Maxwell sells £3m home

Frank Field, the MP who led the inquiry into the Maxwell pensions scandal, has called on Kevin Maxwell to give the profit on the sale of his family home to help ex-Maxwell employees suffering 50 per cent cuts in their pensions.

The 12-bedroom mansion, Moulsford Manor, on the banks of the Thames in Oxfordshire, occupied by Mr Maxwell and his family, has been put up for sale with a £3m price tag. It was bought by Mr Maxwell's father-in-law, an inventor, for £600,000 in 1994, at a time when Mr Maxwell was bankrupt, having been found liable for more than £400m missing from the Maxwell pension funds. The house was occupied by Mr Maxwell and his family, who had moved out of their home in central London.

Two years later, after Mr Maxwell's bankruptcy was discharged without any money paid to his creditors, the house was sold to Mr Maxwell's wife, Pandora, for £600,000. FPD Savills is offering it at £3m.

At a time when the Maxwell family is expecting to enjoy a £2.4m profit on the sale, 1,225 pensioners in the Maxwell Communications Staff Scheme, one of three pension funds raided in the Maxwell scandal, are seeing their payouts cut by 50 per cent because of a £40m shortfall.

"I can only assume Kevin is selling this house because he wants to help mitigate the cuts in the payments from the pension funds," said Mr Field.

Mr Maxwell was unavailable for comment.