Sheikh Abid Gulzar: The “Mr Goldfinger” of Eastbourne Pier — Profile, Record & Timeline

At a glance

Who is Sheikh Abid Gulzar?

Walk along Eastbourne’s carefully preserved Victorian seafront and you cannot miss his signature: the gold-painted domes and turrets of Eastbourne Pier, the gilded lions, the banners. For a decade, Sheikh Abid Gulzar has been one of the most visible — and most argued-about — businessmen in East Sussex: a hotelier and pier owner whose gold Mercedes, gold Rolls-Royce and diamond-heavy rings earned him the nickname “Mr Goldfinger” in the local and national press.

To his supporters, he is a self-made immigrant entrepreneur who stepped in to save two fire-damaged Victorian piers when nobody else would, and who talks constantly of his love for Britain and for the coastal towns he invests in. To his critics — who include heritage bodies, councils, former staff, campaigners and creditors — his career is a study in distressed-asset dealing, collapsed companies, unpaid bills and enforcement action. Both versions are part of the record, and this article sets out that record in full.

From leather trader to seafront hotelier

Gulzar was born in September 1945 in northern India, into a family involved in the leather tanning trade. In 1965, aged 19, he emigrated to the United Kingdom to study leather technology, then built a London-based import–export business dealing in leather goods and cotton. That trade sustained him for roughly three decades, during which he became a British citizen.

After his marriage broke down, he left London for Eastbourne, accompanied by his son Sasha, and redirected his capital into seafront hotels — the beginning of the “Lions” hotel network and, eventually, the pier acquisitions that made him famous. One frequently misunderstood detail: “Sheikh” is his legal family surname as recorded on his passport. It is not a royal or religious title.

The “Goldfinger” persona

Gulzar’s public image is a deliberate construction: gold-liveried cars (a custom gold Mercedes AMG, gold Teslas, a gold Rolls-Royce), outsize gold-and-diamond rings, dark blazers with bright red ties, and portraits of Margaret Thatcher in his offices. After buying Eastbourne Pier he extended the aesthetic to the building itself — gold paint on the Victorian ironwork, gilded lion statues, and “Sheikh’s Pier” branding. The makeover generated headlines, and also formal objections from conservationists who argued that unapproved alterations to a Grade II*-listed structure damaged its historic character. Gulzar has consistently framed his changes as civic-minded investment in struggling seaside towns.

Two piers, two very different deals

Eastbourne Pier. After the devastating fire of August 2014 gutted much of the pier, its institutional owners put it on the market. Once priced at £5.5 million, it was sold to Gulzar in October 2015 for an undisclosed sum widely estimated at under £1 million. His ownership brought proposals for entry fees, the gold repaint, and interventions from Historic England over works carried out without listed building consent — some of which later received retrospective permission, including the gold central dome.

Hastings Pier. The 1872 pier, almost destroyed by fire in 2010, was rebuilt in a £14 million project — £12.4 million of it from the Heritage Lottery Fund — and won the 2017 RIBA Stirling Prize, Britain’s top architecture award. Months later the charity running it collapsed into administration. In June 2018 administrators accepted Gulzar’s offer of roughly £60,000, passing over a community bid from the Friends of Hastings Pier backed by nearly £500,000 in crowdfunding. The decision — a publicly restored national landmark sold privately for a fraction of its restoration cost — sparked protests, calls for a parliamentary inquiry, and a grievance that still drives the Hastings campaign today.

The “Lions” hotel empire — and the Home Office pivot

Alongside the piers, Gulzar assembled a portfolio of East Sussex hotels under the “Lions” brand. Their fortunes have been turbulent:

• The Mansion Lions Hotel, Grand Parade, Eastbourne — declined and closed, with its operating company’s accounts in default.
• The Albany Lions Hotel (later the Diamond Hotel), Eastbourne seafront — its rear parcel was sold to developers for £570,000 in 2021; the hotel itself shut abruptly in July 2023, leaving pre-booked guests stranded.
• The Chatsworth Hotel, Eastbourne seafront — operated through companies that were later liquidated under heavy debts.
• The Boship Lions Farm Hotel, Lower Dicker near Hailsham — a 45-room complex that, from autumn 2022, was contracted to the Home Office to house asylum seekers, reportedly generating up to £60,000 a month.

The Home Office pivot is central to the current court case: the prosecution alleges that unpaid water charges accrued at properties including the Boship during the very period it was earning steady government income — an allegation Gulzar denies, as set out below.

The corporate record: liquidations, tax convictions and winding-up petitions

Companies House and court records show a recurring pattern across companies where Gulzar was sole director: operating companies accumulating debts and being liquidated or wound up, while the underlying freeholds sat in separate entities. Critics describe this as insulating the valuable land from the trading liabilities; it is also, it should be said, a lawful and common corporate structure. The individual events, however, are stark:

The 2018 tax conviction. In February 2018, at Hastings Magistrates’ Court, Gulzar pleaded guilty to offences relating to Albany Lions Hotel Ltd and Mansion Lions Ltd, after employee PAYE deductions and National Insurance contributions were withheld from HMRC. He and his companies were ordered to pay £16,000 in fines and costs. This is a matter of conviction, not allegation.

The Hastings liquidation vote. When Lions Hastings Pier Ltd went into liquidation in 2023, Gulzar — claiming inter-company debts of over £118,000 — used his position as the largest asserted creditor to outvote independent creditors and appoint his preferred liquidator. Hastings Borough Council and affected parties pressed the Insolvency Service for a director-conduct investigation.

Conservation and planning enforcement

In 2013, Gulzar was convicted over illegal works on the Pevensey Levels at Wartling Road — an internationally significant Site of Special Scientific Interest — which caused major damage to protected land. He was fined £45,000 and ordered to pay £90,000 in prosecution costs. Two years later, the unconsented alterations to Eastbourne Pier drew Historic England into formal intervention, though retrospective permission was eventually granted for some works, including the now-famous gold dome.

The Castle Water prosecution — allegations denied, trial pending

In mid-2025, the commercial water supplier Castle Water Limited brought a private criminal prosecution against Gulzar (then 80) and his business associate Manasdeep Singh (34). The charges: ten counts of fraud, alleging the fraudulent avoidance of approximately £150,000 in water charges across the hotel portfolio between 2018 and 2024. Several counts are said to relate to water supplied to the Boship Lions Farm Hotel during its Home Office contract period.

Both men appeared before the courts and entered not guilty pleas to all ten counts. A three-week jury trial is listed at Lewes Crown Court (sitting at the Hove Trial Centre), scheduled to begin in September 2026. We will report the outcome on this page whatever it is.

Hastings Pier: the attempted sale and the freeze

In autumn 2025, Gulzar notified Hastings Borough Council of his intention to sell Hastings Pier. Because the pier is a registered Asset of Community Value, that triggered a six-month moratorium, during which the Friends of Hastings Pier registered an interest in mounting a community bid. When the moratorium ended in early 2026, Gulzar’s asking price emerged: £4 million — against the roughly £60,000 he paid in 2018, and well above community valuations.

The sale never happened. On 13 March 2026, a High Court order registered against the title froze Hastings Pier as an asset: it cannot be sold, transferred or mortgaged without the consent of Castle Water or a further court order — a protective measure obtained by the prosecuting creditor ahead of trial. Helena Dollimore, MP for Hastings and Rye, has publicly criticised the pier’s condition under Gulzar’s ownership and called for an independent structural survey.

Timeline: the Gulzar story so far

⟳ Living timeline — we update this section as events develop. Last updated: August 2026.

Why this matters to Eastbourne

Strip away the gold paint and this is a story about who owns the seafront. Eastbourne Pier is one of the town’s defining landmarks — the centrepiece of every first visit and every promenade walk — and its fortunes are tied to a business model that has repeatedly ended in liquidation, enforcement and court. Whatever the outcome of the September trial, the questions it has raised — about how heritage assets are sold, how operating companies shed their debts, and how communities can protect landmarks restored with public money — will outlast the case itself.

Eastbourne has never lacked for dramatic characters and contested stories; our dark history series covers the crimes and scandals that shaped the town over two centuries. The Gulzar saga is that rarest of things: a chapter still being written. Bookmark this page — the timeline above will be updated as events unfold.