyacht with own helicopter docks in Bristol

  • West Country
  • Donald Trump
  • Monday 13 December 2021 at 9:40am

bristol yacht miss conduct

A multi-million pound superyacht has arrived in Bristol after being bought by two mystery businessmen.

The 40 metre vessel docked near Wapping Wharf on December 12 after being transported from Avonmouth.

It has been bought by two unnamed businessmen who are based in Bristol.

They said they plan to make the boat their charity headquarters and support local causes.

"Bristol has been good for us and our businesses,” they said in a statement.

“We have been lucky enough to have had great success in Bristol and we want to give something back to the city in the form of what we are good at - a little glamour, fun, connecting people and lots of charity work for good causes.”

Dozens of people watched on as the Harbour Master helped coordinate the ship’s arrival.

It was originally built in Florida in 1987 and later based in New York, where it served as the city’s premier dinner cruise yacht.

Noted guests on board from the time include former US President Donald Trump and billionaire George Soros.

The yacht can sleep up to sixteen people and costs £53,000 to fill up with fuel.

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A bridge at dusk

How Bristol is breathing new life into its maritime quarter

Dockland regeneration, repurposed boats and museums shed a light on this south-west city’s historic connections to the sea.

It’s 11pm in Bristol Harbour and the boat is rocking. Hometown shanty band The Longest Johns are on stage, belting out renditions of old maritime tunes while a sold-out, ale-fuelled crowd are singing along with gusto. The night might be a cold one, but inside is a world of festival lighting and fogged-up specs. The harbour waters lap against the hull as songs of distant seas and drunken sailors are roared out in unison.

Few UK music settings are as unique as Thekla , a 1950s German cargo ship reinvented as a floating events venue. It’s now moored permanently near the Grade II-listed Prince Street Bridge, its masts bare but its lower decks regularly crammed with gig-goers. This blurring of the lines between past and present is hard to escape in Bristol. Just a few feet away from the ship’s gangway is Mud Dock, a bike-shop-cum-brunch-spot in a brick warehouse. On arrival, you’re greeted by a large stencil of Isambard Kingdom Brunel — the 19th-century engineer who designed Bristol’s iconic Clifton Suspension Bridge — on a fold-up bike.

For the casual visitor, the harbourside is one of the best places to start making sense of Bristol ’s complex character. It’s here, for starters, that you’ll find M Shed, a former transit building turned into a museum. It tells the city’s story frankly, with no punches pulled when it comes to its links with the slave trade. Almost directly opposite the museum is the spot where, in 2020, the 125-year-old statue of English merchant Edward Colston was unceremoniously dumped into the dock by locals.

bristol yacht miss conduct

There’s a lot of harbour to explore here. The waterside pubs are full of history. The Ostrich has a still-visible cave where seafaring smugglers hid contraband; The Hole in The Wall takes its name from a spyhole where ne’er-do-wells could watch for customs officers; and The Orchard Inn, which sits around the corner from a large Banksy artwork, has been serving up West Country tipples for 180 years. When I step inside, there are more than 20 ciders on offer. How to choose? “You can’t go wrong with the farmhouse makers,” the server tells me quietly, as if imparting an age-old truth.

On a crisp morning, I walk west along the docks, overlooked by gaily painted houses high on the opposite bank. Over the centuries, everything from wool, wheat and rum to salt, fish and sherry have passed through this wharf in industrial quantities. Today, the ships along its length tell their own stories. There are houseboats complete with pot plants and washing lines; close by is Miss Conduct, a yacht that had a former life as a New York dinner cruiser; further along is The Matthew, an inch-perfect replica of the wooden caravel that famously sailed from Bristol on a transatlantic voyage to Newfoundland in 1497.

Then, the SS Great Britain appears in the distance, replete with bunting. The ship was one of Brunel’s masterpieces, described as ‘the greatest experiment since creation’ when it was launched in 1843. It was the first ocean liner of its kind with an iron hull, and was faster than its forebears, though it still took two months to make the sailing to Melbourne, Australia. This was a voyage it completed more than 30 times, carrying 700 emigrants at a time; it’s estimated that some half a million present-day Australians are descended from the ship’s passengers.

To step aboard today is to get a sense of what life must have been like at sea. The first-class dining saloon is spacious and extravagant, while the dark steerage berths are full of cramped bunks and dirty linen. As a visitor attraction, it’s fascinating, with copious diaries and letters on show. ‘It is not the ship I mind,’ wrote one well-to-do passenger, midway through her long trip Down Under in 1875, ‘it is the sea.’

bristol yacht miss conduct

In later years, the SS Great Britain became a transatlantic liner, then a cargo carrier, before being abandoned and spending several decades rusting in the Falkland Islands. The ship now sits in the same dry dock it was built in, its return and restoration a testament to the old Bristolian trades that have been kept alive to this day.

At the far end of the harbour, I find Underfall Yard , an early 19th-century boatyard where traditional riggers, blacksmiths and boatbuilders still have workshops. “This used to be the hub of the harbour,” says the yard’s community manager Flex Toomey. “When you hear the expression ‘shipshape and Bristol fashion’, it has its origins right here.” She takes me on a tour of the site, pointing out pumping engines, a slipway and Victorian sluices.

We finish at the yard’s visitor centre, where interactive displays are housed in an old powerhouse. Part of the building is now a waterfront cafe selling eggs and artisan coffee, with views back down the length of the harbour. Bristol has become an easy place to enjoy, even while the city is still deciphering its past.  

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The full, bloody story behind the closure of Hidden Corner Cafe

When a millionaire, yacht-owning rogue landlord evicted the owners of a well-loved St Pauls cafe, it sparked protests. And now, two years on, a clearer picture of the messy situation has emerged…

bristol yacht miss conduct

Illustration: Sophia Checkley

Sean Morrison

When the owners of Hidden Corner Cafe in St Pauls were evicted in October 2021, the local community turned out in force to support them. A week of protests were held outside the well-loved and inclusive space, which had been bolted shut with heavy chains by the landlord – a millionaire businessman who would later receive criminal convictions for the deceitful and illegal practices he deployed against his other tenants in the same building.

Aaron Onuora and Sophia Khan, the cafe’s owners, said at the time that they had been turfed out illegally and without proper warning. They said the landlord – owner of Bristol harbour’s ‘Miss Conduct’ yacht, Thomas Flight – had falsely claimed that they hadn’t been paying their rent on time and were in breach of their lease. More than that, they said he had been harassing them and taunting them by washing his Rolls Royce outside their home.

Some of the couple’s claims were reported by local media, but the full story behind the closure of the cafe in the affluent Portland Square, and the relationship between its owners and their landlord, has so far remained untold. Two years on, the Cable can finally reveal what happened, now that a police investigation and criminal trial over an alleged assault on Flight, 56, and his husband, a man in his 60s, has come to an end.

bristol yacht miss conduct

A week before Aaron and Sophia were locked out of their cafe, punches were thrown, noses were broken and Flight was allegedly knocked unconscious, his forehead split open and left pouring with blood. The landlord told police that he and his partner were the victims of an unprovoked and “savage” attack at the hands of Aaron, a 34-year-old television actor, and his 56-year-old father Ifem Onuora, Premier League football’s head of equality and diversity.

But when their case reached Bristol Crown Court last week, it was Flight’s threatening, deceitful illegal practices and behaviour as a landlord that took centre stage. A jury, after hearing five days of evidence, acquitted Aaron and his father after their barristers argued that it was in fact the landlord and his business partners who were the aggressors. They said their accounts – as landlords known for “deceiving and lying” to their tenants – were not credible.

‘We don’t want to become enemies’

The story begins a couple of months earlier, on a hot summer’s day in July 2021, as a boozy, noisy hen party is in full swing on the roof of the penthouse suite above the cafe. Flight had begun renting out some of his eight apartments in the building on Airbnb – they form just a small part of his large property portfolio that includes a castle and manor house in Frome and the ‘Miss Conduct’ yacht in Bristol Harbour.

The noisy group, who could be heard singing Is This The Way to Amarillo from streets away, sparked complaints from cafe customers below and neighbours in the streets surrounding the square. Aaron, 34, who was working in the cafe that day, forwarded the complaints to the landlord, although he didn’t know his real name at the time.

“Lots of people were coming from streets away, coming into the cafe saying ‘what is going on,” Aaron, told a jury, giving evidence to his assault trial at Bristol Crown Court last week. “I emailed the property management and said there was a very loud party upstairs, to let them know that people were leaving the cafe as a result of the noise and people coming and asking about [the party].”

He didn’t get a response to the email, but a couple of days later received a phone call from Flight on an unknown number. “He said that his management company had been in touch about [Hidden Corner] giving discounts to Airbnb guests, Aaron told the court. “I said it’s not something we could do as a new business, and he said ‘we don’t want to become enemies’, and went on to say that I was in breach of my lease.”

It was this refusal to offer Flight’s Airbnb guests a discount and claims of a breach of lease that was the “catalyst for the dysfunctional relationship” between the landlord and tenant, Judge Michael Cullum, who presided over the assault trial and an earlier case involving Flight’s dodgy landlord practices, told the jury in his summary of the evidence on Wednesday (October 4).

bristol yacht miss conduct

Asked in court under cross-examination how Aaron and Sophia were in breach of the lease, Flight said the cafe owners had been holding meze evenings and serving alcohol out of agreed operating hours – although Aaron said this was not explained to him at the time. Flight said Aaron was simply against the idea of having Airbnbs in the local area, and did not understand that offering them discounts could benefit him as a business owner.

When Flight called him, Aaron was in Leeds working on the set of Emmerdale. At the time he was playing the role of Ellis Chapman in the soap. “I got a call over the Tannoy,” he said, “and I [told Flight] that I have to go back to work but [said] let’s continue the conversation… When I finished work I had an email saying that the lease had been terminated.”

The next day, when Aaron was back in Bristol, he went to a local shop to get some milk for the cafe. Flight, he said, came in after him. “I asked him about the email, and said this seems very extreme to be terminating our lease… I asked why he made that threat, that I ‘don’t want to become enemies’, and he got pretty agitated.” 

Aaron said that he remained “calm” in that situation but that later he received an email from Flight’s management company. The cafe owner told the court: “[The email from Flight said] ‘after your conduct in the shop, I have no other choice but to put you on a monthly rolling contract with a new lease’… He said that I followed him into the shop, that I seemed angry and that I accosted him.”

The cafe owner said he later asked to see a copy of the new lease that he was never shown. The Cable understands that the new terms were at no point agreed and that Aaron and Sophia remained on their original five-year contract, which according to the couple had a six-month break clause that Flight tried to use against them.

‘If you’re not careful I’ll get the boys round’ 

Fast forward two months, to the morning of 26 September. Aaron arrived at the cafe to find that the electricity meter had run out overnight, causing their fridge freezer to start leaking. There was a pool of water on the floor that he began mopping up. 

The building’s meter system meant he and Sophia had to purchase cards to top up the cafe’s electricity, but the court heard how these cards could only be purchased from an office in the building one day a week – on Wednesdays, between 9am and 5pm. They were forced to pay a surcharge if they needed to buy cards outside of this time. It was never clear to Aaron and Sophia how long the cards would last and impossible to know when they would run out of credit. 

“Flight came into the cafe [that day] talking about this leak into the basement flat,” Aaron told the jury, after explaining the tenants downstairs had already told him there had been no damage. “I said the meter card had run out [overnight] and [Flight] said ‘you just top it up you fucking idiot.”

He said he explained to Flight that had cards been available but that the electricity running out was unavoidable because it happened overnight, when Aaron and Sophia were not around to insert a new card into the meter.

Aaron said that Flight showed him damage to a mattress that he had just removed from the basement property and put in his van. He said the landlord began demanding that he paid for the damages despite it being clear that the damage was not caused from the leak that occurred overnight. The mattress was old and worn out and the stains, he said, were old.

What followed was a dispute in the street. Aaron said he told Flight that he would not pay for the damage he did not cause and that the landlord told him, in a threatening and aggressive tone: “If you’re not careful I’ll get the boys round.” 

Flight, giving evidence in court, denied this. He said that he did not threaten Aaron, and that by “offering to get the boys round” he meant that he would get his maintenance employees to help resolve issues at the premises. He said his words had been “twisted” to make him sound like a “mafia don”.

bristol yacht miss conduct

But Emma Love, a woman who lived across the street and heard the exchange and knew the cafe owners only as a customer, corroborated Aaron’s version of events. She told the court that Flight appeared aggressive, that she sensed a “landlord-tenant power dynamic”, and that Flight’s words “get the boys round” sounded threatening.

Josh Balker, who used to run a cafe in the building before Hidden Corner Cafe opened, also took the stand as a witness for the defence. After explaining that the reason he closed his business was due to the “difficulty” he had with Flight, he said he had been charged for the water damage to the basement flat that Flight had been trying to get Aaron to pay for.

Sean Sullivan, defence barrister acting for Aaron, accused Flight of trying to “diddle” the couple out of cash, like he had done to his residential tenants in the building, many of whom were young students, charging them unreasonable and sometimes illegal fees and charges. Details of this were exposed when Flight was sentenced for various trading standard offences in January.

“I am a millionaire who made my money fifteen odd years ago through one of the largest video and production companies in the UK,” Flight responded from the witness stand, where he also boasted that he owned not just one by two Rolls Royce cars, adding that he was too wealthy to “bother chasing after a couple hundred quid here and there”.

Sullivan interjected, saying “but diddle them you did,” before explaining to the jury how he set up a complex business structure to hide his identity from his tenants, and from authorities who investigated him over his illegal practices, which included misleading his tenants by hiding behind fake names and addresses.

It was this context that the defence used to convince the jury that the assault allegations Flight and his husband and business partner Steeley were making against Aaron and his father were not credible. But how then did the landlord end up slumped on the floor in the lobby of his Portland Square building, blood pouring from his forehead?

Wildly different stories 

At about 5pm on 28 September 2021, after the landlord and Aaron’s altercation and a week before Aaron and Sophia were locked out of their cafe, Flight, Steeley and their employee and best friend Connor Williamson were moving things from a van into the basement apartment in the building. Like the rest of their residential properties, they were converting it into a luxury Airbnb.

Aaron was in the cafe with his mother Helen and his father Ifem, who was visiting the place for the first time. Ifem had been told that his son was having trouble with the landlord – specifically that he had been threatening him with the termination of his lease.

Ifem decided to speak to the landlords, he said to try to “broker a solution” to the issues, and he approached Steeley on the street while he was unloading items from a van. What followed was disputed in court, which first heard the accounts of Flight and his husband, who said they were victims of an unprovoked and vicious attack.

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Steeley said that Ifem approached him in the doorway of the building, while Flight and Williamson were inside. He told the court: “I told [Ifem] that I am very busy, but obviously I’m very intimidated… I wasn’t happy for him to be inside. He was quite athletic in build and came across as quite aggressive.”

He said that at some point, near the door inside the lobby, Ifem grabbed him by the throat and pushed him against the wall. “He brought his face right up to mine and said ‘I’m Aaron’s father, you need to lay off… I said to [Williamson] ‘please go and get Tom,’ who was down in the flat downstairs.”

The court heard how Flight, after being alerted by Williamson, came rushing up the stairs. Giving evidence, Flight said that he saw Ifem had his husband pinned to the wall and that when he approached them, Ifem turned and began attacking him, punching him twice before his husband grabbed hold of his arms.

“[Ifem] turned around and started laying into me, Flight told the court. “After that it was quite a scuffle, quite a haze… They were both striking me with their fists,” he added, explaining that Aaron at this point had arrived and joined in the attack. “Throughout the whole thing there was one of them on me, both of them on me. Harry [Steeley] would get them off me, he would take some knocks… it was unbelieve, they were like a pack of animals. It was absolutely savage.”

Flight suffered a deep wound to his forehead – it needed 17 stitches –  which he claimed happened as a result of Aaron and or Ifem kicking or stamping on him. Steeley suffered a broken nose, bruising to his neck and a black eye. The Onuoras – according to police reports – suffered no visible injuries, although Ifem said he came out in bruises but they did not show at the time because of his darker skin.

Asked by crown prosecutor Alun Williams if he lost consciousness during the assault, Flight told the jury that he did for a few seconds but that it felt like “ages” and he awoke “seeing stars”. He said that when he came around both Aaron and Ifem had left the property and that Williamson had called the police.

After hearing this version of the story, Sean Sullivan, defence barrister acting for Aaron, described Flight, Steeley and Williamson as a “trio of prosecution witnesses who promised to tell the truth, under oath, but lied.” He told the jury that Flight and Steeley had treated them like they had their tenants — by lying and trying to deceive them. 

Aaron, and then later Ifem, told the jury their version of events, which amounted to a wildly different story, and one that showed Flight and Steeley to be the aggressors who simply “came off worse” when Aaron and Ifem were forced to defend themselves.

“I thought I would go next door and try to broker a kind of resolution,” Ifem said from the witness stand. “I went outside to the van, I said ‘hi guys, listen, can I have a quick word with you’. They [Steeley and Williamson] didn’t really acknowledge me, carried on moving things from the car into the lobby of the premises next door.”

Ifem said that he continued trying to get Steeley’s attention and when they were both in the doorway to the lobby Steeley began trying to usher him outside. It’s at this point, he said, that Flight came rushing upstairs from the basement flat.

“[Flight] started charging towards me with his head down and then his fists came flailing,” Ifem told the jury. “He tried to strike me, it was a bit wild, a bit surreal because I’ve gone from what I thought would be a reasonable conversation to fists flying at me. Some caught me.”

He said Steeley then got hold of his arms to restrain him as Flight continued to throw punches. As he tried to wriggle free, Ifem said, his arm or elbow connected with something and that he lost balance and began stumbling backwards.

“There were punches being exchanged,” he said. “[Flight] was kind of on top of me, and Aaron goes to grab him and throw him off me. I have a pain in my knee that is kicking in, and I’m half stumbling to my feet.”

Aaron separately told the court how he came into the lobby from the cafe after hearing “banging”. He said he arrived in the lobby to find Flight attacking his father, and that he pulled the landlord off of him.

Ifem told the court: “I think it’s hard to try to think about it. I’ve got three guys who I don’t know attacking me, two more than the other, I don’t know if they’ve got a weapon or anything… A little bit of fear kicked in… I started to realise this is kind of a survival situation, I started lashing out, flailing arms… I definitely caught one or two of them… then Helen” – Aaron’s mother – “came in and told everyone to stop, which had the desired effect.”

The injury to Flight’s forehead – the most serious suffered in the incident, which became the focus point of the evidence in the case – was not caused by Aaron or Ifem, they both told the court. Instead the wound was caused when the landlord fell, hitting his head on a fire extinguisher in the lobby. Ifem told the court how he could smell alcohol during the encounter, suggesting that this might have been the reason for his fall.

According to two expert witnesses who gave evidence to the trial – one a consultant in emergency medicine, the other a consultant forensic physician — Flight’s injury was “consistent with a fall or push against the fire extinguisher… there was no bruising or swelling… so this is more likely to be the result of a fall onto an object with a sharp edge rather than a punch or kick to the forehead”.

Defence barrister Sullivan said that if Aaron or Ifem had caused the landlord’s wound by kicking or stamping on him then there would have been blood on their shoes or clothing. The police did not seize any items of clothing when they attended the scene and arrested the Onuoras, he told the jury, because there was no such evidence.

He said the jury ultimately had to decide whose accounts were more credible, landlords known to deceive their tenants, or two men known to be upstanding members of the community with no previous convictions and glowing character references – some from notable public figures.

Character references for both Aaron and Ifem were read to the jury, including one from Game of Thrones Star Faye Marsay, a friend and former housemate of Aaron. She described him as “kind and warm, with a strong moral compass”. Ifem was described by Dr Claire-Marie Roberts, head of elite development for Premier League football, as a “rational, calm and logical” man whose “emotional intelligence and control are valued by our team and myself.”

A two-year nightmare

After about three hours of deliberation, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty to all three assault charges brought against Aaron and Ifem – the most serious of which, assault by unlawful wounding, carried a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

The two of them wept in the dock as the jury’s unanimous decision was handed down. Flight and Steeley were not present in court, which was full of Aaron and Ifem’s family and friends – many who had sat through the entire week of proceedings.

While this brought an end to, as Sullivan put it, a “two-year nightmare” for Ifem and Aaron, this is not the end of the story. A legal battle over the legality of Aaron and Sophia’s eviction, after which the couple lost not just their business but the £25,000 they spent on equipment and refurbishment – is still to take place. 

Meanwhile, despite his convictions, Flight remains in the property business as an Airbnb landlord.

If you’ve been affected by tenancy issues like the ones raised in this article, we want to hear from you. Contact: [email protected]

  • I'm a reporter for the Cable, specialising in social issues and investigations.
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Brilliant in-depth reporting, Sean, thanks and congratulations! I wish it was indeed the end of the story, but keep up the good work either way!

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Piwik Image Tracker

Miss Conduct

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January 2022

New Years Eve Party

Bristol Sea Cadets Fundraiser 

February 2022

BC Club Children's Charity

Weekend Stay Over

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Bingham Centre

for People with Special Needs

Afternoon Tea

An unusual bond formed between Miss Conduct and Bingham Day Services (special needs care centre for people with learning difficulties). They regularly take their clients for a little walk along the harbourside and they wave at the owners and crew as they walk by. They recently sent us a charming thank you letter and drew some colourful pictures of the yacht and helicopter. This of course gave excuse for a special trip out to post them into the yacht's quayside letterbox. In return and to their surprise we arranged a special tour onboard culminating in some tea and cake. Care user Matt made a special bond with our Marta (Yacht's Steward). Likewise, Jess the rather apparent "life and soul" of the group, seemed delighted when the owners presented her with a flowery Captains hat and also took a particular shining to the actual Captain himself. It was obvious that the Bingham carers work very hard and are always looking for new experiences and stimulus for their users so it was lovely to see a smile on their faces too. We are organising another visit with more of their residents and care users in March and hope to slot this in as a regular event as everyone got something out of it.

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SPB Suicide Prevention Bristol

Afternoon Tea Awareness Reception

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SPB (Bristol Suicide Prevention)

5th March Soiree Funraiser Event

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“HUHU” - HELP US HELP UKRAINE - EVACUATION DRIVERS

Miss Conduct donated £2000 towards to the courageous mission

During April a close friend from Bristol volunteered to go to Ukraine to help in the evacuation of Refugees.She was let down by the organisation that got here there and so she remained and self funded her missionto rescue, shelter and feed many refudees by going into Ukraine with a mini bus and taking them to a safe haven in Poland. Miss conduct donated £2000 towards her courageous mission.

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Queen's Jubilee Party 

3rd June -  Fundraiser for Suicide Prevention UK

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Amount Raised £2414.85

Harbour Festival Fundraiser 

16th July -  Fundraiser for Suicide Prevention UK

bristol yacht miss conduct

Amount Raised £2100.00

September 2022

Queen Elizabeth II Fundraiser

Afternoon Tea + Evening Reception

18th September -  Fundraiser for Leading Lights

bristol yacht miss conduct

Amount Raised £1011.00

Evening Reception

IMAGES

  1. MISS CONDUCT

    bristol yacht miss conduct

  2. Yacht with helicopter on board moors next to Brunel's Buttery

    bristol yacht miss conduct

  3. 'Miss Conduct' yacht owners face misconduct claims

    bristol yacht miss conduct

  4. Eine private Superyacht namens ‘Miss Conduct’ mit einem Hubschrauber

    bristol yacht miss conduct

  5. Home

    bristol yacht miss conduct

  6. Luxury yacht owner exposed as rogue landlord

    bristol yacht miss conduct

COMMENTS

  1. Home

    Capable of transporting 175 passengers / crew, Miss Conduct is truly unique. She operated as the premiere dinner cruise yacht in New York City for some 20 years. Famously cruising around Manhattan Harbour passing the statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the tragically no longer Twin Towers. Her well heeled clientele would fly onboard in their ...

  2. Owner of 'Miss Conduct' yacht in Bristol harbour guilty of being 'rogue

    In December 2021, Flight sailed his American-built yacht 'Miss Conduct' into Bristol's Floating Harbour and moored it in a prominent location near the Matthew at Wapping Wharf. The boat ...

  3. Yacht owner landlord Thomas Flight spun 'web of deceit' for tenants

    Revealed: 'Miss Conduct' yacht owner is rogue landlord who spun 'web of deceit' to mislead tenants. Thomas Flight hid behind aliases and fake addresses, and deployed aggressive 'agents' to deny people living in his St Paul's flats their rights as tenants. Thomas Flight relied on a veil of secrecy that made it extremely difficult ...

  4. Rogue landlord Thomas Flight 'still owes deposits' to renters

    The yacht Miss Conduct has been moored in Bristol's harbour since December 2021 "I spent £800 over five years on this claim," said Mr Grace. "It is a nonsense that you can get a judgement in the ...

  5. Rogue landlord yacht owner Thomas Flight turns to Airbnb

    The 56-year-old businessman, who owns and lives on the Miss Conduct pleasure yacht docked in Bristol Harbour, was convicted in January of four consumer protection offences against his tenants between 2019 and 2020. Flight was ordered to pay £37,000 in fees and costs, but was not banned from letting properties in future.

  6. Yacht with helicopter on board moors next to Brunel's Buttery

    Yacht with helicopter on board moors next to Brunel's Buttery. An unusually shaped yacht with a roof-top helicopter used to be a luxury dining yacht in New York harbour. You might recognise Miss Conduct from Sharpness in Gloucestershire where she had been moored and gathering rust since 2012. Her current berth is in Bristol, ideally ...

  7. 'Miss Conduct' yacht owners face misconduct claims

    Monday's boat-party-themed protest saw several banners pinned to the railings in front of the Miss Conduct, including ones that read 'W'anchors Aweigh!' and 'All Landlords Are Bastards', while dozens of demonstrators danced and heard a speech denouncing the two yacht owners, Harry Steeley and Airbnb landlord Thomas Flight.

  8. Owner of 'Miss Conduct' yacht in Bristol harbour…

    In December 2021, Flight sailed his American-built yacht 'Miss Conduct' into Bristol's Floating Harbour and moored it in a prominent location near the Matthew at Wapping Wharf. The boat, which had been an upmarket restaurant in New York for 20 years, attracted attention immediately - with its glitzy interior and helicopter parked on the roof.

  9. Yacht owner used false identities to exploit tenants

    Thomas Flight's yacht, the Miss Conduct, remains an incongruous sight in Bristol harbour. It can now be revealed that Flight is the landlord of a number of flats in St Paul's and created multiple false identities and fake letting agencies as part of an elaborate web of misinformation designed to exploit his tenants.

  10. American superyacht used by Trump docks at Bristol harbour

    The superyacht Miss Conduct has docked in Bristol (Image: Charlotte Pitt) A private superyacht that was once a floating restaurant where celebrities dined has docked in Bristol. The 40 metre-long ...

  11. Bristol private landlord with yacht named "Miss Conduct" guilty of

    Bristol private landlord with yacht named "Miss Conduct" guilty of misconduct and ordered to pay £37,000 in fines and costs for exploiting tenants. ... Even during one of the court hearings Mr Flight provided documentary information to Bristol Council officers which turned out to be false.

  12. Boat party protest outside landlord's yacht

    The mooring of the yacht Miss Conduct was a fitting location for a protest against a landlord who shut down a popular queer space last year.. The Miss Conduct, berthed at Wapping Wharf, is home to Thomas Flight and his partner Harry Steeley.Flight is a landlord of several properties in Bristol, including the Hidden Corner Café on Portland Square, the owners of which he evicted last October.

  13. Superyacht brings touch of American glamour to harbour

    We want to give something back to the city in the form of what we are good at - a little glamour, fun, connecting people and lots of charity work for good causes Yacht's owners. The Miss Conduct superyacht docked in Bristol - during its time as a dinner cruise venue in New York it hosted the likes of Donald Trump and George Soros

  14. American superyacht with own helicopter docks in Bristol

    The boat arriving in Bristol. Dozens of people watched on as the Harbour Master helped coordinate the ship's arrival. It was originally built in Florida in 1987 and later based in New York ...

  15. Demo outside yacht as protesters demand answers from owners

    The men who brought Miss Conduct to Bristol are Thomas Flight and Harry Steeley. The pair are prominent members of the city's LGBTQ+ community and are very well regarded in some quarters, using the boat to raise money for charitable causes including Suicide Prevention UK and the ongoing war in Ukraine.

  16. Petition to have 'Miss Conduct' in the Bristol harbour evicted?

    We, the undersigned of Bristol, seek the vessel, 'Miss Conduct', continuing to reside on the Bristol harbourside, be immediately evicted. It smacks as a status symbol of conspicuous consumption and ecological destruction, reflecting the grotesque economic and social inequalities within Bristol. Knowing that the owner's oligarchical wealth ...

  17. How Bristol is breathing new life into its maritime quarter

    There are houseboats complete with pot plants and washing lines; close by is Miss Conduct, a yacht that had a former life as a New York dinner cruiser; further along is The Matthew, an inch ...

  18. MISS CONDUCT BOAT PARTY! Protest Bristol's most cartoonishly ...

    MISS CONDUCT BOAT PARTY! Protest Bristol's most cartoonishly evil landlords. 29th Aug politics Share ... Jim Simons' mega yacht Archimedes visited Bristol Harbour a few years back. Miss Demeanour is the boat owned by the pair that OP mentions.

  19. The full, bloody story behind the closure of Hidden Corner Cafe

    Protesters with a placard that reads 'justice for Hidden Corner' stand in front of landlord Thomas Flight's yacht, the Miss Conduct, in 2022. But Emma Love, a woman who lived across the street and heard the exchange and knew the cafe owners only as a customer, corroborated Aaron's version of events.

  20. Community / Fundraisers

    Miss Conduct donated £2000 towards to the courageous mission. During April a close friend from Bristol volunteered to go to Ukraine to help in the evacuation of Refugees.She was let down by the organisation that got here there and so she remained and self funded her missionto rescue, shelter and feed many refudees by going into Ukraine with a ...